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For Tuesday (after break): Barrie, Peter Pan, Chapters 1-6

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent 

No questions over Break, but do start reading Peter Pan and get to at least around Chapter 6 for next-next Tuesday's class. We'll do an easy in-class writing over some aspect of the book. Here are some small ideas to look out for:

* How does Barrie continue to long tradition of satirizing British society and its domestic rituals in this book? 

* Like Alice, how does he also take a few digs at the traditional manner of educating the young in this book? 

* How does Peter and Tinker Bell in particular differ from the many popular culture accounts of their character? Why might this be surprising to us?

* What passages or characters have not dated as well as others? Would any parts be seen as racist or unacceptable today? 

* Why is there more than a little touch of Alice in Wonderland in this book? How do we know that that Barrie definitely had Carroll's book in the back of his mind?

* Though a relativley light-hearted book, how could this book suggest a nightmare from an adult's perspective? In other words, how easily could this story become a horror novel (or movie)?

* Why might the Darling parents not conform to many of our 21st century notions of good parenting today? Do you think Barrie means to censure them, or is he good-naturedly mocking them? Remember, too, that the Darlings are based on the actual parents of the children he befriended (a group of boys), so they would have recognized their portrait in the novel.

* Wendy, alone, was Barrie's creation, though she is based on the daughter of another friend who called him "my friendly," (but couldn't pronounce her F's, which sounded more like W's). There was no "Wendy" in English literature before this. Why do you think he introduced an older daughter into this world of boys and boyish pranks? 

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