Peter Pan is a timeless story written by J.M Barrie. In the time leading up to him writing this story, he was a successful author and playwright. Even with his great success, Barrie still had personal struggles from his marriage and childhood. Barrie used these struggles to write stories that people still enjoy today. Although Peter Pan is a happy children's story, J.M Barrie's inspiration for writing Peter Pan was not so positive.
James Matthew Barrie, or J.M Barrie, was born on May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Scotland. His father was a poor weaver, named David Barrie and his mother Margaret Ogilvy Barrie did not work. His childhood was very difficult with his brother's death and not being close with his father. Every school he went to was run by his brother A.O Barrie, who was famous in the British educational world. Barrie graduated from Edinburgh University and got his Master of Arts in 1882. (“Sir James Matthew Barrie” 73)
After he graduated he started working on the writing staff of the Nottingham Journal in 1883. After a year at the Nottingham Journal he began working at London St. James Gazette. He married an actress named Mary Ansell in 1894. They were married for 15 years after getting divorced in 1909. There were many reasons for their divorce, his attitude of a child and his neglect of the marriage and Mary. His neglect led to her having affairs which also played a part in the divorce. (“Sir James Matthew Barrie”73-74)
Shortly after his divorce he met Arthur and Sylvia Llewellyn Davies. He developed a close relationship with the family, and after the parents died he became the children's legal guardian (Hollindale). The five Davies boys loved Barrie very much and they inspired him to write Peter Pan (Allen). The yo...
... middle of paper ...
...inspired this story. A result of the struggle in his life is Peter Pan and his other works. Even with Barrie’s difficult experiences that inspired Peter Pan, a great story that influenced a lot of things was created. Peter Pan is a story that will be read for many more years to come.
Works Cited
“Sir James Matthew Barrie”. Masterplots: Cyclopedia of World Authors. Ed. Frank N.
Magill. Vol. 1. New York: Salem Press, Inc., 1958. Print.
Hollindale, Peter. “A Hundred Years of Peter Pan.” Children’s Literature in Education.
36.3 (2005): 197-215. Academic Search Elite. Web. 22 Jan. 2014
Allen, Norman. “Peter Pan turns 100.” Smithsonian. 35.9 (2004): 108. MasterFILE
Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2014
Alapati, Amarendra Dr. “Peter Pan Syndrome.” www.syndromespedia.com 22 Jan. 2014.
Web. 22 Jan. 2014 http://syndromespedia.com/peter-pan-syndrome.html
In The Lost Boys there are similar occurrences and references to both of the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Peter Pan, by Sir James Barrie. There are many similarities between the three story lines. In the stories of all three works there is a common thread of story it all started with Dracula.
He came from a middle -upperclass Scottish family. His house was also a hunting and fishing household, they would catch their lunch and dinner each day and prepare it fresh (Critical Survey 630.) In 1910 Fleming’s father went to into politics and had to go away to France for some time so the duties of raising children fell to Fleming’s mother. She decided to send her children to Durnford Boarding School on Purbeck Isle in Dorset in 1916. It was a very nice school, it promoted individuality and it embraced the childrens quirks.It also embraced imagination and freedom to do as the children pleased. The school’s only serious downfall was that the hands-off approach resulted in viscous bullying of the younger boys by the older boys. The Fleming children were victims of such bullying. The boys sent letters home to their mother telling her about all of the bad treatment that they were receiving at school (British writers 82.) Fleming began to hate the school, he was homesick, he was getting bullied on a daily basis, he had way too much class work and did not know how to keep up. Putting all of the downfalls aside Fleming did love the school’s founder’s wife, Ellinor Pellatt. Each Sunday, right before dinner she would read adventure stories to any child who wanted to hear them, Fleming went every time. She read him adventure stories about things such as H. C. McNeile’s tenacious Bulldog Drummond, the evil
Jon Scieszka has an original style that is all his own. Many of his books such as The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, and The Frog Prince Continued have led several people to believe that he has created a new genre of children's literature: using unique perspectives to retell classic fairy tales. But what motivated Scieszka to become an author? And how does he come up with his innovative ideas? I will answer these questions by discussing Scieszka's many inspirations including his teaching career, students, and his family.
John Alexander Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 11, 1815. His family immigrated to Canada (Kingston, Ontario) in 1820, Macdonald was five years old at the time. In 1829 Macdonald ended his schooling, his parents could not afford to send him to university. Macdonald would later say that if he had went to university he would have ended up in literature, not politics. (Waite, John, 7-10)
Freedom can be defined very differently by society. The concept of freedom is abstract in its self like “Love” or “God.” It is something questioned, fought, and searched by people from the being of civilization. Among the centuries of struggles, the liberation of blacks and cultural difference are focuses we continue to examine and learn from. The works of two great writers, James Baldwin and Jamaica Kincaid are dissected by readers every day to obtain insights and understands in regards to personal liberation.
Archibald MacLeish was born in Glencoe, Illinois to an average middle class family. His father, Andrew MacLeish, was a businessman. His mother, Martha Hillard MacLeish, was a homemaker. His parents soon realized they had a very gifted son so they sent him to the Hotchkiss School. This school catered to his many different interests. Of all the things MacLeish excelled at he was the best at writing. Archibald graduated at the top of his class and was accepted to Yale University. While at Yale MacLeish studied law, but continued his writing and in his off time the university published a book of his works.
Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn In 1884, Mark Twain wrote one of the most controversial and remembered novels in the world of literature, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain was the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born in Florida, Missouri, Nov. 30, 1835. Twain was one of six children.
Stevenson was born in November of 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. At 17 he enrolled in the town’s university for engineering, but soon found he wanted to be a writer. He met his wife, Fanny, who lived in California. Stevenson ventured over to her and wrote a book about it. He wrote a couple books from his own experience at this point. He then began writing short stories, then children’s books. Then, around 1885, he began to write romances and novels. Stevenson goes on an expedition around the Pacific. This experience inspired many books, and moved him into a darker style of writing. He died in December 1894.
When the word “fairytale” is mentioned, nearly everyone thinks of light-hearted stories with friendly characters and happy endings. However, these are not the ideas that classic fairytales originally sparked. In fact, numerous modern Disney movies were based off stories that were not so sugar coated. In the 19th century, the Brothers Grimm were responsible for multiple of these popular children’s tales. The Disney remakes of classic fairytales such as Cinderella, Tangled, and Snow White exclude the dark, twisted themes that are significant in the Brothers Grimm fairytales, because society tendencies continue to evolve toward sheltering and overprotecting young children.
Astell, Mary. "A Reflections Upon Marriage." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration And The Eighteen Century. Joseph Black [et all]. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2006. Print. Pages 297-301.
Wodehouse wrote many works of literature based on his life. He based his characters and stories around his own imagination. Evelyn Waugh writes that Wodehouse's characters are "creations of pure fancy" and that "it is all Mr.
Walt Disney and the Grimm Brothers used their talents, and, with help, became some of the most famous children’s literature writers and business owners of all time. Many children have read Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales and watched Walt Disney’s films and cartoons. The creators have used their tales, films, and cartoons not only during their lives, but even now.
On June 13, 1831, James Clerk Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.With the exception of an older sister that died at a young age, he was an only child.His father, John, was a lawyer who was in his forties by the time James was born.John was considered to be an intelligent, but somewhat eccentric man.When James was young, his mother, Frances Cay, died after a prolonged illness (believed now to be cancer).After his mother’s passing, James was raised by his father and his aunt, Jane Cay and lived on his family’s estate, Glenair in Edinburgh. (Tolstoy 1981 10-12)
Overall, Shaw’s childhood was an unhappy one. By the age of fifteen, his parents had split up. His mom deserted her husband and left for England to live with her two daughters. In order to support himself, Shaw left school and got a job working as a clerk and cashier for a firm of land agents for nearly found and a half years. During this time, George Bernard took it upon himself to read and visit the theatre as much as possible.
Roald Dahl used to tell bedtime stories to his children and these became the books he is now famous for. In 1961, he published James and the Giant Peach.