How 'Sense and Sensibility' is

I got the book of Sense and Sensibility together with Peter Pan book. It interested me with the words written on the back cover "find your own happiness" and an illustration of two women on the front cover. I thought maybe there was something to do with this story about ways to be happy in life for women. I am a woman and I want to be happy, why not reading it? I read it as soon as I had finished reading Peter Pan. Just like what I did to Peter Pan, I watched its movie after reading. I did not notice well in which year the book was actually written. Or, I might have noticed it but then I forgot. Surprisingly, once I found its movie on the internet, it was released in 1995. What an old movie! It made me think "Am I too late to get to know this?"

Sense and Sensibility is a classic story with classic English for sure. For me, it was not that easy to follow the flow of the story, but I kept going through it. At first, I always tried to look up every single word that I did not know in the dictionary, but then I got tired of it and decided to just guess the meaning of the words that I did not know by drawing its context from the surrounding words. It is just like what an English teacher always tells the students to do in practicing English through reading, isn't it? However, sometimes I felt somehow incomplete to not knowing the whole meaning of words in the story. To make me feel less incomplete and better, I read it twice or trice to ensure myself that I did get the ideas wholly. Eventually, I finished reading it and surely could not wait for watching its movie.

The movie was incredible! All the things in the movie looked exactly the same as what I had in my imagination and visualization during reading. At some points, it depicted even so much better.
The characters with their looks and actions.
The plot with its descriptions and problematic situations.
The setting with its buildings and surrounding environment.
For these, I salute its producer!

The movie has successfully made me understand better to see the distinctions of what happen with the characters.
Edward, whom Elinor loves, chooses his commitment and affection with losing his inheritance from his mother to get married with Lucy even though in the end he is cheated and gets back to Elinor.
Willoughby, whom Marianne loves, picks a woman with a huge wealth to be his wife over his love to Marianne.
Talking about happiness, which one is happier here? Is it to live on behalf of love or of wealth? In this case, I think it is not something to be compared between one to another since they both are clearly in different circumstances. Whatever it is, everyone, including you and me, has his/her own way in pursuing happiness. 

Here is an excerpt from Sonnet (116) by Willian Shakespeare that I can take note:

“Love is not love which alters it when alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove: O no! It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken."

What is missing from Peter Pan

I have heard many kids, especially most of my students, talking about the story or movie of Peter Pan. I might have ever watched it before when I was a kid too, but I did not really remember or know the whole story of it. Talking about my students, most of them regarded  Peter Pan as one of their favorites, and it got into some kind of curiosity somehow until one day I visited Gramedia, a big bookstore in Jakarta. Just like what I always do during for visit at a bookstore, I went here and there getting through all the book shelves. I saw a shelve full of classic English story books and stopped. Peter Pan caught me there, and then I started thinking. I knew I could just see the movie, but I thought it would not be a bad idea to get to know the story from the book first. Finally, I decided to purchase a copy of it, took it home, and started reading it.

It took me some time to finish reading the book since I only read it at anytime I had a chance. Eventually, I finished it about two months ago and searched for its movie on the internet to watch right away. At first, I watched the cartoon version launched in 1953. Then, I saw another, the movie, launched in 2003. Both had a happy ending just like most stories end and most people want to see from a story. At this point, I had noticed that something was missing in the movies. In an occasion, I shared this thought to my close friend that "Something is missing in Peter Pan movies," and he said that "It is something normal. It happens in many movies adapted from a book." He is right, I have found it, and sometimes heard it in some other movies. But still, I think Peter Pan movies have missed the main thing in the book.

Yes, it is such a happy ending when Wendy finally gets back to her family with her brothers and lost boys. Then, what about Peter Pan? Where and how is he? He is forgotten all of a sudden in the movie. In fact, according to the book, not long after Wendy's return to home, Peter came to see her again and invited her to go with him to Neverland where he lives. With her mother's permission to spend a week in every spring time in Neverland, off she goes with Peter. Peter always comes every spring time unless he forgets even for such a very long time until Wendy gets married and has a daughter, Jane. Instead of going with her, Wendy lets Peter go with Jane as the next Wendy on his  visit. As time goes by, Jane lets Peter go with her daughter, Margaret as the next next Wendy. It keeps happening this way all over again 'so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless', and most of all, believe in this story.

Personally, I find Peter Pan as a story about 'to believe' in something to happen. Once I believe that something is to happen or to exist, then there it is. As well, something is dead already as I disregard it.

Well anyway, if you had a chance to visit Neverland, would you rather stay there and be a kid forever, like Peter Pan, or leave it and grow up, like Wendy?