Picture Book Analysis

 

Walt Disney's Peter Pan

By: Walt Disney Company, John Hench, J.M. Barrie. Part of Disneyland Records; Originally written by J.M. Barrie. Adapted from the Disney Film: “Peter Pan”.

  

Illustrator: Al Dempster

Year of Publication: 1953

 

 

Summary:

Walt Disney’s Peter Pan is an adaptation from long ago, this story is about Peter, Wendy and her two little brothers, John and Michael. The story tells of an adventure they take; they fly to “Never Never Land” with Peter Pan (who is from Never Never Land). When the young children arrive in Never Never Land, they meet the Lost Boys, who are basically Peter Pan's family. Next, they go on a couple short adventures; first, Peter helps save a little Native American girl, then, Peter also saves Wendy and her brothers from the evil Captain Hook. After Peter rescues them, they take over Captain Hook’s ship, but Wendy tells Peter it’s time they head home. Peter then delivers Wendy and her little brother’s safely to their nursery window from the flying pirate ship. 

 Also, I would like to point out, this story of Peter Pan has been adapted, changed, moved around, translated and recreated hundreds of times within it’s past years of existence. This story might be different than what anyone would remember as the Peter Pan they learned about in their youth. 

 Analysis:

Using the article “10 ways to Analyze Children’s Books for Racism and Sexism” (Honig, 1998) the book Walt Disney’s Peter Pan has some signs of being a racist and sexist story. The most prominent parts of the book which show these issues are the illustrations of Native Americans in the story, and the story line in general. 

Pictured Above, "The Indian Camp":

 As the children head over to "Never Never Land" they notice the mermaids, pirate ship, and the "Indian Camp"; which is those tiny teepees in the distance behind the mermaids and the rocks. Basically at this point in the story the author is comparing Indians to Mermaids and Pirate ships. Pirates are a semi-make-believe type of people, but not governed by race, and mermaids are completely make-believe (as far as we know) and they also are not governed by race--even though in this picture, every mermaid is light skinned. Indians however, are Native American people and yes they happen to be classified by their race. In the story, it mentions the word "Indian" often and the Indians in the book differ greatly from the Native American tribes that exist today. So, first of all, the title of this group of people is not correct, and second, they are making a comparison of Native American people to two fantasy groups of characters, which is insulting to Native American people.

Pictured above; "Indian dancing/playing"

 

First, Being a Native American person, doesn’t mean you are a feather wearing, "Half-naked squaw"(Hoing, 1998) red-skinned, Indian who dances around a fire pit and sleeps in a teepee every night. However, in this version of Walt Disney's Peter Pan, this must be the case because the only Native American’s that are shown are the kind described above. The illustrations of this book are made with a large amount of stereotyping (Hoing,1998); basically assuming that the only thing they do is dance around their camp all day. In the text of the story, it says "Usually the Indians playfully captured the Lost Boys" but in the illustration, it only shows Peter, Wendy and her brothers dancing in a circle with the Indians. 

Walt Disney’s Peter Pan illustrates Native American’s as wild people. Of course, in the context of the story, Wendy and her brothers want to be friends with “the Indians” so they aren’t feuding with them for any reason. I would also like to point out, they go to “Never Never Land” which is an imaginary place; where mermaids are real, and pirates exist in the current time. Does the fact that they are basically going back in time, excuse this stereotypical judgement of the Native Americans? Maybe it would if the Native Americans were portrayed with less of a generalization, and more with some individuality?

In an article called “A Look at the Myth of Reverse Racism” (Wise, 2002) there is a story that relates to this Native American issue at hand:

 

“Indian students at Northern Colorado University, fed up by the unwillingness of white school district administrators in Greeley to change the name and grotesque Indian caricature of the Eaton High School “Reds,” recently set out to flip the script on the common practice of mascot-oriented racism. Thinking they would show white folks what it’s like to “be in their shoes” and experience the objectification of being a team icon, indigenous members of an intramural basketball team renamed themselves the “Fightin’ Whiteys,” and donned t-shirts with the team mascot: a 1950’s-style caricature of a suburban, middle class white guy, next to the phrase “every thang’s gonna be all white.” Funny though the effort was, it has not only failed to make the point intended, but indeed has been met with laughter and even outright support by white folks… Of course the difference is that it’s tough to negatively objectify a group whose power and position allows them to define the meaning of another group’s attempts at humor: in this case the attempt by Indians to teach them a lesson... Objectification works against the disempowered because they are disempowered. The process doesn’t work in reverse, or at least, making it work is a lot tougher than one might think. Turning Indians into mascots has been offensive precisely because it is a continuation of the dehumanization of such persons over many centuries; the perpetuation of the mentality of colonization and conquest. It is not as if one group—whites—merely chose to turn another group—Indians—into mascots. Rather, it is that one group, whites, have consistently viewed Indians as less than fully human, as savage, as “wild,” and have been able to not merely portray such imagery on athletic banners and uniforms, but in history books and literature more crucially.” (Wise, 2002)

This excerpt shows that even something as small as a mascot can hurt people from that race. I wonder how white people would feel if in "Never Never Land" there were the "Whitey's Camp" with a lot of chubby white people? My theory is that this would not go over well with white people, they would say it's racist, and stereotypical. Reversing the roles in this type of situation helps to know that this IS a racist addition to the book Walt Disney's Peter Pan.

Since I am not Native American, I feel as though I don’t have a say in whether this book's stereotyping would offend me or not. I think this goes onto a person to person basis weather or not they are offended by the way Native Americans are portrayed in this story’s illustrations. 

Pictured above: Wendy, her brothers and the Lost Boys tied to a mast (top) and captain Hook with pirates (bottom). 

  

I also noticed in Walt Disney’s Peter Pan, that the story line is a little bit sexist in the fact that the main character of the story; Peter Pan, ends up being the one who saves Wendy and her brothers from Captain Hook. In the story Wendy even says “...Peter Pan will save us!" Here, Wendy is telling Captain Hook that she can't help herself, her brothers, or the lost boys, but she knows Peter Pan will save them. This is a classic Damsel in Distress type of storyline that Disney has used before. Peter Pan is the man-hero and the woman (Wendy)  is in distress until Peter comes to her rescue on the next page. Peter and Wendy seem like they are part of the "Active Doer Stereotype" (Honig, 1997) as well. Basically, every time something happens in the story, it's because of peter, OR Wendy asks peter to do something, and he obliges. This shows directly that Wendy is an "Inactive Observer" while Peter is the "Active Doer." (Honig, 1997)

 

References:

Honig, B. (1998) 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism [PDF Article] Retrieved from; HD 25 class

 

Wise, T. (2007) A Look at the Myth of Revers Racism [Article] Retrieved from http://www.raceandhistory.com/selfnews/viewnews.cgi?newsid1024893033,80611,.shtml