Gender Identites in Peter Pan

In the Victorian society gender identities of the women were a debated topic and with Peter Pan, Barrie dares to present the two possible identities that female characters can have: mother and lover figures. While Wendy Darling naively takes up the maternal caretaker position in the storyline, jealous fairy Tinkerbell is greedy for Peter’s possession, chooses to represent the sexual lover, who is in seeking of Peter’s love. The sexual awakening of the leading female characters, Wendy and Tinkerbell, crates an environment of rivalry.

“Both Wendy and Tinker Bell maintain central points in Barrie’s novel as characters that surround the text’s protagonist. The females, however, are not secondary characters placed in the novel to highlight the delights of boyhood. Instead, both Wendy Darling and Tinker Bell come to realize their own sexual identity through the manner in which they are related to Peter. The two figures’ roles of devoted, maternal figure and jealous, aspirant lover represent two forms of conventional nineteenth century feminine identity, that of the mother and the love.” (Simmons,1334)

The petulance of Tinkerbelle catches our attention easily. Her feelings and her palpable sexual desire for Peter are so obvious that even the mind of immature children may be sufficient to grasp it. Tinker Bell’s everlasting anger and jealousy toward young British girl Wendy cause this nasty nymph to create scenes and disturbances. Her uneasiness starts with the first encounter of Peter and Wendy. The romantic attraction between these two children may be beyond their understanding at such a young age; however, our mature- looking little nymph goes with her gut, unmasking her unchained passion to coax Peter out of Wendy’s emotional ties.  

Social and Theoretical Approaches to the Victorian Period

Victorian Age (1837- 1901) was a period in which rapid changes took place and prosperity and poverty, doubt and faith, and contentment and dissatisfaction existed together.  Industrial revolution caused many deep changes to raze everything in England down swiftly.  This duality was able to be experienced not only in social life, but in literature. There were also so many conflicts that not a single thought was stabilized. “In 1897 Mark Twain was visiting London during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations honouring the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's coming to the throne. ‘British history is two thousand years old,’ Twain observed, ‘and yet in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the two thousand put together.’ Twain's comment captures the sense of dizzying change that characterized the Victorian period.” 

The triggering event that brought about all these reforms in the society was the Industrial Revolution. “Industrial Revolution shifted power from the landed aristocracy toward an insecure, expanding middle class of businessman and professionals, impoverishing millions of once rural labourers along the way.” (Longman Anthology, 570).  The Industrial Revolution created profound changes in terms of economic and social conditions of England. During the Victorian Period, the working conditions were deteriorating and the notion of machinery was becoming dominant in social life and art. John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle were just two examples of the writers who criticized the condition of England at that time. Ruskin and Carlyle were uncomfortable mostly with the trending idea of machinery and conditions of the workers. While these two writers had their thoughts correspondingly on the social matters of England, Ruskin was indifferent to the tumultuous and chaotic reforms around him before his acquaintance with Carlyle. 

Peter Pan, Adulthood, Sexual Identity and Violence                                             

               “The boy who never grows up!”  Though it sounds meaningless and nonsensical, this is the boy we will meet when we find “the second star to the right”, Peter Pan. In this text which is accepted as a masterpiece in Children Literature, Barrie tells the adventures of a boy who never grows up and hates growing up and the Lost Boys in Neverland where fairies and mermaids don’t sound extraordinary at all. While, at first sight, all these characters and actions may indicate that the story of Peter Pan belongs to the Children Literature, it is obvious that Barrie has surprises for the older audience, too. Without making a deep analysis of the incidents, the features of the characters and the conversations among the characters, this seems to be an innocent child book; however, this is a masterpiece in which Barrie has buried all the violence and eroticism deep under the sentences. “Countless numbers of children and adults have enjoyed J.M. Barrie's frolicking, sugar-sweet tale of Peter Pan.  Originally titled Peter and Wendy , this children's story has been a universal favorite, read and enjoyed by many millions of sexually frustrated people, unaware consciously of their sexual desires and naughty impulses”.(Carolin, 1993)

Berlin, Symphony of a Great City

Starting at dawn and ending at midnight, the film gives us a spectacular view of a single day in Berlin. The beginning of the day is depicted with the motionless view of the streets. The first thing that is prominent is the lack of people or animals inside the frame. Later on, a man and his dog appear in the screen and the day starts properly including the fundamental pieces which are necessary to entitle a place as a city. As the number of the people increases, the life in Berlin also starts to get into motion. People communicate with each other; they keep providing their daily needs such as eating, sleeping and also basic emotions such as love, fear and anger. With the appearance of the people in the frame, the perception of desolation is removed. Another aspect of the movie is the depiction of the mechanization and industry. The urban life flows clinging to the all of the factories, trains and many other mechanical advancement of the mid-twenties. The manner of work that the citizens have resembles the working principles of the machines.

The elements that constitute a city are divided into two parts; inhabitants or the mechanization.  Therefore, it is not enough to place and industry to create an urban life. What is most profound is the combination of these features with the people (citizens) who are able to communicate and have shared culture to grasp each others’ emotions and attitudes. The inhabitants of the city demonstrate that there should be social and psychological aspect as well as the industrial and economic side of that land.

Unexpected Crime Decline in the US 1990-2000

America has been present at the top of the list of the most violent nations and violence has been a major theme in public discussion. However, there have been many theories put forward to explain the unexpected crime decline in 1990s. In the US, the crime rates fell sharply, yet what the experts expected was different.  According to the Uniform Crime Report, beginning in 1992, aggregate rates declined steadily to less than 6 percent 100.000 in 1999. This is a level which wasn’t seen since1960s. There are indeed important factors which contribute the fluctuations in the crime rates. Between 1965 and 1970s, America went through a decline in legitimacy of social and governmental authority. This suffering period took place by the civil right movement and the harsh opposition to the war in Vietnam. However, after such a turbulent period, this sharp decline gets harder to explain. “These declines occurred without warning: leading experts were predicting an explosion in crime in early 1990s, precisely the point when crime rates began to plunge.”(Levitt, 163) most popular but least significant theories put forward are the strong economy of the 1990s, gun control laws, changing policing strategies and increased use of penalty.”(Levitt, 163). Yet, these factors are still less significant when compared to the underlying causes.

 “We may never learn the exact reasons for this sudden turnaround but researchers have proposed a number of hypotheses. Explanations for the crime decline include the influence of a strong economy during the late 1990s, growing cultural intolerance for violent behavior, changes in the market for illegal drugs, new policies to regulate access to the firearms, and other criminal justice innovations.”(Travis,8)

                                                      

Nick Adams, Hemingway and War

     As one of the most influential story writers of the twentieth century, Ernest Hemingway is generally considered to be the pioneer of the American short-story writing among his peers. He grew up in a well-known and respected family in a conservative town, Oak Park (Reynolds 17).  Except from his sparkling success in writing, he also stands for with his private life, his friendship with famous writers like Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, his four marriages and suicide (Reynolds 15). However, most importantly, as a witness of three major wars, First and Second World War and the Spanish Civil War, he directed   his writing onto the ‘war’ which became a highly noticeable theme in his well-known works such as A Farewell to Arms. ‘‘No American writer is more associated with writing about war in the early twentieth century than Ernest Hemingway. He experienced it first hand, wrote dispatches from innumerable frontlines, and used war a backdrop for many of his most memorable works ’’ (Putnam 1). 

     In Hemingway’s stories, except from the theme, there is one more thing particularly notable, Nick Adams. As a fictional character in Hemingway’s stories, Nick Adams is included in most of the stories. Yet, the main point which has to be noticed is that even though they were not written in a sequence; they compose the story of Nick Adams’ life when they are organized in an order. More importantly, the fact that there are several points of similarity between Hemingway and Adams cannot be disregarded. ‘‘Maybe it would also appear now and at long last that in Nick Hemingway gave us the most important single character in all his work — the first in a long line of fictional self-projections, the start of everything’’ (Young 31).  Hence, the similar aspects can be examined through Hemingway’s stories which are the representative examples of the certain periods in their lives. The stories should be chosen carefully to state expressly the similarity in every aspect of their lives; therefore, the stories should include significant events which have deep influence on both of them and shape their character.