Does Tinker Bell try to kill Wendy in Peter Pan?

[jedbel]

A friend just commented that in Disney's Peter Pan version Tinker wants to kill Wendy because she is jealous of her :001_huh:. I am about to start reading J.M Barrie's Peter Pan aloud and would like to know if this is also true in the unabridged version of the book. (friend is against this story for this reason) I have never watched the disney move or read the book so I am totally clueless!

Thanks :001_smile:

[Remudamom]

I think she arranges for the Lost Boys to shoot down the "Terrible Wendy Bird", but I'm not sure. Tink is an evil little vixen.

[Dirtroad]

they never say "kill her"... but she does try to get rid of her competition

[Jmac]

in the movie yes tinkerbell tries to get the wendybird shot down. I have no idea about the book

[Mama Anna]

- at least she wanted her to be killed. The jealousy between Tinker Bell and Wendy is an ongoing theme in the book. It compliments Peter Pan's self-absorption and raises the question of, "What in creation do those two women see in him anyway?!?"

 

Personally, this wasn't a problem for me to read the book aloud to my dd because I have a "thing" about Disney cartoon movies and wanted to help her understand that just because a character's face is emblazoned all over stuff in the stores does not mean we want to be just like her/him.

 

As I recall, even in the video Tink wanted to get Wendy killed.

 

Maybe you could pre-read the book? It's not too long and has lots of . . . interesting plot pieces for discussion, depending on your worldview.

 

HTH!

 

Mama Anna

[Karenciavo]

"She did not yet know that Tink hated her with the fierce hatred of a very woman. And so, bewildered, and now staggering in her flight, she followed Tink to to her doom."

 

Google books

[Annie G]

Tink not only has the lost boys shoot at the Wendybird, she calls her a 'silly a**' many times. At least that's what we encountered in the unabridged version we read this winter while preparing to do Peter Pan with Christian Youth Theater. But I have to say, the little kids who saw the show loved Tink anyway, and it's not a huge part of the story.

[Chris in VA]

Yes, and the Lost Boys shoot at her with arrows. She is saved by the button that Peter gave her when she asked him for a kiss (he didn't know what a kiss was, and Wendy, embarrassed, accepted the button); she made the button into a necklace and wore it while flying to Neverland.

 

It's interesting to me that Dave Barry, in his "prequels" to Peter Pan (Peter and the Starcatchers and mostly, Peter and the Shadow Thieves) has Tink be jealous also of the mermaid and Wendy's mom.

[jedbel]

Y'all are such a huge help! I have decided I will preread this one to decide if it is something I want to read aloud now that the boys are young or if I should wait until they are older. Thanks again!

[Alphabetika]

Peter Pan is a very dark book. This didn't stop my dh from reading it to both of my girls (separately since they're 4.5 years apart) but it may give some people pause. Peter is very bitter towards adults, so if you don't like an anti-adult attitude, you may want to pre-read.

[NorthwestMom]

I just had my gifted fourth grader read this book. Tink is quite different than she is in the movies, and she does call Peter a "silly ass" regularly. My son found this hilarious. I thought the book was had great discussion material for ideas about what childhood means, what adulthood means, and how the different characters perceived these concepts. It's really not scary or vulgar, but it is representative of its period.

[myfatherslily]

I just finished reading Peter Pan to my 5 and 3 year old children. I also would confirm what the others said about Tink trying to get Wendy killed. But at the end, she drinks poison meant for Peter, so that he would be saved. Overall, though, I do think she's a rotten little character!!:) She does call Peter a silly ass several times. Since my kids don't read over my shoulder yet, I just said that she called him "silly!" or "you're so silly!". Later I was telling my SIL about it and she said that Wind in the Willows also uses the same word. I looked them up and they were written within just a few years of each other! I made me think that perhaps the word was more acceptable for children at that time? Or it is still common in older children's literature and I'm just oblivious?? lol:)

[Chris in VA]

Silly ass is a very English expression, and not as vulgar as we think.

[Orthodox6]

Apart from the fact that it is an insult, thus inappropriate on that basis, it is not at all "obscene" to call someone "a silly ass." Historically, this was just to compare the person's [lack of] intelligence to that of an ass [donkey].

 

I think the word offends people these days because contemporary usage is to call somebody an "ass", with "ass" being short-hand for something downright vulgar and disgusting. Completely different meaning from what is under discussion.