The Disney cartoon was originally called “Peter Pan’s Amusing Adventures” when it started in 1953. The theory that Peter Pan is an angel of death puts the classic in a completely different light.
As some fans suspect, Peter Pan is actually about the following: In Victorian London there is said to have been a serial killer who killed children. Peter Pan was an angel who escorted the souls of these children to heaven. So Neverland is actually heaven – which then also explains why the children there don’t get older. Criminals instead end up in a land where they age (hence the fear of clocks) and are tortured by crocodiles.
this theory no longer seems absurd once you know the background. The character Peter Pan is an invention of the Scottish author JM Barrie. When he was six, Barrie lost his brother: he died the day before his 14th birthday as a result of an accident while skating. In a later biographical work about his mother, Barrie wrote that after that her only comfort was knowing that her boy would always be a child. Hence the idea that Peter Pan will never grow up.
But not only the story of the author could explain this theory, but also a passage from his novel, on which the films are based. Peter Pan first appeared in The Little White Bird, where he is a boy who learned to fly from birds and fairies. In the book, in the first chapter, Wendy and her mother talk about an imaginary character named Peter. Barrie writes of Wendy’s mother, who reflects on her childhood: “…she remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were strange stories about him, like that when children died, he took them escorted part of the way so they wouldn’t be afraid.”
This part of the text supports the theory of the fans. But what they still can’t explain: If Wendy and her brothers actually died, how could they return? That remains a secret, at least for now.
