Fantasy as Antifantasy: 7 Peter’s Ignorance and Mysterious Wisdom continued

　Peter seems to have a solid knowledge of everything that has to do with fairies. When he finds that the pirates are aiming at them with cannons, sighting Tinker Bell’s light, he says that she can’t turn off her light at her will.

“She can’t put it out. That is about the only thing fairies can’t do. It just goes out of itself when she falls asleep, same as the stars.”


By depicting the fairy Tinker Bell, Barrie destroyed the traditional folk image of the fairy and brought about a small, neat modern fairy with wings on her back, but where the essence of fairy light is placed on the same level as the light of the stars in the firmament, it can be said that he inherited the Romantic fairy image as a symbol of the fundamental power of Nature. (note)

note:
The fairies depicted in The White Bird, the predecessor of Peter and Wendy, were typically more modernistic. If we dare to distinguish between modernism and post-modernism in Barrie’s works, we can take the schema that The White Bird is modernistic and Peter and Wendy is post-modernistic.


　As the children get closer to Neverland, Peter’s wisdom becomes more and more certain. To the children, the signs of Neverland are too vague. But Peter knows what Neverland is like very correctly.

It was the stillest silence they had ever known, broken once by a distant lapping, which Peter explained was the wild beasts drinking at the ford, and again by a rasping sound that might have been the branches of trees rubbing together, but he said it was the redskins sharpening their knives.


In the somewhat uncertain sense of hearing, Peter’s conviction seems to be stronger. At the opposite end of the spectrum to vision and reason, Peter’s abilities are sharpened. When Wendy is shot in the chest by Tootles’ arrow and fell due to Tinker Bell’s mischief, Peter says something strange.

“She is dead,” he said uncomfortably, “Perhaps she is frightened at being dead.”


It is Peter’s strange wisdom to be able to infer the state of Wendy’s mind after death. Peter may know the truth of the soul beyond the critical point of life and death. But he also wonders if it’s a good idea to pretend to be foolish and go out of sight of Wendy’s corpse and never come back here. If something happens that you can’t cope with in the game of make-believe, it’s best to quit the adventure on the spot and forget about it. This is probably the basic principle of children’s irresponsible behavior. However, when Tootles admits his fault for Wendy’s murder and tells Peter to kill him, though Peter raises the arrow twice he does not actually pierce his heart.

Twice did Peter raise the arrow, and twice did his hand fall. “I cannot strike,” he said with awe, “there is something stays my hand.”


It was Nibs who first noticed that Wendy was still alive. The arrow that Tootles shot had hit the “kiss” that Peter had given Wendy. Even if Peter doesn’t know the truth of the matter, he can hear the voice of something guiding him to take the course of action. The inner voice that you hear even though you know you don’t know, and that suppresses what you shouldn’t do, is reminiscent of Socrates’ Daimonion. One who has the power to listen to the voice of the unconscious and hear the words of revelation is one who instinctively sense the divinity that is to be awakened someday, slumbering within itself containing the entire outside world in it.
　If Wendy continues to lie on the ground, she will really die. So, Peter proposes to build a house around Wendy’s body. (note)

note:
This motif is directly following the one adopted in The White Bird.


This is a good idea. In spite of such a wonderful spark, Peter has completely forgotten the faces of John and Michael when they appear. When it’s time to wake up Wendy after a lot of hard work to build the house, Peter orders everyone to greet her with the best look. Because, in his words, “first impressions are awfully important” (p. 69). But Peter is relieved that no one asked what a “first impression” is. Peter doesn’t know himself what the difficult words “first impression” mean. When Wendy emerges from the house, the children ask her to be their mother. Wendy hesitates to accept the offer, saying, “Of course it’s frightfully fascinating, but you see I am only a little girl. I have no real experience.” Peter’s reply to her shows both his ignorance and the strange wisdom he possesses exactly because of his ignorance.

“That doesn’t matter”, said Peter, as if he were the only present person who knew all about it, though he was really the one who knew least.



Wendy, now a mother to her children, worries that John and Michael don’t seem to remember their parents very well, so she gives them exam papers. The Lost Boys join in with interest. Here’s what the exam questions look like:

“What was the colour of Mother’s eye? Which was taller, Father or Mother? Was Mother blonde or brunette? Answer all three questions if possible.”


Wendy thinks about a variety of other issues. But Peter is the only one who does not join in these. There seems to be a special circumstance related to the secret of Peter’s existence, but after all, Peter can’t write.

Peter did not compete. For one thing he despised all mothers except Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could neither write nor spell, not the smallest word.


Peter seems to be alone in this change in life at Neverland after the arrival of the Darling children. With Wendy’s help, he tries to play a game of “pretending not to be adventurous.” However, he soon gets tired of it. What was Peter doing all by himself?

He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then you went out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great deal about it, and yet you could not find the body.


Some days Peter would kill pirates, and some days he would pretend to kill pirates. But Peter doesn’t remember which one he did. This forgetfulness is Peter’s peculiarity that distinguishes him from the other children. For example, during the battle with Hook in the lagoon, Peter is wounded by Hook when he realizes that he is higher up and offers a helping hand for his enemy. This is a terrible betrayal of life. In the process of growing up, children are betrayed and hurt in various ways from the world in which they live, and they become adults. But Peter is different.

No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except for Peter. He often met it, but he always forgot it. I suppose that that was the real difference between him and all the rest.