Finding Neverland?

Question

I am doing a presentation on Finding Neverland for school. I have to talk about the theme Illusion vs. Reality in the movie. but i am having a hard time finding things from the movie, if any one could help me, that would be great, Thanks

Answer 1

I'm in a generous mood so I will try and help you.

The difference between reality and illusion is a theme of literature since the days of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Worsdword tried to make the ordinary seem extaordinary and Coleridge tried to make the extraordinary seem ordinary. Focus on this thought and you will begin to see both what the filmaker has done here and what the Depp's character is doing.

James Barrie, the playwrite, lived a life of quiet desperation writing plays thet failed to inspire his audiences until he went to the part one day and met Peter Davies and his family. To Davies Barrie's live seemed fantastic, a man who sits in th park and thinks up ideas to write down for others to believe in. It was a life Peter had to see to believe. On the other hand, Barrie saw in Peter the a hero in the making, a young man who seemed to be growing up way too fast worried that his mother would die. His live to Barrie was the food of fairy tales.

So the relationship is formed between the two characters and it effects both worlds. In the case of Peter, Barrie becomes the father figure he was sadly lacking and a friend he sorely needed to find time to be a child. Barrie, with the money he had, helped out the Davies, paying for Peter's Mother's care and taking the family to his cottage to relax and have fun. To be children. This of course changes Barrie's world as he spends less time in his quiet domesticity begins to fall apart and yet his writing never becomes greater. He turns the story of Peter and his family into the story of himself and his reawakening as an author and as a human being.

If you read horror you know that Poe told people that it is easiest to make the ordinary seenm extrordinary if you take it to a distant place. For Peter that was the cottage. For Barrie that would be Neverland, a place where time stands still and death is overcomeable with the mere clapping of your hands and the chant "I believe in Faeries."

The stories merge as Peter's mother is dying for real and Barrie's wife is leaving him for not being the quiet little man she married. Barries play takes images from Peter's life and merge's them with images from his own life and story book games come to life in a mixture of memory, fantasy and wishful thinking. In an act of brilliance Barrie is inspired to even set aside tickets in the audience for children so that the story would get the full understanding it deserved. Children could see the fantastic side of the story as ordinary and the audults could see the the ordinary lessons in the story as fantastic.

Of course the problem is that Mrs. Davies is going to die. Great pains are taken to show her the play that has as much to do with her as it does with Peter or Barrie. After all, without her illness Peter would not be the hero that he truly is. She must see Neverland. She must see it so that Peter can see that it is true, that given the choice between never growing up and sharing one's life with her family his mother like Wendy chooses the later.

The question is entertained as to who is Peter Pan. Peter swears it is Barrie. Barrie does not deny it implying that it is he that has never grown up. And if that is true then Barrie was in love with Mrs. Davies as the story tells but that he never acted on this love other than to be there for her until she was ready to leave Neverland and leave him. In that respect Peter Pan is a love story as well as an adventure. It is a fantasy of what their love could be if they let it happen.

In the end, Mrs. Davies dies and Barrie is left being Pan to her Lost Boys and helping them to see life with a little bit of amazement worked in.

I hope this helped.

Answer 2

Do some research on the subject. i am sure you could find find some information

here is some i found on IMDB

Although the movie killed off Arthur Llewellyn-Davies [the father] before Sylvia and J.M. Barrie met, in reality, the couple were alive and well even at the play Peter Pan's premiere.

There were actually five Davies children.

In actuality (not the film), Peter Llewelyn Davies was not J.M. Barrie's inspiration for the Peter Pan character. His younger brother, Michael, was. Michael is also said to be Barrie's favorite of the children, not Peter. It is not certain why Barrie then chose to name the main character Peter. One idea why is because of his brothers, Peter behaved the most like an adult at a young age. Barrie wished he had had more of a childhood, so he immortalized him as the symbol of youth.

you could look around and surly you'll find some info.

Answer 3

Maybe you could mention the fact that there is a play within a movie, so one "fake" thing in another one (though the movie is inspired from real events). Plus in the play which is in the movie, a man plays a dog, the character of Peter Pan is played by a woman...this could be interesting as well because, well, a woman is playing a man, and because at that time, women were not to play in theatres (but I might be wrong about that, you'd better check this point before). I think this play may be a good material to start with.

Answer 4

Finding Nemo