I suspect that most people are familiar with the story of Peter Pan. I, myself, grew up with the Disney version. The first novel I had to read for a course I'm currently following was the original Peter Pan novel by J.M. Barrie. It had been a long time since I thought about the story and since I'd seen the Disney film. It is a dated story, set in a different social context, but as a child, I wasn't aware of these things. Looking at it now, in our modern age, with an adult view, there are some things that stand out. Let's get into it.
When I clicked on the 1953 Peter Pan film in Disney+ I got a warning that said that the film contained negative images of people and cultures. It is good that they added this warning, but I was shocked because I had forgotten that the film portrayed this. While the story is set in a different England, soon I understood why the warning was given. The story is very racist and so is the book. During class, we talked a lot about this and how modern versions of the story changed this. Nowadays it is unacceptable to put such images of people in films or books in such a way. But 70 years ago this was still done. I actually cannot believe that this was done.
It was hard for me to make up my mind for this book. It let me consider different things and it didn't always feel like a book for children. I even doubt that children nowadays would like to read this book. The writing style was so different than what we see in modern children's books. Besides, throughout the book, the children are called heartless and other things, which isn't what one would expect when reading a children's novel. Of course, this book was written in a different social context, the roles of a mother and father are very dated too. Still, it didn't feel to me like a pleasant children's book for even that time.
If I had children I would not let them read this original story of Peter Pan. It is dated and it contains images I do not want my children to have. The idea of Neverland and Peter Pan is very childish and fun, but the social setting around it is not of this time anymore. That's for the better of everyone. I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to anyone. It is definitely a classic yes, and I would suggest keeping this in mind were you to read the book. I would explain this to be a dated book and definitely to be aware of this when reading it.
This leads me to the point of classics. I once wrote an entire post about my thoughts on classics, which you can read here. A point I made here was that many classics are dated, and do not contain the same thoughts and views we modern readers have today. I feel like this is the same with Peter Pan, which is why I would only recommend one to read it when they are interested in looking at the way in which it is written or because they want to understand the social setting of that time. I do not want to praise the book because I am not agreeing with it what so ever, which I why I find it hard to write this post. I took me quite some time to formulate my thoughts. I do not wish to offend anyone by sharing this post. My meaning is to share the awareness of the images presented in this story because I, myself, had quite forgotten it.
As a child, I did not understand the things that were said. I also did not see the clear racism presented then. This might be because I was young and didn't understand such things. Besides, I hadn't had any experience with racism towards myself, as I was a young white girl. Which can also be a reason I did not know of it, a clear example of white privilege I think.
This post might be different from what you usually read from me. But I found it important to share this and show that some classics are clearly dated even though everyone knows the story. We might not remember everything, but that doesn't take away the racist aspect of this story. I will repeat once more that I do not want to offend anyone. That is never my intention and I hope that this post will not be received in this way. I wish everyone a lovely day and I will see you soon.
Love,
Julia
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