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Into Neverland, a novel : exploring the ambiguous portrayal of death in Peter and Wendy and Into Neverland, an exegesis

University of British Columbia

In this exegesis, I explore the ambiguous portrayal of death in J.M. Barrie's 1911 novel, Peter and Wendy, through a close reading of the text, questioning if the boy who never grows old is unable to do so because death has already claimed him. Of course, in Barrie's novel to be dead is “an awfully big adventure” (85) and is neither limited by the belief that death is automatically the end, nor by the notion that once dead one must remain that way. By examining the text's many doubles, juxtapositions, and contradictions, my analysis will present how Barrie dismantles dualities, blurs perceived boundaries, and complicates binaries such as the distinction between life and death. Finally, having conducted my close reading of Peter and Wendy—published under the title Peter Pan and Wendy beginning in 1924 and later given the abbreviated title Peter Pan—I will discuss how the ambiguous portrayal of death in Barrie's novel inspired my science fiction adaptation, Into Neverland.

Text

2018-10-04

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/67345

Children's Literature

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/