We usually notice how classical kids stories have a different origin than the one we imagine. The main core and storyline is there, but obviously, in the kids version they showed us all the second intentions and hidden hits to the society or certain aspects of it are all censured for the sake of protecting our innocence. Or so I believe. That´s the main reason I find it so important to read the original versions of important fairy tales, because even though we do have a clue as to what the storyline is, you get completely different messages with both versions.
Peter Pan is the boy who never grows up, but, like Alice in Wonderland, he had a couple of stories behing the most developed and known one. Before Peter Pan rescued Wendy from her nursery, his story began with birds in the Kensington Gardens. That´s were we actually see why he doesn´t like moms, were we find out how he came to like and be liked by the egocentric fairies. He has always been a different kid, with different lines of thought and definitely a unique way of seeing the world, and even though all this background is not completely relatable and fitting to Wonderland, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook, it completes the story.
J.M. Barrie had a different message to share when he wrottePeter Pan, rather than the one it was after chosen to represent his story. Like most books, good well written books, Peter Pan had a lot of different messages, and of course I can only talk about the ones I picked up on. The main one I found in "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" is the choice to see things differently, to find a new magical point of view in which you chose to see the outside, hability that we seem to loose more and more as we grow and insert ourselves in the one way, one mind, all racional and too busy to look around society.
In "Peter Pan and Wendy", I believe he saw the possibility to go beyond a runway baby and turn it into an analysis on parenthood. He´s throwing hints here and there about the horrible parenting stereotypes, the true in them and how maybe, just maybe, some things are just done my mere repetition, no reasoning or meaning behind it. Another point in this story, was the inminent ending of all the girls patiently waiting for Peter Pan to come back for them and take them away.
Personally, I think this alludes to the need of an scape from the real, boring, routine-like everyday life can be, and it turns Peter to that outlet of magic and wonder that gives you the hope of something better and wonderfull out there. The way Peter keeps forgetting for years at a time to pick them up seems to me like the comparison of how much something can mean to you but necessarily the situation is the other way around. If I were Wendy or Jane I´ll probably stay in Neverland, or find my own way to get Pixie Dust to take me back, regardless of whether Peter remembers or not.
In summary, I really really liked it! It´s really well written, and even though it´s supposed to be a kids story, it got me thinking about a lot of different, very interesting, points of view. I believe we should read more of the classics behind popular stories, because most of the time there´s a lot more to them than what we think we know. The best way to explain this books, in the words of the author himself, is that this is not kids book, since it has way too many allusions, second meanings, in-jokes and winks of an eye to be fully understood my little kids on their own and with the experience they have. No, this is a book for adults, in the attemp to explain kids to grown ups.