Definition of Metaphor
In Chapter 14 of Peter Pan, the narrator uses a "vain tabernacle" as a metaphor for the average human being:
Hook trod the deck in thought. O man unfathomable. It was his hour of triumph. Peter had been removed for ever from his path, and all the other boys were on the brig, about to walk the plank. It was his grimmest deed since the days when he had brought Barbecue to heel; and knowing as we do how vain a tabernacle is man, could we be surprised had he now paced the deck unsteadily, bellied out by the winds of his success?
In the midst of a sword fight between Captain Hook and Peter Pan in Chapter 15, Peter describes himself with a telling metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Pan, who and what are thou?” he [Hook] cried huskily.
“I'm youth, I'm joy,” Peter answered at a venture, “I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.” This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the very pinnacle of good form.