Winnie-the-Pooh

“‘What do you want a balloon for?’ you said.

Winnie-the-Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening, put his paw to his mouth, and said in a deep whisper: ‘Honey!’

‘But you don’t get honey with balloons!’

‘I do,’ said Pooh.”

In this exchange between Pooh and Christopher Robin, Pooh is plotting a way to get honey from the bees. This story is the only one in which the narrator refers to Christopher Robin as “you,” and this reminders readers that there are two Christopher Robins—the one in the stories and the one listening to the stories. From Chapter 2 onward, the stories refer to Christopher Robin as “he,” which solidly makes him a character, not a listener, and immerses readers more in the stories. In addition, these lines are an example of Keeping Things Simple. When Christopher Robin tries to argue that honey doesn’t come from balloons, Pooh says it does for him, showing that he’s set on his plan to obtain the honey and has linked the balloon to the plan’s success.

“‘I do remember,’ he said, ‘only Pooh doesn’t very well, so that’s why he likes having it told to him again. Because then it’s a real story and not just a remembering.’”

Christopher Robin says this toward the end of Chapter 1, after the narrator finishes the story of Pooh and the bees. The narrator has just reminded him of his other adventures with Pooh’s group, and this line shows Christopher Robin’s childlike mindset. Rather than admit he doesn’t remember his adventures, he says Pooh doesn’t remember them because he wants to hear them and figures the narrator will tell them for Pooh. This calls into question the difference between a story and a memory. While memories may play out in fully formed story arcs in one’s mind, a story, by definition, requires some kind of audience. Telling stories also helps keep them alive somewhere other than in the mind of the person who knows it, and this speaks to the oral tradition of storytelling, which many cultures have used to pass down tales through generations.

“‘Bother!’ said Pooh. ‘Isn’t there anybody here at all?’

‘Nobody.’

Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little, and he thought to himself, ‘There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said “Nobody.”’”

Pooh has been calling into Rabbit’s home to see if his friend is home. Not wanting the interruption Pooh would bring, Rabbit has repeatedly said he isn’t home, which has fooled Pooh because he believes what people tell him, even when it doesn’t make sense. Again, Pooh keeps things simple to work through the situation, reasoning that if someone spoke, someone must be there, even if that someone said no one is there. Shortly after this, Pooh catches Rabbit in his lie and gains admission to Rabbit’s home, showing how Pooh’s simple logic and understanding bring him to the correct answers.

“‘I was just beginning to think,’ said Bear, sniffing slightly, ‘that Rabbit might never be able to use his front door again. And I should hate that,’ he said.”

Pooh’s comment, when Christopher Robin and Rabbit arrive outside Rabbit’s home while Pooh is stuck in the doorway, gets right to the heart of Pooh’s character. Although he’s sometimes confused or misguided, Pooh’s heart is always in the right place. While being stuck makes him sad and uncomfortable, his first thought is for Rabbit and the terrible inconvenience Rabbit would face if he lost the use of his front door. Pooh puts others first throughout the stories, always there to offer a helping hand or to brighten someone’s day.

“And I say, old fellow, you’re taking up a good deal of room in my house—do you mind if I use your back legs as a towel-horse? Because, I mean, there they are—doing nothing—and it would be very convenient just to hang the towels on them.”

Rabbit says this when they realize that Pooh must remain lodged in his front door for about a week. Although Rabbit is initially annoyed at the prospect, he soon realizes that he has no other choice, and rather than continue to be upset, he finds a way to make the situation work to his advantage. This also shows Rabbit’s pragmatism and somewhat self-serving attitude. He feels for Pooh’s situation but figures that if he must wait for his door to be cleared, he might as well put Pooh’s legs to work for him.

“Next to his house was a piece of broken board which had: ‘TRESPASSERS W’ on it. When Christopher Robin asked the Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather’s name, and had been in the family for a long time. Christopher Robin said you couldn’t be called Trespassers W, and Piglet said yes, you could, because his grandfather was, and it was short for Trespassers Will, which was short for Trespassers William.”

These lines introduce Piglet and his home in the Hundred Acre Wood. The Trespassers W sign is a pun on a popular British sign at the time, “Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted,” which is still used today and means that anyone caught trespassing (intruding on someone’s land) will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. While the use of the sign here is meant as comedy, it also symbolizes the conflict-free world in which Pooh and his friends live. Rather than warning people away, Piglet’s sign is a proclamation of his family line, turning something meant to convey a warning into something harmless.

“The old grey donkey, Eeyore, stood by himself in a thistly corner of the forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, ‘Why?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Wherefore?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Inasmuch as which?’—and sometimes he didn’t quite know what he was thinking about.”

These lines introduce Eeyore, the gloomy gray donkey, and establish his personality. Eeyore’s thoughts, like his dialogue, tend toward the morose, and as evident here, Eeyore spends time alone, which contributes to his gloomy personality. Eeyore’s thoughts here are question words, suggesting that he’s considering things like his existence. The final line indicates that Eeyore doesn’t necessarily know what he’s thinking about and is also meant as humor, since the first three questions likewise offer nothing solid about Eeyore’s thoughts.

“Underneath the knocker there was a notice which said:

Ples ring if an rnser is reqird.

Underneath the bell-pull there was a notice which said:

Plez cnoke if an rnsr is not reqid.

These notices had been written by Christopher Robin, who was the only one in the forest who could spell; for Owl, wise though he was in many ways, able to read and write and spell his own name WOL, yet somehow went all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTERED TOAST.”

Pooh has arrived at Owl’s house during his search for Eeyore’s missing tail, and this passage introduces Owl and his overly complicated nature. The signs instruct visitors to “please ring if an answer is required” or “please knock if an answer isn’t required,” and together they show that Owl makes everything around him an ordeal, including having two ways to announce one’s presence at his door depending on why the visitor has come. The following paragraph shows that Owl isn’t as wise as he pretends to be. Although he claims he can read and write, he doesn’t know that his signs are misspelled, and he spells his own name incorrectly. The signs also remind readers that Christopher Robin, despite being the problem-solver of the Hundred Acre Wood, is a child.

“For some time now Pooh had been saying ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in turn, with his eyes shut, to all that Owl was saying, and having said, ‘Yes, yes,’ last time, he said ‘No, not at all,’ now, without really knowing what Owl was talking about.”

Owl has been babbling on to Pooh about various topics, including how to find Eeyore’s tail, and Pooh, lost in all Owl’s large words and distracted by growing hunger, has tuned Owl out. This passage again shows how keeping things simple allows Pooh to find the right answer, even when he isn’t trying. By simply alternating his response when an answer is required, Pooh inadvertently leads Owl to show him the bell pull, which Pooh recognizes as Eeyore’s tail. These lines are also a humorous reference to any situation in which one is stuck listening to someone talk. Like anyone might, Pooh has stopped listening and is automatically responding. Owl’s failure to notice this shows the importance he places on his own words. He can’t fathom that someone would ignore what he’s saying because he believes everything he says is critically important.

“At first as they stumped along the path which edged the Hundred Acre Wood, they didn’t say much to each other; but when they came to the stream and had helped each other across the stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the heather, they began to talk in a friendly way about this and that, and Piglet said, ‘If you see what I mean, Pooh,’ and Pooh said, ‘It’s just what I think myself, Piglet,’ and Piglet said, ‘But, on the other hand, Pooh, we must remember,’ and Pooh said, ‘Quite true, Piglet, although I had forgotten it for the moment.’”

This exchange between Piglet and Pooh highlights both Drawing Strength from Friendships and Keeping Things Simple as themes. This conversation contains a lot of words, but nothing is really said, indicating that Pooh and Piglet have the kind of friendship where they know the other well enough to understand what they’re thinking and can finish one another’s ideas. This means that they can convey a lot in a short amount of time, which strengthens their friendship and their reliance on one another. Their conversation’s simplicity is both comical and meaningful. It’s amusing because they say nothing of substance, making the conversation feel less like a discussion and more like a list of unrelated statements, which gives it meaning in another way: Pooh and Piglet know what they’re saying and how the other is understanding it, and that’s all they need.

“Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.

‘But then he would see us digging it,’ said Pooh.

‘Not if he was looking at the sky.’

‘He would Suspect,’ said Pooh, ‘if he happened to look down.’”

This conversation between Pooh and Piglet derives from their larger plan to catch a Heffalump. This is a rare situation in which keeping things simple works against Pooh. While their plan to put bait in a pit-trap to catch a Heffalump has component parts that fit together well, the plan’s details are too simple because they don’t consider things like whether a Heffalump will step on the trap and whether a Heffalump will take honey as the bait. The exchange between Pooh and Piglet shows that they’re considering how the plan could go wrong, such as the Heffalump happening to look down and see them digging the trap, but the plan would have been better if it had more details, such as making sure a Heffalump would even step on the trap.

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Pooh sings this song while sitting with Eeyore in Chapter 6. Pooh thinks Eeyore has just given him a riddle, and unable to figure it out, Pooh sings this song instead, which is an inside joke to readers familiar with Milne’s other work. Cottleston Pie was a poem written by Milne, which was later adapted into a song. In addition, this song offers insight into Pooh’s thoughts in response to Eeyore’s supposed riddle. Cottleston Pie refers to inner nature, which is philosophically considered the answer to most riddles. Pooh doesn’t know why Eeyore is so glum, and singing this poem means that he attributes it to the donkey’s gloomy nature.

“‘I’m just saying “A Happy Birthday,”’ said Owl carelessly.

‘It’s a nice long one,’ said Pooh, very much impressed by it.

‘Well, actually, of course, I’m saying “A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.” Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that.’”

Here, Pooh has brought his empty honey jar to Owl in hopes of turning it into an appropriate birthday jar to give Eeyore by writing a happy birthday message on it. As Chapter 4 established, Pooh believes that Owl can read and write basic words, and he figures that a simple happy birthday message should be no trouble at all. However, given that neither Pooh nor Eeyore can read, it doesn’t matter that Owl can’t spell either, because none of the people who will come in contact with the jar can check to make sure that it says what Owl says it does. Owl’s explanation for his writing again reveals his complicated nature. Rather than keeping the message simple as Pooh requested, Owl lengthens it because being able to write more words makes him come across as more impressive. This helps maintain the illusion that Owl is proficient at basic reading and writing when, in fact, the opposite is true.

“‘And didn’t I give him anything?’ asked Christopher Robin sadly.

‘Of course you did,’ I said. ‘You gave him—don’t you remember—a little—a little—’

‘I gave him a box of paints to paint things with.’”

This is one of the few exchanges between the real-life Christopher Robin character and the narrator, and it exemplifies the theme of Finding Adventure Through Imagination in terms of stories. The narrator has just finished the story of Eeyore’s birthday, and Christopher Robin’s question implies that he feels bad because he didn’t get Eeyore anything. In response, the narrator assures him that he did but doesn’t offer what that might be because he doesn’t know. Rather, he leaves it to Christopher Robin to let his imagination fill in the gap, and he does so by describing a paint set. This shows how a spark of imagination can add to an adventure. The narrator inspires Christopher Robin to imagine what he got Eeyore, which contributes to the adventure of Eeyore’s birthday.

“Nobody seemed to know where they came from, but there they were in the Forest: Kanga and Baby Roo. When Pooh asked Christopher Robin, ‘How did they come here?’ Christopher Robin said, ‘In the Usual Way, if you know what I mean, Pooh,’ and Pooh, who didn’t, said ‘Oh!’ Then he nodded his head twice and said, ‘In the Usual Way. Ah!’”

This passage at the beginning of Chapter 7 is an example of the simplicity of Pooh’s thoughts as well as the Finding Adventure Through Imagination theme. Kanga and Roo appeared in the woods because the narrator put them there, showing how the adventure of a story can have unexpected twists as the storyteller decides to include them. Christopher Robin’s answer also speaks to this, meaning that Kanga and Roo arrived in the story as all characters do—by the whim of the author. Pooh and Christopher Robin’s conversation shows how Pooh pretends to understand complicated things. He doesn’t understand what Christopher Robin means or what the usual way is, but the answer comes from Christopher Robin, which is good enough for him. Instead of trying to understand, he trusts Christopher Robin and is content with the explanation, which speaks to the theme of Keeping Things Simple. One doesn’t need to understand every detail to be happy; being with one’s trusted friends is enough.

“Often, when he had had a long walk home through the Forest, he had wished that he were a bird; but now he thought jerkily to himself at the bottom of Kanga’s pocket, ‘If this is flying I shall never really take to it.’”

Piglet, Rabbit, and Pooh have just pulled off their trick on Kanga, and Piglet has taken Roo’s place in Kanga’s pouch. Piglet thoughts as Kanga hops home reveal how imagination can fuel adventure but how one should be careful what one wishes for. In the past, Piglet has imagined what it would be like to fly, which has given him an idea of how it must feel to be airborne. However, Kanga’s great leaps don’t match Piglet’s imaginings, which makes Piglet second-guess the adventure of flight. If this is what flying feels like, it’s nothing like what he imagined, and he no longer wants anything to do with it, though he doesn’t consider that true flight may be far less jouncing.

“So Kanga and Roo stayed in the Forest. And every Tuesday Roo spent the day with his great friend Rabbit, and every Tuesday Kanga spent the day with her great friend Pooh, teaching him to jump, and every Tuesday Piglet spent the day with his great friend Christopher Robin. So they were all happy again.”

This final paragraph of Chapter 7 wraps up the adventure that resulted from Kanga and Roo’s arrival in the Hundred Acre Wood. Throughout the chapter, Rabbit’s elaborate plan to scare Kanga off fell apart; Kanga and Roo stayed in the woods. However, instead of remaining steadfastly opposed to their presence, Rabbit becomes great friends with Roo; and Piglet, a generally welcoming animal, doesn’t become especially close with either Kanga or Roo, instead choosing to spend his Tuesdays with Christopher Robin. This chapter thus symbolizes how things don’t always work out as planned, even more so when one makes complicated plans that have a high chance of unraveling. Had Rabbit planned more like Pooh, his plan would have been simpler and had a better chance of success, but then he wouldn’t have gotten to know Kanga and Roo.

“‘Going on an Expotition?’ said Pooh eagerly. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been on one of those. Where are we going to on this Expotition?’

‘Expedition, silly old Bear. It’s got an “x” in it.’

‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ‘I know.’ But he didn’t really.”

In this exchange between Pooh and Christopher Robin at the beginning of Chapter 8, Christopher Robin has just announced his intention to discover the North Pole, and Pooh misunderstands “expedition” as “expotition,” which becomes a trademark of journeys the Pooh group undertakes. Christopher Robin’s explanation of how the word is pronounced shows that he doesn’t have a better grasp on spelling than Pooh does. He claims it’s different than expotition because it has an “X,” but expotition also has an “X,” so this explanation makes little sense. As Pooh has in the past, he pretends to understand the difference even though he doesn’t, but in this case, there’s nothing to understand.

“‘Hush!’ said Eeyore in a terrible voice to all Rabbit’s friends-and-relations, and ‘Hush!’ they said hastily to each other all down the line, until it got to the last one of all. And the last and smallest friend-and-relation was so upset to find that the whole Expotition was saying ‘Hush!’ to him, that he buried himself head downwards in a crack in the ground, and stayed there for two days until the danger was over, and then went home in a great hurry, and lived quietly with his Aunt ever-afterwards. His name was Alexander Beetle.”

During the expedition. Christopher Robin believes that they’ve come to a dangerous part of the trail and starts an order to “hush” that is passed all the way down the line. This is the end of the message, and it shows how feeling attacked can make one cower, as Alexander Beetle does when he buries his head in the ground and then runs away. In addition, this is another reference to Milne’s other works. He featured Alexander Beetle in a poem called “Forgiven,” in which a boy catches a beetle and names it Alexander, only for his aunt to accidently set it loose so it runs away. Here, Milne rearranges the elements from the poem in a way that is recognizable to those who know it—instead giving Alexander an aunt and having him run away to stay with her.

“‘Tell Roo to be quick, somebody,’ he said. ‘My tail’s getting cold. I don’t want to mention it, but I just mention it. I don’t want to complain but there it is. My tail’s cold.’”

 The group has just rescued Roo from the water during the expedition to discover the North Pole. Eeyore’s contribution to the rescue mission was to put his tail in the water and tell Roo to grab it, even though Roo had already floated down a waterfall and out of reach. As a result, Eeyore remained in one place while Pooh and others followed Roo’s progress down the river. Eeyore is thus unaware at this point that Roo has been rescued and that there’s no reason to leave his tail in the water. These lines depict Eeyore’s typical sort of dialogue. His gloominess shines through in how he complains about his tail being cold, but his words also demonstrate that Eeyore isn’t afraid or ashamed to say what’s bothering him.

“‘I ought to say,’ explained Pooh as they walked down to the shore of the island, ‘that it isn’t just an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes it’s a Boat, and sometimes it’s more of an Accident. It all depends.’

‘Depends on what?’

‘On whether I’m on the top of it or underneath it.’”

This exchange between Pooh and Christopher Robin occurs while the two are preparing to rescue Piglet from the flood. On his way to Christopher Robin’s house, Pooh struggled to keep his honeypot boat oriented so that it was on the bottom and he was on top. As a result, Pooh got very wet during his journey, and he relays this to Christopher Robin by explaining that the boat is a boat when it’s working correctly but more like something he accidentally used as a boat when it’s not. Pooh’s explanation is another example of the theme of Keeping Things Simple. He doesn’t try to argue that the honeypot is a true boat, and he doesn’t blame the water for the honeypot not always functioning as a boat. He simply recognizes that the honeypot wasn’t made to be a boat, which means that sometimes it doesn’t function very well as a boat.

“In after-years he liked to think that he had been in Very Great Danger during the Terrible Flood, but the only danger he had really been in was in the last half-hour of his imprisonment, when Owl, who had just flown up, sat on a branch of his tree to comfort him, and told him a very long story about an aunt who had once laid a seagull’s egg by mistake, and the story went on and on, rather like this sentence, until Piglet who was listening out of his window without much hope, went to sleep quietly and naturally, slipping slowly out of the window towards the water until he was only hanging on by his toes, at which moment luckily, a sudden loud squawk from Owl, which was really part of the story, being what his aunt said, woke the Piglet up and just gave him time to jerk himself back into safety and say, ‘How interesting, and did she?’”

This passage from the end of Chapter 8 highlights Owl’s character and the effect of time on how imagination fuels adventure. Christopher Robin sent Owl to tell Piglet that help is on the way, none of them realizing that Owl could have simply flown Piglet to safety. This doesn’t occur to Owl once he’s at Piglet’s house because he feels important for being sent ahead to tell Piglet that help is coming. Then Owl’s feeling of self-importance leads him to think Piglet wants to listen to one of his stories, and ironically, this nearly puts Piglet in reach of the floodwaters. Years later, Piglet believes that he was in terrible danger the entire time, but he really wasn’t, showing how one’s imagination can make adventures out of memories even when events didn’t have much adventure when they happened.

“But Eeyore was saying to himself, ‘This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it.’”

Eeyore says this shortly after Christopher Robin gives Pooh a pencil set as a gift for thinking to use the umbrella as a boat so that Piglet could be rescued. Eeyore’s response has two meanings. First, he initially thought the party and gift were for him and has just realized he was wrong. Rather than acknowledge this, however, Eeyore instead gripes about how the gift is overrated so that no one will realize he’s sad about not getting it himself. In the contents of Eeyore’s dialogue, Milne makes a humorous jab at himself and all authors. Saying that there’s nothing to writing in a book is humorous, but the line is even funnier because of the level of acclaim and popularity Winnie-the-Pooh received after its publication, which clearly shows that there is something to writing.