Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Prologue-Chapter 4

Part 1, Chapter 5-Part 2, Chapter 9

Part 2, Chapter 10-Part 3, Chapter 14

Part 3, Chapter 15-Part 4, Chapter 19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 3, Chapter 15-Part 4, Chapter 19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Sally” - Part 4: “Peter & Jamie”

Part 3, Chapter 15 Summary

As Jamie dreams, he remembers his childhood. His father was abusive, but his mother loved him. Jamie remembers being a young child and finding his mother’s body in the alleyway behind their house. Her throat was cut, and she was covered in blood. At that moment, a boy appeared and told Jamie that because he was covered in blood, people would think that he had killed his mother. Jamie insisted that he did not kill her, but the boy promised to show Jamie a world in which they could play forever and never grow up. The boy, Peter, led Jamie through a tunnel to the island, and Jamie forgot about his old life.

When Jamie awakens after this dream, he realizes that Peter killed his mother. Jamie is now furious that Peter has prevented him from growing up and becoming a man. Charlie points out that Jamie has grown a beard, and Sal worries that Jamie is growing up too quickly. Jamie admits to Charlie and Sal that the tunnel is gone, but he shares his idea of going to the pirates for help in escaping from the island. Sal is afraid to go to the pirates, believing that they will hurt her because she is a girl. Jamie admits that sometimes the pirates leave the island to go raiding in other places and bring back girls who spend “all their time screaming and crying” (201). Jamie agrees not to go to the pirates, suggesting instead that they build a boat. Charlie reveals another of Peter’s secrets: that Peter is friends with a fairy named Tink. Tink can communicate with the Many-Eyed and has taught Peter to fly. The flash of light that Jamie and Sal saw was Tink spying on them; that is why Peter destroyed the tunnel. Jamie suggests that they steal a rowboat from the pirates and use it to get away. They agree to find Nod and Crow so they can all leave together. Jamie vows to kill Peter if Peter tries to stop them.

Part 3, Chapter 16 Summary

As Jamie, Sal, and Charlie search for Nod and Crow, they find Peter crouched over Crow’s body. He has cut off one of Crow’s hands. Jamie confronts Peter for killing his mother, but Peter flies away. While Sal and Charlie search for a rowboat, Jamie searches for Nod. He finds Nod injured after a fight with Peter. Nod also has a beard now. Jamie speculates that they have grown up because they no longer love Peter. Jamie patches up Nod’s wound and gathers supplies. The two boys head for the beach where Sal and Charlie are waiting. Nod has also developed feelings for Sal, but he gives Jamie his blessing because Jamie has “always been the best of [them]” (210). Peter was always jealous of Jamie because of how much the other boys loved him and looked up to him. When Jamie stopped loving Peter, they all did, too. Suddenly, they hear Sal scream and run toward the sound.

Part 3, Chapter 17 Summary

Nod and Jamie discover that Peter has brought a crocodile to the beach. The crocodile chases Charlie while Peter laughs from his position in the air. The crocodile has already killed Sal. Jamie launches himself at the crocodile and stabs it, eventually killing it. He looks around for Charlie and finds that Peter is holding him at knifepoint. Peter tells Jamie that he will punish him by killing Charlie. He refuses to let Jamie and the other boys go because then he will have no one to play with. When Jamie points out that he is growing up, Peter is distraught at the idea of losing Jamie, whom he assumed would stay with him forever. Peter drops Charlie when Nod sneaks up on him and stabs him in the thigh. Peter screams and flies away. Exhausted from the events of the past few days, Jamie collapses. When he wakes, Charlie is with him.

Jamie and Charlie find Nod digging Sal’s grave. Nod is taller than he was yesterday. Nod does not want Jamie to look at Sal’s remains, as she was partially eaten by the crocodile. She fought the crocodile to protect Charlie. The boys bury Sal together. Jamie notices that Nod’s wound from the day before has healed, and Nod reveals that it healed because he grew so fast. Nod worries that they will not stop growing and will soon be old men. Jamie leads Nod and Charlie to the rowboat so that they can escape, but they find that Peter has smashed it to pieces, trapping them on the island.

Part 4, Chapter 18 Summary

Jamie and Nod try to decide what to do next. Nod suggests that they go to the pirates even though the pirates have killed many of their friends. Jamie does not want a life of fighting; he only wants to kill Peter and then live a life free from violence. Later, Jamie wakes from a dream in which his dead friends rowed a boat away from him. Peter is now watching him from the sky. He tells Jamie that Tink is angry with him for killing her family when he burned the plains; she is the only fairy left. Jamie argues that Peter should not have brought so many boys to the island just so they could die. Peter insists that he did everything for Jamie, to make him happy. To settle their score, Peter and Jamie agree to fight each other. Peter will wait for him at the Battle arena.

Jamie parts with Nod and Charlie and heads to the Battle arena. When he arrives, Peter tells him that their Battle will have no rules. He flies around Jamie, making it hard for Jamie to attack. Jamie manages to hit him with a stone, and Peter drops out of the sky. Jamie beats him and almost slashes his throat, but Peter stabs Jamie in the thigh and wriggles away. Peter’s wounds heal almost immediately, and it is revealed that Jamie cannot kill Peter because the island itself created him. Every drop of blood that spills on the white stone in the Battle arena keeps Peter alive and young forever. The island extends this same care to all the boys who love and believe in Peter, but when they stop believing in Peter as Jamie has, they age. Peter hoped that he and Jamie could be friends forever. Although Jamie is no longer Peter’s friend, Peter refuses to let him leave the island. Instead, he curses Jamie to live on the island forever, unable to die or escape. Peter cuts Jamie’s right hand off as a reminder of this curse.

Part 4, Chapter 19 Summary

Peter leaves Jamie bleeding on the rock. Jamie manages to crawl away from the arena and feels disgusted with himself for spilling so much blood for Peter. He remembers the faces of all the boys who died on the island. Jamie reunites with Nod and Charlie, who have come looking for him. They care for Jamie until his wounds heal, and then go to the pirates.

From that point onward, Jamie is no longer called Jamie. The pirates give him a new name after the hook he uses to cover the stump of his wrist. Peter brings more boys to the island to play with him, which angers Jamie/Captain Hook, but he does not want to hurt the new boys. He simply wants to kill Peter. He cannot leave the island because if he sails away, he simply ends up right back where he started. He believes that if he can find a way to kill Peter, he will be free of the curse. Meanwhile, Peter has told the new boys that Captain Hook is a villain. Hook argues that he is only a villain because Peter wants to be a hero. Hook bides his time and waits, knowing that he will someday find a way to make Peter regret hurting him.

Part 3, Chapter 15-Part 4, Chapter 19 Analysis

The final chapters of Lost Boy bring the narrative full circle, setting up the components to match the original status quo of Barrie’s Peter Pan, with a few significant changes. In Henry’s version, the pirates are not invaders, but exiles and fugitives from Peter’s world, for they desperately wish to leave the island but are shackled to the whims of Peter’s selfish dominion. As a veritable avatar of the island, Peter is a law unto himself, and every being on the island is subject to his will. Peter has spent most of his efforts on Gaining Power Over Others, but although he ostensibly triumphs in the novel’s conclusion, he ultimately loses everyone who once loved him and can only rebuild some semblance of his former world by feeding lies to his newest recruits. In fact, Nod reveals that Jamie was the one who had the real power all along, for the other boys only loved Peter because Jamie did. This final shift proves that Jamie is a natural leader, and his transformation into Captain Hook does not stand as evidence of his moral downfall. Instead, it reveals his inner strength and integrity, for he grows up when he breaks free of Peter’s lies and makes his own choices in the world. Far from becoming a villain, his adulthood redeems him even though he remains within Peter’s control. Cursed never to age or die, he cannot leave the island or Peter Pan. Though the story is in many ways a tragedy, it has no catharsis and no glimmer of hope for Jamie, who must now fulfill his role as Captain Hook until the end of time itself.

The Tension Between Childhood and Adulthood directly parallels Jamie’s relationship with Peter. When their friendship is fully severed, Jamie grows up very suddenly. He has to let go of his childhood all at once instead of experiencing the gradual maturation that most people do. This occurrence stands as a metaphor for the disillusionment that often accompanies traumatic experiences, aging people well before their time even in real life. Accordingly, when Sal dies, a big part of the future dies with her, dooming Jamie to the static prison of the island. Because he cannot leave, he cannot meet any other person with whom he could potentially fall in love and experience all the expected milestones of conventional adulthood. Instead, his existence depends upon Peter’s terms as he remains trapped on Peter’s island, doomed never to grow up despite his quasi-adult role. He is no longer a child, but he remains in an inescapable fantastical world that prevents him from embracing full adulthood. Thus, although Peter is ultimately victorious in this story, the eternal child does not understand what adulthood really means. He therefore creates circumstances that force Jamie to fill the role of a villain, whether he wants to be one or not.

Just as Jamie cannot truly grow up, he cannot live an authentic, nuanced life in a world that does not acknowledge the distinctions of Reality Versus Make-Believe. While the violence that surrounds Jamie remains very real in its dire consequences, the island’s magical nature manifests in Peter’s blasé indifference toward issues of morality. Protected by the island’s magical nature, Peter suffers no consequences because of his cruelty, and he is therefore free to pursue centuries of bloodshed for the pleasure of it. In fact, the magic of the island and Peter’s lust for violence are intimately intertwined, for he maintains his youth at the expense of others’ lives, and just like the island itself, he remains utterly indifferent to who lives or who dies as long as his own needs are met. Within this twisted framework, Jamie finds himself trapped by the strength of Peter’s delusions, which manifest themselves as the island’s reality. Peter needs a playmate, so Jamie must remain. Peter needs a rival, so Jamie must become a villain. Because Peter cannot differentiate between the real and the fantastical, he thinks of other people only as playmates. He values them exclusively on this basis and is not able to see the world from their perspectives. Even before the novel’s grim conclusion, this is why he believes that killing Charlie will bring Jamie back to him; he does not see others as real people, so he cannot internalize the reality of their deaths.