However, Peter Pan’s disdain for grown-ups leads him to turn on his own friends too. Considering the fact that the pirates - especially Captain Hook, who seeks revenge for the loss of his hand - regularly attack Peter Pan, fighting back is understandable. Peter Pan doesn’t just battle pirates he kills them without hesitation. In James’s eyes, death seemed to linger all around him, and it affected young lives most of all. He also lost two infant siblings considering that infant mortality rates were high around this time, experiencing death early on in life was unfortunately not an altogether uncommon experience. Barrie didn’t just lose his older brother at a young age. One important detail, however, is easily overlooked. He would later make friends with the Davies boys (explored further, yet not quite accurately, in the 2004 film Finding Neverland), which is a relationship that’s more or less well-known among those who are familiar with Peter Pan’s origins. Such a traumatic loss so early in life was sure to have a strong impact on James, and sure enough, it followed him for the rest of his life.Īfter David’s untimely death, James thought of his brother often and kept returning to the concept of childhood and explored the idea of holding it sacred.

In 1867, James lost his older brother David in an ice skating accident the day before he would have turned 14. Long before Peter Pan made his debut on the stage and on the page, James Matthew Barrie became enchanted (and maybe a little obsessed) with the idea of eternal childhood. But the darker parts of Peter Pan’s story lie not in the story itself, but the true inspirations taken from J.M. Barrie takes that mischief even farther, straying into dangerous territories with Peter Pan’s character when it comes to how he treats others. His true personality in the book written by J.M. The boy who doesn’t grow up comes off as whimsical, magical, and more than a little mischievous in Disney’s rendition. However, there’s a colder sort of darkness that lies beneath the surface of Peter Pan. Peter Pan is no different in that respect. It’s no secret that the original Little Mermaid fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen didn’t exactly end in a happily ever after for our main character or that Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters received a much harsher punishment for their cruelty in Charles Perrault’s book than missing out on a prince’s proposal or that the Evil Queen from the adaptations of the Brothers Grimm didn’t simply fall off a cliff. For decades, Disney has taken their own wholesome magical spin on fairy tales that tend to have incredibly dark origins.

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