In between the two is Wendy and, by extension, the rest of us. She eventually returns home with John, Michael and the other lost boys. They all grow up and become much the same as their parents before them. What they don't do, however, is forget. They lose the ability to fly, and so cannot get back to the Neverland, but they do not forget that it's there. In fact, when Peter comes back after years of being away and wants Wendy to come with him again, she lets him take her daughter Jane instead. When Jane grows up, her own daughter goes with Peter in time "and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless."
That's how the book ends and there's something cautionary in it, I think. We cannot live in this world and try to be either a Hook or a Pan. They are characters of the extreme, and don't last long outside the Neverland. We can neither take ourselves too seriously, nor completely ignore the ties of family and home. Instead, Barrie seems to want us to follow in Wendy's footsteps, down the middle. When we are young and still know how to fly, we can have adventures of our own with Peter. In time, we grow up and forget the way to Neverland, and that's okay. It's the nature of life. What we must never, ever do, though, is bar the window and pretend that the Neverland doesn't exist. When we have children of our own, we have to let them go the same way and find their own adventures. If we keep them too busy, too wrapped up in "activities," they'll lose the ability to fly before they've even tried, and the Neverland will become a much lonelier place. It's all about imagination and creativity, after all, two things our world can not afford to lose.
*** Author's Note: What I have been referring to as "Peter Pan" is more properly called "Peter and Wendy." I made the title change out of familiarity and habit.
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1 - The Never Fairy
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