Peter Pan 111-197

Wendy and her brothers eventually return home because they are afraid that if they stay gone too long their parents will replace them. This is what happened to Peter, one night long before when he had attempted to fly back to his mother, he found the window had been shut; he had become completely severed from his home and mother. Though he is now carefree and thoughtless, it is suggested that this upset him considerably at the time, however he does not tell this to the children.

After leaving the children Peter promises to return to take Wendy to neverland every spring; after a few years he forgets and Wendy believes he has forgotten. Many years later when Wendy is grown up and has become a mother, Peter appears again at the window. While Peter seems unconscious that more than one spring has past, Wendy is taken by surprise. Neverland is now only a story she tells to her daughter, before Peter returned she wonders if she had only imagined the entire adventure. She ask about tinker bell and the lost boys, but finds that Peter has completely forgotten them; he merely shrugs off the question, explaining that there are lots of being born and dying constantly. This is very sad and melancholy, though also hopeful since the cycle is constantly being continued. Fairies and magic are being reformed and given new life like the passing formations of lights and clouds.

In the last third of the book is made up of the stories of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. These were Barrie's first conceptions of Peter Pan, however these were not merely rough drafts, the stories stand independently. According to the text he was helped in his writing by a boy he had befriended named David. He would tell David a story, who would then tell it back to him, changing it slightly and adding his own interpretations. This was probably my favorite part of the book. The concepts and characters seem to be drawn from Barrie's childhood archetypes, they pull strongly towards the child's conceptions of secrets and magic hidden just out of sight in the unknown, a sense that weakens and is lost when children grow older, the world stops expanding. Barrie regrets this loss, most of his writing here seems to be an attempt to remember these sensations and record them, and perhaps to awake them in others.