This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Welcome to my chapter 15 review of Peter Pan by J.M.
Barry.
So, I have mixed feelings about this because we're almost at the end of the book and I
kind of don't want it to stop, but I'm also okay with it stopping.
We have to move on, we have to get out of the story, get onto a new one, especially
because Barry didn't write any other ones.
I guess there's other Peter Pan books if you wanted to, you can go check those out, but
I can't vouch for their quality.
And anyway, I'll have a big, a big or more comprehensive discussion about the book in
a few days from the publication of this when I do my book chat on Peter Pan.
So here we go.
I gotta say, it's kind of crazy to me how Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, and there's only
I think five Lost Boys, so it's him and the other two, or one plus five is six, and then
I guess, I don't know if John and Michael were fighting too, it's seven boys.
They were able to defeat 17 pirates, I guess, including Hook, and 15 of them actually died.
Two of them got to shore.
One of them I can't remember who it was, but the other one was me.
And it says at the end of the chapter that he hilariously, or deviously, precariously,
made a living for himself the rest of his days, saying that he was the only man that
Captain Hook feared, which is pretty funny because we have this whole thing about jobbing
and how Hook, we learn to be afraid of him and we learn that he's a serious villain because
these other guys were afraid of him or he stood up to Blackbeard or Long John Silver.
And anyway, if you don't get the Barbecue Long John Silver thing, you should read Treasure
Island because it's amazing.
That's by Robert Louis Stevenson and Long John Silver is called Barbecue in that, and
he's also called the Seek Hook, which I didn't remember from the book, but there's a very
good reason for it.
First of all, he's a cook on a ship, so that's why it's called the Seek Hook.
But there's another very good reason why he's called Barbecue that I will not spoil for
you.
I kind of did an earlier chapter by chapter review, so you might want to gloss over that
when you listen to it.
But yeah, check out the book.
It's great.
It's a fantastic book.
So yeah, I'm really shocked by how many people these guys are killing, these kids are killing.
And like it's a little unrealistic, but it's also kind of cool.
And Barry calls attention to that with the narrator saying, now had the pirates all stuck
together, they would have been able to defeat the boys because they were stronger than them.
Or, you know, a better fighting force, which you would think they have to be, and they
have superior numbers as well.
But also, before the fight even began, Peter already dropped four bodies.
He killed four of the pirates.
And I'm laughing because it's kind of preposterous, but also, you know, we've talked about this,
or I've talked about this as the book's been going on, and I've been discussing it, that,
you know, this book was written in 1903, 1902, whatever, published in 1904.
There was also the play version of it, which I guess the play was kind of written before
the book.
I don't know the whole complicated history.
I don't really care.
I'm not going to look into it.
But as things evolved, it just got kind of more and more violent.
And you have these kids who are now, you know, Peter's been supposedly killing people, and
Indians have supposedly been killing lost boys over time.
And yeah, so now then in this chapter, he kills four of the pirates, like very quickly,
and to the lost boys, like catch one of the guys' bodies.
I guess the lost boys are loose and not Mary.
Wendy.
Wendy is the one who is tied to the mast.
So yeah, it's really interesting.
And then like the pirates think that there's a ghost in the ship somewhere because Peter
goes in to get, what is he going to get?
You know, I don't know.
Oh, he goes in to get weapons, or no, the keys, the keys that are shackling the boys
because he wants to untie them and then let them loose so they can flee or fight or whatever.
And then it turns into just this all out brawl.
And the pirates are scared that it's a ghost.
And they think that there's a Jonah on the boat, which I love that biblical reference.
That's very cool.
Also, if you've seen Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Gibbs, is that his name?
Whatever, the drunk guy, you know, take what you can to get nothing back.
That guy who's sleeping with the pigs.
Anyway, he says in the very beginning of the movie that it's bad luck to have a woman on
board, even a miniature one, talking about Elizabeth Swan.
And he says that when she's like 12 years old.
And they say in this book that there is, it's very bad luck to have a woman on board a pirate
ship.
Let me see if I can find that.
Yeah, so here we go.
The quote is, no, lads, no, it's the girl never.
So let me actually read the whole thing.
So Jonah, if you don't know the biblical story of Jonah, first of all, it's a great story.
Second of all, there's a lot of cool literary things that can be connected to it.
And you should definitely check it out.
But in the story of Jonah, he's responsible for God sending this terrible storm that's
going to kill everybody on this ship.
And he says, guys, it's me.
I'm the reason God's mad at me and throw me overboard.
And they're like, no, throw me overboard.
Trust me, you'll be fine.
And they all throw him overboard.
And the storm stops.
And they praise the God of Israel.
And I don't know if they vow to or they actually make sacrifices on the boat.
And Jonah goes off.
That's when he gets swallowed by the whale.
I believe the Hebrew actually says it's a large fish.
So anyway, and that's what happens there.
But it's referenced in Pinocchio and other pop culture things and older stories that
have like this deeper connection to mythology and stories that people would be familiar
with and people were familiar with stories from the Bible.
So you can take a biblical story or biblical reference and spin it a little bit for your
own fiction.
And it's pretty cool most of the time.
So here we go.
So this is Hook.
Like, the pirates are mad.
They're about ready to mutiny Hook.
And I believe this is him talking.
Yes, lads, he said, ready to control or strike as need be, but never quailing for an instant.
I thought of it.
There's a Jonah on board.
Aye, they snarled.
A man with a hook.
No lads, no.
It's the girl.
Never was luck on a pirate ship with a woman aboard.
We'll right the ship when she's gone.
Some of them remembered that this had been a saying of Flint's.
I don't know who Flint is.
It's worth trying, they said doubtfully.
Sling the girl overboard, cried Hook, and they made a rush at the figure in the cloak.
So at this point, Peter is in the cloak to look like Wendy so he can go out because they
have thrown all of the kids into this room where they think this ghost is killing people
because Peter has killed a couple of the pirates in there.
And then they throw all the kids in there because they're like, hey, if the kids die,
that's great.
You know, our problems are solved.
And if they kill the ghost, great.
That problem is solved.
And then we'll kill the boys afterwards.
So anyway, but it didn't work out.
It did not work out the way they wanted it to.
And then they all end up getting killed except for two of them.
But anyway, that's just kind of an interesting thing going on there.
I don't quite know.
They got on that tangent about Jonah, but I wanted, I have the book in front of me.
Because I wanted to read it and I thought it was pretty cool.
But yeah, I mean, it's kind of shocking and surprising that Barry's just having these
kids drop these bodies.
And I mean, I guess it's a classic adventure.
Like, you know, most heroes, most legendary heroes are guys who kill stuff.
That's kind of what a hero is in the very classical sense.
And we get that here in this story.
You know, it's a little less sophisticated.
It's not for children.
And that's kind of what's going on here.
So anyway, you know, Captain Hook dies, he ends up falling into the crocodile's mouth
and getting eaten pretty much.
And that's the end of him.
And anyway, we'll talk about more in the next chapter.
I'm very excited to move closer to the conclusion of this book.
And I've been having a great time and I'd like you to join in the conversation with
this book as it's coming to an end.
And stay tuned for the next book that I'm going to cover chapter by chapter as well.
You can find out about that all on MJMunios.com.
Until next time, folks, take care, be well, and keep reading.
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