"Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie: By now, everyone pretty much knows the basic story of Peter Pan, the little boy who never grew up, who lives in the magical realm of Neverland, hanging out with fairies and fighting Pirates. Yeah, that's swell. And that's about the extent of my Peter Pan knowledge until I picked up the book. I really wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised at the profound depth of the work, not to mention Mr. Barrie's whimsically clever style.

In every child's mind there is a Neverland, an imaginary place of fanciful dreams ripe for exploration. It's in their own personal Neverlands that John, Wendy, and Michael Darling first come to know Peter Pan. When Wendy mentions Peter to her mother, telling her how he visits them at night, Mrs. Darling is certain her daughter must be dreaming, for certainly no boy could enter through the children's third-floor window. But one night after tucking in the kids, Mrs. Darling dozes off before the nursery fire and awakens to the sight of a bright yellow light buzzing around the room and a small boy covered in leaves and tree sap standing near the window.

Before Mrs. Darling can fully grasp the situation, Nana, the family dog/babysitter, bursts into the room and chases Peter out the window, slamming it shut behind him. Mrs. Darling is horrified, thinking the poor child plunged to his death, but finds no trace of the boy on the street below. She would have written the whole thing off to her imagination if not for finding Peter's shadow caught in Nana's mouth. Yes, that's right, his shadow. She dutifully rolls it up and puts it in a drawer, waiting for a proper time to tell her husband.

A few nights later, Peter returns looking for his shadow, finding only the children this time. Wendy is smitten at once, her affection only swelling upon discovering Peter has no mother. Her maternal instincts kick in and she lovingly reattaches Peter's shadow with some needle and thread. Peter is so grateful, he begins teaching the children how to fly with the aid of a little fairy dust. See, that buzzing yellow light is Tinkerbell, a lovely girl fairy who also has quite the crush on Peter and sees Wendy as a rival for his affection. Of course, being a boy, Peter is completely ignorant of such things and invites Wendy and her brothers back to Neverland. Wendy, wanting to be with Peter, and her brothers, wanting to see the pirates, mermaids, and other Neverland attractions, accept the invitation, and off they go, soaring into adventure.

The directions to Neverland are simple: "Second to the right, and straight on till morning." Once there, the Darlings quickly become part of the Neverland circle of life. Peter is the leader of the Lost Boys, a ragged group of lads who fell out of their perambulators when the nurse wasn't looking. If they're not claimed within seven days, they're quickly sent off to Neverland to defer expenses. In constant pursuit of Peter and the Lost Boys is the nefarious Captain Hook, the meanest, nastiest pirate ever to sail the salty seas. Hook commands an equally vile assortment of henchmen, each with a thirst for blood. Chasing the pirates are the Indians, led by the beautiful and brave princess Tiger Lily. Hot on the trail of the Indians are Neverland's various wild beasts. And around and around they go, each day a struggle to survive.

There's one other member of the madcap milieu. Lumbering along at its own deliberate pace is an enormous ticking alligator. It ticks because it once swallowed a clock. It's constantly on the move because it wants to swallow Captain Hook, who didn't become Captain Hook until Peter Pan cut off his right hand. The alligator just happened to eat Hook's severed appendage, enjoying the tasty morsel so much that it's obsessed with claiming the rest. And while no man scares the evil Hook, he's positively petrified of the determined alligator. Thankfully, the clock gives warning. As soon as he hears the faintest tick, Hook heads for the hills. Of course, in reality the ticking alligator is a brilliant metaphor for death, with time being the one enemy no man can escape. I never really knew about the alligator growing up, so the discovery of such a masterstroke earned my deepest respect.

Although, "Peter Pan" is full of the unexpected. Take for instance the character of Tinkerbell. She isn't the friendly little pixie so often portrayed in cartoons. She's actually a devious little sexpot who isn't above trying to get Wendy killed in order to have Peter all to herself. I was also shocked at the level of violence. This isn't your standard candy-coated kid's tale. The fighting is very real. People die. In fact, Peter is quite the little murderer. The body count is enormous. Yet in their innocence, the children think nothing of death and dismemberment.

And "Peter Pan" is a tribute to innocence. Every boy and girl's childhood should be a magical time, but it shouldn't last forever. There comes a point when everyone must become an adult. The transition from boy to man, or girl to woman, doesn't end one's childhood, it preserves it, keeping it a cherished, sacred memory upon which to draw strength in later days. Much as life itself is only given value in the shadow of death, only from the trying vantage of adulthood can one truly appreciate the glorious innocence of youth. Remove the threat of one, and the other ceases to exist.

Mr. Barrie doesn't hold up Peter as the ideal; he isn't glorifying the prospect of an endless childhood. It's quite the contrary, in fact. By the end of the book, when Wendy and her brothers feel the responsibility of a family left behind and decide to return home, Peter garners pity, not admiration. While he momentarily mourns being separated from his friends, his sadness is a mere passing fancy, quickly replaced with the next promise of adventure. He bounces from one childish caprice to another, living with boyish zeal for the next rush of excitement, never establishing a long emotional attachment with anyone. Peter Pan is, in truth, an incredibly tragic hero, trapped in a timeless existence full of nothing.

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