Comparing Islands In Peter Pan And Arthur Ransome's Swall

In J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons, the location becomes a vital aspect to the storyline. The use of islands such as Neverland and Wild Cat Island creates a symbolic metaphor for a barrier between the protagonists and mainland society. Nevertheless, the texts maintain unique approaches to display developments amongst their characters. Through the comparison of the Darlings and the Walkers’ adventures on the islands begins through the representation, accessibility and occupation, reinforced class hierarchy, and gender specific experiences on the islands, a psychological metamorphosis extends from the physical separation. Ultimately, islands act as barriers between the protagonists and mainland society in which psychological transformations can occur. The children’s rebellion against or conformity to conventional behaviours are encapsulated in their interactions with the island’s residents and reveal a gender bias. Although Peter Pan and Swallows and Amazons are set on islands, the protagonists’ isolation from mainland society reinforces gender constructs, hierarchy and standards of childishness. While the Darling …show more content…
As a literary device, islands function as the backdrop to Barrie’s Peter Pan and Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons. Without these remote spaces, the Walkers and Darlings might not have experienced such wild adventures. In Peter Pan, Neverland is represented as a fantastical realm that can only be accessed by flying children. Barrie describes:
“…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,” (Barrie,