Feminism In Peter Pan

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Women are crucial to society. They are our voices, and they revolutionize our people. More importantly, mothers are a big part of our society. J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan is a magic-filled story about a mischievous young boy named Peter, and his tribe, the Lost Boys, who explore and go from raising themselves to attaining a mother. This story can be studied under the lens of the Feminist Critical Theory, which focuses on women empowerment and their outstanding role in society. Literature allows society to explore this role, which J.M Barrie displays impeccably in his book. Barrie’s book definitively presents Wendy’s journey from childhood to motherhood, her role in the development of Peter and the Lost Boys, and the idealization of women. Peter …show more content…

Many characters do not recognize that Wendy also needs to grow and has a life of her own. Rather, Smee suggests to Captain Hook that they “kidnap these boys’ mother and make her our mother” (Barrie 86). Throughout the story, although mothers are highly praised by a clear majority of the characters for differing reasons, it seems that women are only portrayed as mothers who stay home to complete household chores, clean up, and look after children. This, in fact, does not display the true capacity of women and what they do for societies today. The pirates, who are the villains in this story, merely see Wendy as a mother and nothing else, and selfishly wish to have her against her will. It is crucial to understand that the pirates are not entitled to Wendy and cannot force her to do what they please. She is still young and must learn skills to live as well as be brought up by her parents rather than look after others at her young age. Although she matures more rapidly than the other children, she still requires guidance and words of advice from her parents. Often, parents give their children a sense of emotional stability and teach them to be the best person they can, therefore, if one lacks this, it can negatively affect them in the future. The pirates also do not consider Wendy’s personal choice in the matter, whereas Peter does when he says he …show more content…

Barrie shows these throughout the book in differing situations as well as his emphasis on the importance of mothers. In today’s society, women have many more rights than ever before, therefore, we study literature to identify the changes we have reached

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