Have you read a novel written by an English writer J.M. Barrie entitled Peter Pan?

Or have you
ever heard the story presented in other genres than novel? The following is an excerpt of the
novel (chapter 1 only). Read it and answer the questions which come along.
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PETER PAN
Chapter 1
Peter Breaks Through

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way
Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old, she was playing in a garden, and
she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather
delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like
this forever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew
that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

1) What happen to all children?

2) What mystery does this part of the story have?
3) What happened one day in the garden?
4) What did Mrs. Darling say? What does it mean?
5) How did Wendy know that she must grow up?
6) When do people realize that they must grow up?
7) What is the meaning of “Two is the beginning of the end” in the excerpt above?

Of course, they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and until Wendy came her
mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet
mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from
the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking
mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous
in the right-hand corner.
The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she
was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose
to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her,
except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up
trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and
then going off in a passion, slamming the door.
1. How do you describe Mrs. Darling?
2. How was her mind described? What does it mean?
3. What couldn’t Wendy get from her mother?
4. Was the kiss hidden?
5. How did other boys try to get Mrs. Darling?
6. How did Mr. Darling get her?
7. Could Mr. Darling get everything from her?
8. Had Mr. Darling ever tried to get the kiss? Was he successful?
9. How did Wendy imagine Napoleon trying to get the kiss?
Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him.
He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course, no one really
knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a
way that would have made any woman respect him.
1. How was Mr. Darling described?
2. Was Wendy sure that her mother loved and respected him?
3. Was the narrator sure that Mr. Darling really know about stocks and shares? What words
support your opinion?
4. How did Mr. Darling make any women respect him?
Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost
gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by
whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces.
She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses.
Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.
For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep
her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very
honorable, and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating
expenses, while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what might, but that
was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper, and if she confused him with
suggestions he had to begin at the beginning again.
"Now don't interrupt," he would beg of her.
"I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can cut off my coffee at
the office, say ten shillings, making two nine and six, with your eighteen and three makes three
nine seven, with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven—who is that
moving?—eight nine seven, dot and carry seven—don't speak, my own—and the pound you lent
to that man who came to the door—quiet, child—dot and carry child—there, you've done it!—
did I say nine nine seven? yes, I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on
nine nine seven?"
"Of course, we can, George," she cried. But she was prejudiced in Wendy's favour, and he
was really the grander character of the two.
"Remember mumps," he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went again. "Mumps
one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings—don't
speak—measles one five, German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six—don't waggle
your finger—whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings"—and so on it went, and it added up
differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, with mumps reduced to twelve six, and
the two kinds of measles treated as one.
There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak; but
both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's
Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.
1. What was the whole excerpt above talking about?
2. What was the topic of the first paragraph (in the last excerpt)?
3. How does Mrs. Darling’s behavior over the birth of their first child differ from Mr.
Darling’s calculation?
4. What did the narrator mean by the Mr. Darling’s calculation?
5. What does the narrator mean by the word ‘excitement’ in the first sentence of the last
paragraph above?
Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being
exactly like his neighbors; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the
amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who
had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought
children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington
Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much
hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their
mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and
up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course, her kennel
was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience
with and when it needs stocking around your throat. She believed to her last day in old-fashioned
remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about
germs, and so on. It was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking
sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them back into line if they
strayed. On John's footer [in England soccer was called football, "footer" for short] days she
never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain.
There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the nurses wait. They sat on
forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. They affected to ignore her
as of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She resented visits
to the nursery from Mrs. Darling's friends, but if they did come she first whipped off Michael's
pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding, and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash
at John's hair.
No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and Mr. Darling knew it,
yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the neighbors talked.
He had his position in the city to consider.
Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that she did not admire
him. "I know she admires you tremendously, George," Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then
she would sign to the children to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which
the only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget she looked in her
long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when engaged, that she would never see ten
again. The gaiety of those romps! And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so
wildly that all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her you might
have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.
1. What is the motive of Mr. Darling’s employing a nurse?
 2. Who was described mostly in the excerpt above?
3. Who was Nana?
4. Why did Mr. Darling employ Nana?
5. How did the Darlings get acquainted with her?
6. Describe Nana’s responsibilities in the Darlings!
7. What occasion did Nana dislike very much?
8. Who was the other employee of the Darlings?
Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the
nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds
and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many
articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't)
you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her.
It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering
humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up,
making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a
kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness
and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the
bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts,
ready for you to put on.
1. When did Mr. Darling first hear of Peter Pan?
2. What is meant by the phrases/ sentences bold typed?
3. What is compared with ‘tiding up drawers?
4. What happen to you (children) when you wake up in the morning? How?
I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. Doctors sometimes
draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch
them trying to draw a map of a child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round
all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are
probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing
splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and
savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river
runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old
lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at
school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the
dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out
your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map
showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.
Of course, the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with
flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while 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 on the whole the
Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that
they have each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are forever
beaching their coracles [simple boat]. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of
the surf, though we shall land no more.
Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and
sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely
crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least
alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real. That is why there
are night-lights.
1. What is meant by a ‘map’ of the mind here?
2. How was a child’s map described?
3. What made the paths in the map?
4. What kind of island were Neverlands?
5. How did Neverlands vary?
6. How did Neverlands have family resemblance?
7. Explain what you know with the bold-typed part!
Occasionally in her travels through her children's minds Mrs. Darling found things she
could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no
Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be
scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words, and
as Mrs. Darling gazed, she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.
 "Yes, he is rather cocky," Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had been questioning
her.
"But who is he, my pet?"
"He is Peter Pan, you know, mother."
At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just
remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him,
as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be
frightened. She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and full of sense
she quite doubted whether there was any such person.
"Besides," she said to Wendy, "he would be grown up by this time."
"Oh no, he isn't grown up," Wendy assured her confidently, "and he is just my size." She
meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she didn't know how she knew, she just knew
it.
Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled pooh-pooh. "Mark my words," he said,
"it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into their heads; just the sort of idea a dog would
have. Leave it alone, and it will blow over."
1. Did Mrs. Darling know Peter Pan?
2. What did she know about him?
3. How did Wendy describe Peter?
4. What did Mrs. Darling think about Peter?
5. Who was Peter Pan according to Mr. Darling?
But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. Darling quite a shock.
Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they
may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood,
they had met their dead father and had a game with him. It was in this casual way that Wendy
one morning made a disquieting revelation. Some leaves of a tree had been found on the nursery
floor, which certainly were not there when the children went to bed, and Mrs. Darling was
puzzling over them when Wendy said with a tolerant smile:
"I do believe it is that Peter again!"
"Whatever do you mean, Wendy?"
"It is so naughty of him not to wipe his feet," Wendy said, sighing. She was a tidy child.
 She explained in quite a matter-of-fact way that she thought Peter sometimes came to the
nursery in the night and sat on the foot of her bed and played on his pipes to her. Unfortunately,
she never woke, so she didn't know how she knew, she just knew.
"What nonsense you talk, precious. No one can get into the house without knocking."
"I think he comes in by the window," she said.
"My love, it is three floors up."
"Were not the leaves at the foot of the window, mother?"
It was quite true; the leaves had been found very near the window.
Mrs. Darling did not know what to think, for it all seemed so natural to Wendy that you
could not dismiss it by saying she had been dreaming.
"My child," the mother cried, "why did you not tell me of this before?"
"I forgot," said Wendy lightly. She was in a hurry to get her breakfast.
Oh, surely she must have been dreaming.
But, on the other hand, there were the leaves. Mrs. Darling examined them very carefully;
they were skeleton leaves, but she was sure they did not come from any tree that grew in
England. She crawled about the floor, peering at it with a candle for marks of a strange foot. She
rattled the poker up the chimney and tapped the walls. She let down a tape from the window to
the pavement, and it was a sheer drop of thirty feet, without so much as a spout to climb up by.
Certainly, Wendy had been dreaming.
But Wendy had not been dreaming, as the very next night showed, the night on which the
extraordinary adventures of these children may be said to have begun.
1. What did Wendy tell her mother?
2. Did Wendy ever know how Peter came in? Why?
3. Mother half-believed Wendy’s story? Why?
On the night we speak of all the children were once more in bed. It happened to be Nana's
evening off, and Mrs. Darling had bathed them and sung to them till one by one they had let go
her hand and slid away into the land of sleep.
All were looking so safe and cozy that she smiled at her fears now and sat down tranquilly
by the fire to sew.
It was something for Michael, who on his birthday was getting into shirts. The fire was
warm, however, and the nursery dimly lit by three night-lights, and presently the sewing lay on
Mrs. Darling's lap. Then her head nodded, oh, so gracefully. She was asleep. Look at the four of
them, Wendy and Michael over there, John here, and Mrs. Darling by the fire. There should have
been a fourth night-light.
While she slept, she had a dream. She dreamt that the Neverland had come too near and
that a strange boy had broken through from it. He did not alarm her, for she thought she had seen
him before in the faces of many women who have no children. Perhaps he is to be found in the
faces of some mothers also. But in her dream, he had rent the film that obscures the Neverland,
and she saw Wendy and John and Michael peeping through the gap.
The dream by itself would have been a trifle, but while she was dreaming the window of
the nursery blew open, and a boy did drop on the floor. He was accompanied by a strange light,
no bigger than your fist, which darted about the room like a living thing and I think it must have
been this light that wakened Mrs. Darling.
She started up with a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once that he was
Peter Pan. If you or I or Wendy had been there we should have seen that he was very like Mrs.
Darling's kiss. He was a lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees
but the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth. When he saw she was
a grown-up, he gnashed the little pearls at her.
1. Where was Nana?
2. Who led the children go to bed?
3. Who last fell asleep?
4. What happened when Mrs. Darling woke up?
5. Did Mrs. Darling recognize him right away?
6. What did he resemble?
7. What did he do when he saw Mrs. Darling had grown up?
8. Have you read this novel in a complete version?
9. What is the novel about?
10. What do you remember most about the novel?
Discussion:
What privileges does a child have?
What privileges does a grown-up have?
What does your believe or culture say about children and adults?