Peter and Wendy: Growing Up in Neverland

This book looks at J. M. Barrie’s classic children’s story Peter Pan to see what it can tell us about ourselves and our situation today. It discovers in this classic fairy-tale about the boy from Neverland who refuses to grow up an extensive map of a child’s mind and the painful process of becoming an adult. Fairy tales are literary dreams, if you will, that reveal to the reader the intricate workings of the human psyche. They use images and symbols to manifest both the deepest hopes and the greatest fears of the human heart. As such, they enable us to experience on a conscious level the forces at work deep in the realm of our unconscious lives. Peter Pan is no exception. From the moment it first appeared on the British stage, it has given its readers a penetrating (albeit fleeting) glimpse into the complex makeup of the human mind.