The Fairy Tale Logic Of Peter Pan

Ever since its debut, British writer J. M. Barrie's work Peter Pan has been proved to be a success. It was adapted from the initial play into a fantasy, later with plenty of derivatives followed such as films, cartoons and books. As a world famous classical children's fantasy, Peter Pan enriches works of children's literature and the genre of fantasy. It also has deep influence to contemporary children's literature and fantasy works. In recent years, studies on Peter Pan have come into views of broad areas, such as pedagogic psychology, translation, linguistics, and literature. However, its genre as a fantasy is usually ignored; besides, in the field of literature, there is not sufficient research on this work from the angle of children's literature. This thesis intends to study the inner logic of Peter Pan from the perspective of fairy tale logic, namely life logic and children's thinking, and explore its artistic charm as well as why this fantasy is credible to readers.This thesis consists of an introduction, a body part and a conclusion. In the introduction, it introduces the writer, the work, the current situation of the critic circle's views on this work, and the relevant conceptions of fairy tale logic. It holds that it is necessary to study the work further from the perspective of its genre and the fairy tale logic, as the theory of fairy tale together with children's literature develops.The body part consists of three chapters.Chapter One attempts to explain life logic in Peter Pan from the design of foreshadowing and coincidence in the work, and points out that the inevitability from coincidence and foreshadowing reflects the nature of life.Chapter Two analyzes the characters such as Peter Pan, Hook, and Mr. Darling, and points out that children's thinking in characterization reflects Barrie's attitude towards growing up and the adults'world, and indicates the anti-growing-up theme.Chapter Three starts from the make-believe world—the Neverland and analyzes the image Neverland as the secondary world in the book, the major activities and stories in this world. It points out that the text reflects the combination of life logic and children's thinking, namely fairy tale logic.The conclusion part summarizes the role of fairy tale logic in Peter Pan and points out that its convincible fairy tale logic throughout the book strengthens the artistic charm of Peter Pan.