a few more thoughts on Wendy

[amelia_petkova]

What it says in the subject line.


So after the previous entry it seems that the two main ways of viewing the story are:

1. Pete is the "real" Peter Pan and Wendy leaves with him for Neverland in the end.

2. Wendy is hallucinating due to depression/stress/etc. and comitts suicide at the end.

I said at the time that I preferred theory #2 but I never got into why. There are a few reasons. First, Wendy is the only person Pete interacts with. He vanishes on several occasions when it would be almost physically impossible to get out of sight so fast. (I realize that if he were in fact Peter Pan, this could be explained by using magic.)

I also prefer this interpretation because it makes the story much less skeevy. If Pete is in fact the result of Wendy's imagination, it means that she is not being followed around by some guy who talks cryptically and has no concept of personal space. (Although that could be explained by the fact that Peter Pan probably isn't totally human.) I was twitching a bit during their conversation about stalking.

He also knows exactly what Wendy's thinking. He appears to be speaking directly from her subconscious, saying things that she wants to hear (you're allowed to be happy) and ideas that are dangerous for her to act on (run away from your problems).

My last reason is more nitpicky. Pete is intended to be a sexy teenage boy in this film. He rescues Wendy from danger, acts seductive around her, and during her second visit to the mansion they almost kiss until she pulls away (and they finally kiss in the end). Very adult behavior. Peter Pan is a child. Part of the original novel features Wendy growing up, which they emphasized in the 2003 film, but Peter Pan is a child forever. It's a major plot point--he doesn't want to grow up, even if he knew how to. In Wendy if the original Peter Pan were faced with this young woman, he'd run away.

I'm not completely ruling out the theory that Pete=the "true" Peter Pan but I think theory #2 (it's all in Wendy's head) is far more likely.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I stick with Wendy having witnessed her brothers die in that house, but having blocked it, but the memory blocks are fadind, and is creating a fantasy world that she's subconsciously combining the with past, using Peter Pan as a base, partly because growing up/growing past it means losing the last bit of hope that her brother's might be alive, and having to face a worse reality than the one she already lives in, but also because the fantasy element helps her filter it into something that she can handle until proper help (read: parents and friends who realized that this is a depressed kid who has never fully moved on with her life) would eventually let her heal. Instead, she gets dismissed as an emo teen by her friends, and her parents are either too busy to realize what's going on with her or they don't care as long as she isn't causing problems, and so she slips further into the fantasy world until it represents an escape for her.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I'd vote for benign neglect on the part of her parents and just plain teenage stupidity where her friends are concerned (they bored me, too. I could have done with less of them).

I'm still debating on the murdered angle for her brothers, mostly because of how Wendy states that they disappeared, but if it's really death then I'm willing to believe that she's in denial or has made herself forget.