Byatt's character Tom Wellwood, in his novel The Children's Book, hates fairy tales, especially Peter Pan. Tom's resentment is the result of a troubled inner self and belonging to a mother who uses her own children to create characters – characters that Tom, in particular, will never live up to. Unlike Peter Pan, Tom will make this inevitable progression from childhood to adulthood. During this process, assumptions will be challenged, secrets will be revealed, and shocking and damaging realizations will be revealed. The main adult characters in the novel treat childhood as a fairy tale – a temporary oasis from the difficulties and unhappy realizations that accompany adulthood. Due to the adult characters' idealistic views of childhood, they do not realize the extent of the damage they are creating by manipulating and using their children for artistic purposes. For example, Olive Wellwood does not realize that she is charting a very destructive path for her favorite child, Tom, by constructing her identity for him and then shamelessly revealing it to the public. By creating a story that hinges on the young main characters' growth and (in many cases) their eventual fall, Byatt portrays childhood as both a time of freedom and vulnerable fragility. Byatt develops his theme of the complicated nature of childhood by creating a sense of opportunity for his young characters, then polluting it with forebodings based on the actions and feelings of the adult characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Many of the characters introduced by Byatt in The Children's Book are Fabians and artists. These characters are not as conservative as other characters in the novel (e.g., Basil Wellwood) and they are not as rigid in terms of their parenting styles. Olive Wellwood, a writer of fairy tales, and her husband, Humphrey Wellwood, allow and encourage their many children to run through the woods, use their imaginations to play pretend games, and dress up to participate in the festivities of the Saint John. Additionally, at the summer solstice party hosted by Olive and Humphrey Wellwood, the children received time and attention from their artistic and socialist guests: Everyone, old and young, is now gathered… As happens in such gatherings, where those whose lives are shaped Fortunately or unfortunately, are surrounded by those whose lives are almost entirely to come, the elders began to ask the young people what they planned to do with their life and plan their future. (Byatt 72) As Byatt says, the children participating in the summer solstice party have lives that are "almost entirely yet to come" while the adults have lives already shaped. This comment reinforces the theme that childhood is a time of opportunity (where possibilities for the future are free, open and perhaps infinite) and, also, a very permeable time where elders have a significant impact when they “project the future”. The idea of ​​childhood as a time of opportunity broadens and becomes less exclusive when "forward-looking" guests go so far as to ask boys and girls what they would like to be when they reach adulthood (Byatt 72). Most children have an idea of ​​what they would like to do when they grow up: Julian would like to work in museums, Geraint would like to make a "comfortable living," and Dorothy would like to become a doctor (Byatt 72). . While the.