julielly’s Blog

The magical world makes lots of references to the real one. It is a magical world but it also portraits many things of the real world. Prejudice, bulling, envy, competition, unfairness and so on.  Harry suffers because he does not know anything from the wizard’s world and feels as an outsider. Malfoy envies him; he does not like Harry and is always trying to find a way to get him into trouble. Hermione is also an outsider, she is a Muggle’s daughter and tries to be the best in class in order to be a good witch. In addition, Ron is a poor boy that has to deal with the fact that he is a good person but is not an extraordinary boy. He suffers because of that; moreover Malfoy makes fun of the fact that Ron comes from a poor family. J.K. Rowling also shows in this book how teachers are unfair with students. They take and give points of the students randomly. There seems not to have a coherent way of treating students, what is more, some teachers show empathy with some students rather than others. It is the case of Snape and Harry, he hates Harry and makes him very difficult questions in class. To sum up, the magical world shows types of problems that occur in the real world too. It is a good thing since the book does not get stuck in fantasy, but shows interesting situations that make us think of the problems of our own world, as well.

In the magic world Harry has real friends, he is famous, everyone wants to see him, even the teachers. There is more fun and more adventures for Harry to live than in the real world. In the magical world Harry is important and has a more interesting life to enjoy. Despite of all the problems and dangerous situations he faces in this magic world, there he has many things to learn, people to talk to, and it is surely more thrilling than the real one.  

Bilbo has everything but characteristics of heroes that we are used to see in literature epics. He is not strong, not tall, and not even handsome. He is not the kind of person who likes fighting and facing new adventures (at the beginning of the story, because he will change). I see Bilbo as an ordinary person, with qualities that anyone can have. He is not an untouchable being, he is a normal hobbit that when requested to leave his home and face many dangerous situations to help the dwarves, he goes. Gandalf believes he can do that, and his Took’s side shows to be strong in him, and he decides to face this adventure. Bilbo is also astute, smart; he spends time thinking about the problems and situations he faces in order to better solve them. Moreover, as the story develops, we can see that Bilbo has a good heart, he does not use the ring for bad things (like killing Gollum), but he shows that he is a good hobbit that even pities the ones who haven chosen to be in the evil side. In this story we can notice that characters are what they choose to be, good or bad, and that there are consequences depending on the choices made. Throughout the story, Bilbo conquers a hero and leader post as he faces and succeeds in killing horrible and dangerous creatures that come along the way. Bilbo faces well his quests, he thinks and acts in a wise and courageous way, therefore he growths and becomes a character that we, readers, feels very fond of.        

As we read the book we can see that the deep magic is something bad, related to evil consequences that lead to death. Edmund would suffer these consequences for being a traitor. However, there is a deeper magic that can overcome the damage caused by the deep magic. This deeper magic was written beyond the dawn of time, and the white witch does not know it. That means that goodness is greater than badness. Aslan has more knowledge than the witch for he dies and comes back because of this deeper magic. Evil is limited in this book, and the deeper magic sound as a hope for all the kids and a salvation for Edmund, it teaches him a lesson and he becomes a good and just king in Narnia.

Contrasting the violence existent in Peter Pan with the violence (evil) in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The violence present in Peter Pan seems to be lighter than the one present in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In Peter Pan it is make-believe, it is something that when we read it we are not afraid at all. The violence in Peter Pan is shown as something dangerous but not very frightful. It’s more like an adventure. Killing for Peter Pan is something normal, like a game he is playing, a mere adventure. We, readers, are not afraid of this violence for it is not that real and it is not presented as very harmful and hurtful. However, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the violence is something closer to reality. The characters are really afraid of the bad Witch as well as us, readers. The violence here is not make-believe and the children are really in danger since they can become stones and die. There is a big difference between Neverland and Narnia. While Neverland is a place where the evil is not so evil (but there is bloodthirstiness, just not presented in a way that makes us nor the characters afraid) and Narnia the evil is really evil and bad things can happen to the children. There is real horror and badness. Moreover, what happens in this world can affect the children’s real lives directly, while in Peter Pan it does not happen.

WENDY’S  ROLE IN PETER PAN

Wendy has a very important role in the story; she is the representation of the good, responsible, and submissive mother. In this Neverland, as the boys asked her to do, Wendy is always making-believe she is a mother to the lost boys and Peter Pan. She is always taking care of them, cooking for them (although sometimes it was make-believe), sewing, telling stories, giving medicines, changing the flannels, putting them to bed at the right time, and many other things mothers do. We can see she likes taking care of the boys, however, she recognizes it is a hard job. When she says the sentence: “Oh, dear, I am sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied” (Page 65), we can notice that being a mother is not an easy job, and that, sometimes it seems she wished she had no children to take care. Moreover, Wendy is always submissive in the story. She is always obeying Peter (who she sees as the father, but he sees himself as a devoted son), and telling the children to obey and please him as well. Not to mention the fact that, she is the one who does the hard work, while Peter only plays and have fun. She is a very responsible mother, always looking after the boys and doing her duties correctly.       

What is Neverland? Where is Neverland? When is Neverland? Can we get there?

Neverland is an imaginary land, a land full of colors, gnomes, caves, rivers, princess with six brothers, pirates, redskins, beasts, and many other imaginary creatures just waiting for Michael, John, and Wendy to arrive and live great adventures in this land. Neverland is an Island that is full of danger as well. During the day children can play in it, but at night it gets more dangerous. Although knowing that it is dangerous, children love this land, and they would give anything to visit it and live nice adventures in it. And that’s what Michael, Wendy and John did.

Only kids can get to Neverland, it is where they can pretend to be something else, it is where they can play all the time, and it is where they can live their own fantasies of being what they fell like being, for example, great warriors, beautiful fairs or princess (for girls), champions, kings, anyway, lots of things that could not be done in their real world. Neverland is a land that we can go only when we’re children. We usually experiment this kind of world when we are still young and with no responsibilities in mind. As we grow up this world full of pretending games and great adventures must be left behind. However, I am sure it is always a wonderful experience to be remembered by us adults.

In this chapter I could see that, as Alice lives her adventures and faces situations in which she has to deal with strange creatures she gets more courageous in the story. Courageous in the sense that she speaks for herself, has her own opinion and is not only a passive child that accepts everything the characters tell her.  One example of it is when she sits down in the March Hare and Hatter’s table. They say she was not invited to sit down, however, she argues that she did not know it was their table, and also says that there’s a lot of room in it. Alice’s character contradicts the children of the Victorian age, she’s independent while the children in that time were very passive.

  The chapter 7, A Mad Tea-Party, is full of nonsense creatures saying and doing things which are totally crazy.   For instance, Hatter asks her a very weird riddle, Alice tries to answer that, but he says it has no answer. Alice then, asks him why does he ask her riddles which have no answers, she affirms that it is a waste of time. Here we can see that while Alice keeps trying to interact with these creatures of this magic world she gets a little bit confused. She tries to assimilate things, but there seems to have no way to do it. This world is very different from her own, and there’s no way to understand it. In this magic world time is a person, and it is always six o’clock since it has stopped working for nonsense reasons as well.

In addition, we can see that the characters keep on playing with the language very often. They change its words order as in the sentence:  “I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I breathe” page 67. The author also makes use of puns in the story. Here there is a pun with the word “draw’. The dormouse is telling her a story in which three sisters, who live in a treacle, are learning to draw. Alice immediately asks “what did they draw”. And the dormouse answers “treacle’. Alice thinks that “draw” here has the meaning of make drawing in a paper using crayons, but the meaning here is to pull treacle from the well, as if pulling water from the water well.

This chapter is very funny, full of nonsense things and of characters playing with the language. It ends up with Alice changing her size again and going away for another adventure in this dreamlike world.