“All children, except one, grow up”

The opening of the novel sets the stage for what follows and foreshadows the ending. The story is about the inevitable transformation from child to adult. More than that, it is about the one child who refused to grow up. For the reader, the opening can evoke a sense of pity or sympathy. How many children want to grow up?

“[C]atch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time”

A child’s mind, according to this quote, is confused. Although the reader has not yet been introduced to the Neverland, the island encompasses a child’s confusion—combining pirates, Indians, and mermaids in a single wondrous place. John dreams of flamingos while Wendy dreams of wolf puppies. Peter embodies a child’s mind: confused because his mind keeps going all the time. He forgets. He recalls. And he creates a reality for himself.

“The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to hear it you would know that you had heard it once before”

At once, the narrator suggests that the readers are ordinary and Peter is extraordinary. However, he concedes that even ordinary children would know they’d heard the fairy language once before. Why? Because every child dreams and every child has their own Neverland.