He is the symbol of abandonence and eternal childhood. He ran away as a baby because he didn't want to grow up, always remains a 4 to 5 year old little boy for in Neverland where he evetually came tolive, no one ages a day, and as far as he himself believes, his mother forgot all about him and replaced him with another little boy, when he tried to return home / visit his mother, years later from when he ran away. James Matthew Barrie himself, is "Peter Pan" - he suffered his mother's ignoring after his brother died when he was little. He says he used to dress up in his dead brother's clothesjust to make his mother notice him, and told his mother that the brother had gone to Neverland.