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

Here’s Michael’s case.

“It was me told him mothers are called old lady,” Michael whispered to Curly.


What Peter doesn’t understand more than anything else is the girl’s feelings. Wendy, who is supposed to be playing Peter’s wife, has to ask questions like this. The following exchange between Peter and Wendy is very awkward.

“Peter”, she asked, trying to speak firmly, “What are your exact feelings to me?”
“Those of a devoted son, Wendy.”
“I thought so,” she said, and went and sat by herself at the extreme end of the room.
“You are so queer,” he said, frankly puzzled, “and Tiger Lily is just the same. There is something she wants to be to me, but she says it is not my mother.”


Peter plays the role of the children’s parents with Wendy, but he only recognizes Wendy as his own mother. There’s something about Peter that he’ll never know. Along with that, there is also a terrible secret that only Peter has experienced and knows. The children who ask Wendy to tell a story in the bed do not doubt the depth of her mother’s love for her children. However, there is one person who knows a deeper truth. That’s Peter.

But there was one there who knew better; and when Wendy finished he uttered a hollow groan.


Peter tells them that long ago, Peter left the house for months, believing that his mother would always keep the window open and wait for him to come home, and when he flew back, his mother had forgotten all about him, the window was barred, and another baby was sleeping in Peter’s bed. (p. 102) Hearing this, the Darling children suddenly became anxious and decided to return to their parents. And Wendy, not considering Peter’s feelings, says, “Peter, will you make the necessary arrangements?” When Peter hears this, he pretends to be calm and does not dare to refuse. But his heart is burning with anger.

...he was so full of wrath against grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick breaths at the rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible.


Just as the fairies die when the children of the real world stop believing in the existence of them, the adults die every time the children of Neverland take their breath. Peter is strangely familiar with the mysterious laws at work behind the scenes. And he deliberately takes his breath fast and brutally tries to kill the adults.
Peter’s ability to make split-second decisions is something to be reckoned with. On his way to rescue the children kidnapped by pirates, Peter notices that the crocodile that had swallowed the clock has stopped making a sound anymore, and uses this fact for his own purposes with an intuition that goes beyond calculation.

Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest companion, Peter began to consider how he could turn the catastrophe to his own use; and he decided to tick, so that wild beasts should believe he was the crocodile and let him pass unmolested.


By thus imitating the sound of the crocodile’s clock, Peter is able to reach the pirates’ ship without being disturbed by the beasts, but it is from here that Peter’s unconscious intuition becomes effective. First of all, the crocodile follows Peter, who is now making the sound of the clock he has been keeping. The crocodile would play a crucial role in Hook’s destruction in the end, but Peter would never have had such a thoughtful calculation. Moreover, Peter has been ticking the clock for so long that he has neatly forgotten that he is even doing it.

He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without knowing that he was doing it. Had he known he would have stopped, for to board the brig by help of the tick, though an ingenious idea, had not occurred to him.


Just as Hook was about to execute the children in front of Wendy’s eyes, Hook was caught off guard by the sound of the clock, which Peter had forgotten and kept imitating. The impetus for his victory in the final battle with Hook came from a completely uncalculated and unconscious act. (p. 124-5)
After all the adventures are over, the Darling family children return home safely, and the Lost Boys are taken in by the Darling family, Peter comes to see Wendy on spring cleaning day and he has forgotten all about his bitter enemy, Hook.

“Who is Captain Hook?” he asked with interest when she spoke of the arch enemy.
“Don’t you remember,” she asked, amazed, “how you killed him and saved all our lives?”
“I forget them after I kill them,” he replied carelessly.


Peter has even forgotten about Tinker Bell. No matter how much Wendy explains, Peter doesn't seem to care.

“There are such a lot of them,” he said. “I expect she is no more.”


Peter doesn’t suffer any grief or pain because of his forgetfulness. Among those who change and are lost, Peter is the only one who will continue to live a lively life that does not change over and over again. There is nothing to remember, and there is nothing to know. With his ignorance and wisdom united into one, Peter must continue to live led by his instinctive impulses. But this eternal freedom that Peter has attained does not at all imply a joyful liberation from the bondage of life. In fact, he has been trapped by a harsh curse that he has no choice but to wander aimlessly through the unconscious of the children. Peter was a god who would never be resurrected, and a king who would never return. The reality of this horrific fate embodied by Peter will be re-examined after reaffirming the relationship between the original protagonist of this fantasy work and Peter.