Coming of Age in The Yearling and Peter Pan

When does a child come of age? Science says it’s when they hit puberty, but I disagree. I think it’s less about physical development and more about internal growth. A youth can show all the signs of physical growth and still maintain a sense of mental and emotional innocence that keeps him childlike. True coming of age has more to do with experience.

Two Great Books

While there are plenty of coming-of-age stories, two of the most poignant are Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling and J.M. Barry’s Peter Pan. These books show the protagonists’ physical growth as a bench mark, but it isn’t until they wrestle with tough questions that they reach a new level of maturity. The three biggest realities they encounter are love, death, and family. Until they come to terms with these realities, they’re still children. Once they’ve accepted these realities, there’s no going back to childlike innocence. 

I hope to spend the next several posts looking at these themes and how they shape The Yearling and Peter Pan. To be honest, I’m still a few chapters away from finishing The Yearling (although I’ve read it twice before so I know what’s coming), and while I have parts of Peter Pan memorized from so many previous readings, it’s been a couple of years since I read it last. I’ll be prepping for the upcoming posts by reading, thinking, and writing. And probably crying a bit too.

Read It and Weep

This post is just a declaration of intention and a heads up. If you want to read (or re-read) either of those books in preparation for the series, then by all means do it! You’ll always get way more out of a post if the book in question is fresh on your mind. The Yearling isn’t one of my favorites because it’s too sad, but it’s written so well that I can’t help but admire it. The word pictures, nostalgia, and encapsulation of childhood are just perfect. Peter Pan is one of the most perfectly-written thematic books I’ve read, and you’ll be so glad you took the time to experience J.M. Barry’s humor, sorrow, and brilliance.

If you’re tempted to save time and watch the movies instead, be my guest. I just discovered that The Yearlingwas made into a movie in 1946, but I can tell by looking at the pictures that the casting was completely without reference to how the book describes the characters. As a consequence, I can’t vouch for the veracity of the movie. As for Peter Pan, you can’t do better than the old Disney cartoon from 1953. It’s no substitution for the beautiful, masterful wording of the book, but at least it’s not just a reinterpretation of the story. 

Goodbye for Now

And with that, my friends, I leave you. I’m really looking forward digging into these themes and stories, and I hope you are too. Until then, so long!