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    1. Why doesn't Peter Pan want to grow up?  He is unlike the other boys in three ways: he never chooses to leave Neverland, he can't tell the difference between make-believe and reality, and he doesn't really have to eat.  Discuss.
    2. What concept of mothering is presented in the story?  Consider especially the various references to Mrs. Darling.
    3. What features of Barrie's story-telling method appeal to children?  What seem intended for adults?  Notice that he may go from one to the other in the same sentence.  Pick some examples and explain them.
    4. Barrie implies that his story helps to "map" children's minds.  He says "Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal.  John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it which John was shooting.  Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.  John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together.  John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents.  But all the Neverlands have a family resemblance"  (Chapter 1, Dover edition p. 6).  What do the characteristics of "the" Neverland and each child's version of it tell us about (a) these children and (b) differences in people by age and gender?The critic Alison Lurie (1975) raises some relevant points, summarized on line, when  she says, "Barrie knew very well that juvenile charm and innocence are often accompanied by profound egotism and an unconscious capacity for cruelty. "  Lurie also credits his recognition of the contradictory nature of childhood wishes: "to be grown up at once and never to be grown up; to have exciting adventures and be perfectly safe; to escape from your mother and have her always at hand."  Discuss these ideas about the story. What do (1) Peter's lack of memory and (2) his nightmares have to do with Barrie's interpretation of childhood.
    5. When the play Peter Pan is performed, the same actor traditionally plays Captain Hook and Mr. Darling.  Peter himself also plays both of these roles, that is, he is "Father" and after he has defeated Hook, he is "Captain."  Is this ominous or comforting?  Likewise, our first view of the island after the Darling children leave the nursery is of a perpetual chase: the boys are looking for Peter, the pirates are chasing the boys, the redskins are chasing the pirates, and the animals are chasing the pirates.  Is this threatening or funny or both?  When there are fights on the island, "rules" are followed.  On one occasion, the boys and the redskins swap roles for the day.  Do you think that in these rule-conducted battles people stay dead? Or do they end like Tom Sawyer's battles with Joe Harper?  Finally, Pan is of course the god of woods and natural creatures.  He plays the pipes and is half goat.  Is Peter Pan-like?
    6. A "utopia" is usually thought of as a place of "social or political perfection."  However, the word comes from the Greek words for "no" (ou) and "place," not from the Greek words for "good" (eu) and place, and though all literary utopias criticize or challenge the real world in some way, they often have some flaws of their own that point to virtues of the real world.  Also, some writers have created negative utopias (e.g. Brave New World), sometimes called dystopias (Greek word for bad place).  "Neverland" has a name which is the English equivalent of "utopia," with the added feature that "never" suggests not only that the land doesn't exist, but that it did not exist in the past or the future.  Discuss how "Neverland" is a child's utopia/eutopia/dystopia, and compare it to the two other "neverlands" we have encountered, Wonderland and Oz.