Winnie-the-Pooh

These chapters build on Pooh’s world by introducing Eeyore, whose personality plays on the common perception of donkeys as ill-tempered animals. In addition, these chapters introduce Owl, who parodies the stereotypical trope of “wise old owl.” Chapter 4 establishes their personalities as Eeyore gripes about his missing tail and Owl babbles on about how smart he is and explains his plan in excruciating detail. The end of Chapter 4 exemplifies the theme of Keeping Things Simple, showing how a simple approach is more effective than Owl’s complicated thinking. Owl found Eeyore’s tail just lying around, but instead of wondering where it came from and why it was just lying there, he brought it home to use as a bell pull. Pooh thinks the tail is familiar from the moment he sees it but is so concerned with helping Eeyore that he doesn’t make the connection right away. Later, Owl drones on and on about his plan to find the tail, which leads him to show off the signs he made for his door (which are badly misspelled) and the bell pull, still not realizing that it’s Eeyore’s tail because he's so caught up in how intelligent he sounds. In contrast, Pooh has stopped worrying about the tail and listening to Owl, so he recognizes the bell pull as the tail, illustrating how one can be most open to noticing things when one isn’t distracted.

Chapter 5 illustrates the theme of Finding Adventure Through Imagination and expands on the value of simplicity. Much like Pooh’s plan to steal the honey from the bees in Chapter 1, Pooh and Piglet’s plan to capture a Heffalump is based on ideas that don’t make much sense but connect to each other well. If not examined too closely, the idea that a Heffalump may not notice a giant hole in the ground because it’s distracted makes a certain sense; as Chapter 4 illustrated, one is less likely to notice things when distracted. However, relying on this as a foolproof plan requires assuming that a Heffalump will be distracted at the exact moment it approaches the trap, which may or may not be the case. Pooh and Piglet’s idea to use honey as bait assumes that Heffalumps like honey, which is an example of the Woozle Effect within the Pooh story universe: Pooh and his friends believe that Heffalumps like honey because it was stated once and never argued, even though no evidence supports this as true. As in Chapter 1, their overly simple plan falls apart: Pooh eats the honey, getting his head stuck in the process and scaring Piglet, who mistakes Pooh for a Heffalump, showing that even though simple logic can help in quickly devising plans or finding solutions, it isn’t always reliable.

Chapter 6 emphasizes Drawing Strength from Friendships as a theme in several ways. It shows that even characters like Eeyore can feel good when they’re shown kindness. Eeyore begins the chapter in his typical state of gloom, even more than usual because he feels forgotten. Pooh’s immediate desire to make Eeyore feel special on his birthday exemplifies the friendship theme, and what follows illustrates how even the best plans can go awry. Again, honey is Pooh’s tragic weakness as he eats it, too distracted by his hunger to remember that he planned to gift the honey to Eeyore. Highlighting the value of simplicity, Pooh realizes that he can turn this misfortune into an opportunity by giving Eeyore the jar to put things in instead. Similarly, Piglet pops his balloon because he’s so distracted by eagerness that he doesn’t watch where he’s going. Although neither Piglet nor Pooh give Eeyore the originally intended gift, Eeyore’s reaction shows that it’s truly the thought that counts. Eeyore is overjoyed that he can fit the popped balloon into the empty jar, and this combined with the fact his friends thought of him results in one of the few times Eeyore appears truly happy.

All of the stories in this collection end by resolving the main conflict, but the end of Chapter 5 shows how conflict resolution doesn’t always make everything better: What Piglet, terrified, thinks is a Heffalump turns out to be Pooh stuck in a honey jar, but this realization doesn’t make Piglet feel better. Instead, he feels ashamed that he ran away in terror, and he flees again so that he doesn’t have to confront how embarrassed he is for not recognizing Pooh. While Piglet has nothing to be ashamed about, this chapter shows how one sometimes must deal with things on one’s own and in one’s own time. In contrast to Piglet’s reaction, Pooh and Christopher Robin shrug off the incident and have breakfast, which highlights a key difference between Pooh and Piglet. Like Piglet, Pooh endured an ordeal—being stuck in the honeypot—but rather than dwell on it, he puts it behind him in favor of living in the moment and thinking about something better, like food.