Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: The Influence of Dystopian Elements on the Teaching of Morals

Abstract

This paper analyses how dystopian elements in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland influence the morals that the stories convey. First, dystopian elements found in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will be examined, in which Carroll’s novel will be used as primary source. Subsequently, the next chapter will prove that several dystopian elements can be found in Peter Pan. The morals that can be found in Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will then be explored, together with the morality of some of the characters and whether dystopian elements influence the stories’ morals. Finally, it will be concluded that the dystopian elements indeed influence the morals found in Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The paper’s findings will be summarised in the final chapter.