I just saw a Tiktok video with a kid who discovers his shadow and his reaction was priceless. From a primitive mind trying to process the world, this must seem startling, to realize all at once that something that looks like a human shape, on the ground, is following you almost too closely. The little boy, around 3-4, is walking around at night, in a dimly lit house and the dad notices him noticing his shadow and he moves left and right, which seems like a curious mind at work, but then reality sets in and the possibility of a ghostly figure attached to him overwhelms his senses and the kid does all he can, freaks out and cries.
I imagine this is how real primitive man reacted when he found his shadow attached to him out in the bright light of the day. Without a science mind, what must they have thought about a dark shadow following them around? Knowing how people always gave super natural powers to things they don't understand, I can see this being used as a bad omen or something to that effect. I can even imagine this had a profound effect on JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, who not only acknowledged Peter Pan's shadow, but gave it life and its own personality and life. In the tale, the shadow even escaped Peter Pan and went out and had its own adventures, so clearly something happened in Barrie's early life to bring the idea of a "living" shadow to life.
This idea has been used many times, I believe in shows like Charmed and other supernatural shows where the shadow can become an extension of the person and in times of duress, the shadow can even detach and act on its own, which is an interesting take in itself. I guess in bringing it back all the way around, it makes sense the phrase of "being scared of your own shadow", as we can see, this little boy was in fact just that. It was cute in its own naive reality.
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