At
the basis of most successful stories there are one or more characters that the
audience falls in love with. The fairy tale begins; the reader identifies with
the character, and enjoys experiences inaccessible to him in reality. It
appears that literature offers children “unique possibilities and better
understanding for the self” (Ohanian 946). In Winnie the Pooh and The House
at the Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne turns Christopher Robin into a Higher Being
in the Hundred Acre Wood and he teaches his audience—including his son—the importance
of inner strength and potential in order to solve life’s problems. Through his
stories, Milne states that the aforementioned elements are means to attaining
great lessons in life.
As Christopher Robin is a higher being in the
Hundred Acre Wood, he plays the role of a creator of the animals in the wood. He
helps Eeyore fix his tail, waits for the “passage of time and reduction of respectable
proportions” (Ohanian 950) of Pooh and reads to him, assists Tigger down from a
tree, helps Kanga out of the river with a pole and soon after identifies the
pole as the “North Pole” (Milne Winnie
the Pooh Chapter 8). In all of these events, Christopher Robin is addressed
as the “hopeful one” (Milne Winnie the
Pooh Chapter 2), and represents the one who “comes” to “being” and as
“flesh” (Kearny 930) to rescue the animals. He is the provider for the animals
when they are in need and also acts as the redeemer whenever the animals are in
trouble. For instance, when Pooh is stuck in Rabbit’s “front door” (Milne Winnie the Pooh Chapter 2) Christopher
Robin comes to solve the problem and as soon as he comes, everyone “felt quiet
hopeful again” (Milne Winnie the Pooh
Chapter 2). During the day the animals are busy humming songs or planning
adventures, making visits with one another or helping each other with critical
issues such as Eeyore’s accusations of someone “taking his tail,” (Milne Winnie The Pooh Chapter 4) or helping
Tigger to become less “bouncy” (Milne The
House at Pooh Corner Chapter 7). In such events Christopher Robin is out of
the picture but as soon as the animals are in need, he is either called for or
turns up at the right time and at the right place, proving that he is
omnipresent. One of many attributes of a higher being is an endless love. Through
the character of Christopher Robin, Milne expresses the aforementioned
attribute immensely. Piglet is considered as an insignificant animal because he
is a “very small animal” (Milne Winnie
the Pooh Chapter 7) and Kanga makes fun of his looks telling Roo how “sorry
he’ll be” (Milne Winnie the Pooh
Chapter 7) if he makes faces because he will look like Piglet. In spite of all
this Christopher Robin makes no judgment but loves and accepts them the way
they are. Although Pooh is called a Bear with a “very little brain” (Milne Winnie the Pooh Chapter 1) his creator
does not love him any less. According to Kearny in “Hermeneutics of God,”
Kearny articulates that “if God exists” (Kearny 930), He does not exist for the
sake of being God but “for us” (Kearny 930).
As most of the characters in the book are animals, Milne
chooses to use anthropomorphism as one of the mediums to explain the
relationship of animals with a superior being, just as man seeks to explain God
by using human traits. Milne’s son Christopher Robin used to play with his toys
and give them life-like characteristics with his mother that gradually helped Christopher
Robin pour in more “characters and life into him” (Avery 131). Back in the seventeenth
and eighteenth century, during the Enlightenment Era, there was a belief called
Deism that regarded God as a clock maker who was “uninvolved with the world.”
They regarded that God, after building the “machine” (world) and starting his
creation, left it alone and in complete independence of its creator. In the
same way, Christopher Robin can be considered a deist God, a clockmaker who
oversees everything that is happening in the Hundred Acre Wood but leaves them
for good. At the end of Milne’s Winnie
the Pooh, Christopher Robin leaves his friends, his creation, without
letting them know where he was off to. Considering his act, he fits into a
position of the Deist God who leaves his machine in absolute independence from its
maker. However, in The House at the Pooh
Corner, when Christopher is leaving the woods again, Pooh Bear makes a
promise with Christopher Robin to “never forget him” (Milne The House at Pooh Corner Chapter 10), leaving
the audience to believe that Christopher Robin is not a deity who is cold or
distant but rather one who promises to “never forget you” and the one who “will
come back” (Milne The House at Pooh
Corner Chapter 10).
From the abovementioned events of Christopher Robin as a savior to the animals in the Hundred Acre Wood, it is more apparent that he is a Christ figure in the book. Especially in chapter 9 of Winnie the Pooh, when Piglet is “entirely surrounded by water” he tries to think of a way to escape from his house and think about “what Christopher Robin would do” and it suddenly occurs to Piglet the story which “Christopher Robin had told him about a man on a desert island who had written something in a bottle and thrown it in the sea” so “Piglet thought that if he wrote something in a bottle and threw it in the water, perhaps somebody would come and rescue him.” This represents the parables that Jesus taught his disciples because it is through these parables that one can compare real life problems and try and solve them. In the tenth chapter when Pooh Bear and Christopher Robin go to the “enchanted place” and after Pooh was made a “knight,” he was thinking and dreaming of the things that Christopher Robin would “tell him when he came back from wherever he was going to.” He leaves the animals on their own, but promises them to always remember them, much like Christ leaves his disciples but promises them that he will always watch over them.
Literature offers a great opportunity to help a
young reader in search for him or herself. Winnie
the Pooh, written in 1926, and The
House at Pooh Corner, written in1928, was originally meant for Milne’s only
child Christopher Robin, one of the characters in the book and the core inspiration
for Milne’s successful children’s book. He did not intend to write the books to
identify his son as a Higher Being but rather wrote to teach him how to be
independent and to believe in his inner strength and potential as he was
heading off to Stowe Boarding School in Buckinghamshire, England. Many writings
allow children to “investigate and know deep-most though, beliefs, feelings,
fears, and wishes” (Ohanian 946) that exist within themselves. Thus Winnie the Pooh and The House at the Pooh Corner were books that gave a lesson for the
universal audience after the book was published. For instance, when the animals
and Christopher Robin went out for an “expedition” to find “the North Pole” and
on their way they found a resting place for their “provisions” (Milne Winnie the Pooh Chapter 8), Eeyore, with
his melancholic tone said to the rest of the animals “A little consideration, a
little thought for others makes all the difference” because he did not get his
own food to eat and was hinting the other animals to give him “provisions.” Milne
here expresses that in the world, there are different kinds of people, the ones
that are fortunate and the ones who are less fortunate; therefore it is each
individual’s duty to be “considerate” of others and by being thoughtful of
others one is believing in their inner potential of making a difference in
someone else’s life. Kanga, a powerful mother and a caretaker, and Piglet, who
is fearful and small, are a few examples that Milne has written in order to
remind his audience who they should be mindful of; because sometimes these
characters do not get acknowledged as much as they deserve but can turn out to
be the most important people in society.
Every animal character except for Kanga with Baby
Roo and later on Tigger (who lives with Kanga and Roo) lives alone in their own
house and is independent and autonomous. Through their lives, Milne teaches his
audience that every individual possesses “unique abilities, strengths and
weaknesses” (Ohanian 950). Although Pooh is considered a bear with “very little
brain” he comes up with songs, verses and poems which no one else is capable of
doing. Piglet is teased because of his size but on the blusterous day when
Owl’s house was “blown down” he “does a very Grand thing” (Milne The House at Pooh Corner Chapter 8) by
saving Pooh bear and Owl from getting trapped in the house. Eeyore has a
pessimistic view on life and is always gloomy, but he turns out to be the one
who finds a house for Owl when no one else could. Through these events, Milne
teaches his son and his audience to not bother about what you are bad at but
focus on what you are good at. It may not necessarily come to you instantly but
by believing in our inner potential and inner strength one can achieve great
things without realizing it.
The tremendous understanding and patience that each
character holds is a virtuous characteristic one should grasp from the Pooh books.
Most of the characters embrace each other’s weaknesses and try to help one
another by encouraging their friends. For instance, Piglet advises Eeyore by
saying “you can't stay in your
corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them
sometimes” (Milne Winnie the Pooh
Chapter 8) because Eeyore, an unenthusiastic, apathetic character, would always
complain about no one going to him for visits. As a reader steps into the fantasy world and
identifies himself as one of the characters and starts to feel comfortable, he
begins to “forge ideas about himself” (Ohanian 946) and gets mixed up between
the two worlds, reality and fantasy. However, Milne gives the animals such
characteristics that when one reads and starts to walk into the shoes of these characters,
one will start to behave like them, which as a result will build stronger
relationships with the people around them.
Winnie
the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner are books that propose the less apparent
story masked under the more obvious. The story deals with the problems in
relationships, every day adventures, making visits and living; it reveals the
importance of believing in inner strength and inner potential. Hence, these
principles help us to understand ourselves better and by being aware of
ourselves we are more likely to be models for people around us. So, does inner
strength, inner believes and inner potential shape the way you behave or do
your surroundings help you choose the way you think of yourself?
Work
Cited:
Avery, Gillian . "A. A. Milne: His Life by Ann
Thwaite." The Review of
English Studies 43.169
(1992): 131-133. Print.
Kearny, Richard. "Hermeneutics of the Possible
God." Revista Portuguesa
de Filosofia Filosofia
& Cristianismo: II.Oct. - Dec., 2004 (2004): 929-952.
Print.
Milne, A. A., and Ernest H. Shepard. The complete tales & poems of
Winnie-the-Pooh. Rev. ed.
New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2001. Print.
Ohanian, Vera. "Cherished Books of Children:What makes
them so?."Elementary English 47.7
(1947): 946-952. Print.
Payne, John . "Four Children's Books by A.A.Milne." Studies in Bibliography 23 (1970): 127-
139. Print.
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