Winnie-the-Pooh

Explore how Pooh’s love for honey exemplifies how one’s best qualities can also be one’s greatest weaknesses. Use honey’s role in the stories to show how it’s both an asset and a problem for Pooh and other characters. Would Pooh be a better character if he was less enthralled by honey? Why or why not?

How does the narrative style influence the reading and enjoyment of the stories? Is the humor distracting, or does it add to the experience? If you were the author, would you have written the narrative differently? Why or why not? If so, how? If not, what about the existing narration makes it perfect for the book?

Consider the critics who claim that Winnie-the-Pooh is too limiting to have universal appeal. Explore what gives a story universal appeal. Does it need to contain a widely diverse cast of characters and viewpoints, or is wide appeal more about the ideas in a story? Can a book have too narrow an audience? If so, how? Can a book have universal appeal if it focuses only on one group of people (in the case of Pooh, a cast of male characters aimed at a British audience)? Can books appeal to audiences besides the one for which they were originally intended?

Why do you think Milne included Heffalumps and Woozles in Pooh’s universe? What role do these creatures, which never appear, play for Pooh and his friends? What role do they play for readers? Why do you think they never appear in the stories? Do you think Milne envisioned them as real creatures? Why or why not?

Which three characters from Winnie-the-Pooh do you most identify with? Why those three, and what about them makes you identify with them? What do your choices say about who you are and the decisions you make? What did you learn about yourself from answering this question?

Compare and contrast Pooh/Piglet and Rabbit/Owl in terms of the theme Keeping Things Simple. Which characters of each pair are easier to understand? Why? Could the two characters in each pair learn something from the other, and could combining their different ways of viewing the world form something more effective than either currently has? Use evidence from the text to support your answer, and explore a scene from the book in which a combination of ideas could have led to a better outcome.

Explore the symbolism of the Pooh world and the Hundred Acre Wood. Why do you think Milne chose to write Winnie-the-Pooh without conflict or subtext? How does this enhance the stories? Does it make them less believable? If so, why? Do you like this aspect of Winnie-the-Pooh, or would you prefer that it conformed more to the real world? Why?

Did the inserts with the narrator and the real-life Christopher Robin add to the story for you? Why or why not? Why did Milne include these scenes? Do they serve a purpose? If so, what is it? If not, would you remove them, and why?