A. A. Milne's Moral Vision

Introduction

Each major toy or animal character in A. A. Milne's companion masterpieces Winnie-the-Pooh (WP) and The House at Pooh Corner (HPC) represents a very distinctive set of traits, combining into complex but easily discernible lifestyles. Milne uses his characters to show the difference between desirable and undesirable behaviour patterns then shown to reach various levels of success in life. Then he gradually gives the best of these traits to Christopher Robin, to finally end up with one person who lives according to what Milne sees as an honourable code.

The purpose of this essay is to examine and define each character narrowly, seeking conspicuous character traits and distinctive lifestyles, and then show how these traits and lifestyles are valued in the context of the story. A desirable lifestyle in this case is one where the character adopting it is rewarded by the author, for example by letting him succeed more often than fail in his actions. By correlating various approaches to life with their accolades, we can form a picture of Milne's moral vision, and then compare that to the character of Christopher Robin for verification. Those two patterns hold, as I will show, certain similarities to one another. Let me begin by looking at little Piglet, who, in spite of all his insecurity, is the true hero of WP.

Piglet

`Piglet,' said Rabbit, taking out a pencil, and licking the end of it, `you haven't any pluck.'

`It is hard to be brave,' said Piglet, sniffing slightly, `when you're only a Very Small Animal.' (WP 84-85)

The helpful little Piglet is the most anxious of the inhabitants of the Forest. Because of his small size, he believes that he cannot really be of any great use, although he does harbour dreams of greatness, or at least of usefulness. For example, he wants to be the first to give Eeyore a present (WP 74), when Rabbit includes him in his latest Plan, he is "so excited at the idea of being Useful that he [forgets] to be frightened" (WP 85) and he has a happy dream about how he would handle a Heffalump (HPC 44-45). However, because of his smallness, Piglet underestimates himself, and is frequently frightened by his own imagination, which, when it comes to making up terrible situations, is only slightly surpassed by Eeyore's. This negative future vision is Piglet's only real weakness, but it is a major one which tends to overshadow his qualities, because by its very nature his flaw makes him afraid of realising his true capacity. Unlike Eeyore, though, Piglet is also capable of other kinds of imagination; he can easily place himself in other characters' shoes, predicting their moods and reactions, and he often acts accordingly. A couple of examples of this empathy are when he effortlessly predicts how all the others will deal with the Flood (WP 118-119), and when he decides to pick some violets for Eeyore (HPC 83). Simply put, with this kind of resourcefulness, Piglet is the ideal friend, as well as a collective conscience for the other characters, but he is repressed by his own imagination and needs to break free of it in order to make full use of his resources.

Initially, Piglet lives in the middle of a house in the middle of a beech-tree in the middle of the Forest; as close to the centre of the protective Forest as possible. Because of his naturally anxious and shy disposition, he needs comfort and reassurance, and here, in the safest and least exposed place in the world of the Pooh books, everything should be safe and comfortable. Consequently, when Piglet finds his long lost courage, he is finally assertive enough to leave his old haven and move in with Pooh.

This, of course, is no longer the same the Piglet as in the beginning of WP and up to Chapter Eight in HPC. At that point, Piglet is profoundly and irrevocably changed by the experience of helping two of his friends out of a real, not imagined, danger. Precisely because he is Very Small, he is able to escape through Owl's mailbox and run for help, and immediately upon realising his success, Piglet is changed:

Happy and excited he turned around to squeak a last message to the prisoners.

`It's all right,' he called through the letter-box. `Your tree is blown right over, Owl, and there's a branch across the door, but Christopher Robin and I can move it, and we'll bring a rope for Pooh, and I'll go and tell him now, and I can climb down quite easily, I mean it's dangerous but I can do it all right, and Christopher Robin and I will be back in about half an hour.' (HPC 142)

Of course, after this incident, Piglet does not get many chances to show his new-found courage after gaining it, but it is safe to assume that his life looks quite different. As I have already pointed out, he even gives his safe old house away to Owl and moves in with Pooh, which means moving away from isolated safety to a friendlier though less safe environment; the issue of safety has now lost its importance to the once so insecure little Piglet. No longer is he restrained by his destructive imagination, his fears and anxieties, but he is the true Piglet, able to fully utilise his inner capacity for empathic action. He is now an even more perfect friend than he was before, since he can now act on his innate need to help others and socialise, without having to hide from his own imagined fears. He has amplified his constructive imagination, his empathy, by turning his destructive imagination, his fear, into additional positive powers.

Piglet is a symbol of friendship and of imaginative power. His unswerving loyalty to his friends, which helps him overcome his fears and climb up to the mailbox, is finally rewarded by the author when he gains self-respect from the incident. In fact, throughout both books, there are very few occasions on which Piglet actually fails to do something he has set out to achieve, and if he fails, as is the case when Eeyore's birthday balloon bursts, the failure turns into another kind of success instead; Eeyore finds a use for his burst balloon and seems very happy about it. Friendliness, then, is clearly a desirable character trait, which is to be rewarded.

While Piglet is a friend to everyone in the Forest, he has a special relationship to his best friend, Pooh Bear. As we shall see, Pooh is in many ways similar to Piglet, but he is very unique too, with a powerful identity in its own right.

Pooh

`Pooh,' said Rabbit kindly, `you haven't any brain.'

`I know,' said Pooh humbly. (HPC 84)

The passage that epitomises Pooh is when he and Piglet return from the unbouncing of Tigger, and his twelve pots of honey call to him so that they can find their way home through the mist (HPC 121). He does not really hear any honey pots of course - what happens is that instead of following Rabbit, who signifies order and planning above all, he listens to his own instincts, and they automatically lead him to the right path. This is what Pooh is all about; his instincts lead him on, and his instincts are almost always right. There are several other lucid examples, for instance when he saves Roo from the stream, or every time he makes up a piece of Poetry. This harmony with his inner self also largely accounts for what is commonly referred to as his greed, or his unusually strong craving for honey. It is an instinct for a bear like Pooh, or at least for this particular Pooh bear, to like honey, and he does not deny it but acknowledges it as he acknowledges all his failings or virtues. He concedes several times to the fact that he is not very intelligent, and would never dream of denying his taste for honey. It may be because of this yielding attitude that the other characters do not rack down on his flaws, but accept them just as he does himself.

Pooh does not listen exclusively to his own feelings, but also to those of others. He is the one that discovers that Eeyore's tail is missing, and then proceeds to restore it to its rightful place, showing that Pooh has a better feel for Eeyore and Eeyore's needs than Eeyore has himself. Another example of the exact same thing is that both Pooh and Eeyore get the idea of building a house for Eeyore at the same time, but with the difference that Pooh chooses a better spot. This phenomenon is also not limited to the relationship between Eeyore and Pooh, but can also be seen between Pooh and Piglet, Christopher Robin and Roo, respectively. As for the others, Kanga does not need Pooh to tell her what her needs are because she knows herself well, Tigger is incomprehensible, even for Pooh, and Owl and Rabbit would not listen to Pooh even if he said something helpful.

In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff explains Pooh Bear with the Taoist principle of the Uncarved Block, which is supposed to be an inexplicable sort of simplicity. Of course it is not inexplicable at all; it is quite simple to contract it into the word Harmony. In his book, Hoff defines Pooh in terms of Chinese philosophy, which basically amounts to what I have said here. When his Chinese terms and roundabout descriptions are taken out, his main ideas on Pooh's nature are quite similar to mine, and revolve mostly around the idea of Pooh listening to the call of his inner self, or his instincts.

Pooh rarely fails in anything; the only occasion that comes to mind is the failed attempt at getting honey from a beehive, where he is further punished by having his arms stuck straight up for a week (WP 4-17). This, however, is the first chapter in the first book, and I have doubts regarding Milne's view of his storyline, characters and general purpose at this point. In fact, it reveals several flaws that suggest such a view. Eight times in that chapter, Winnie-the-Pooh is referred to as Pooh, and after this, the narrator-voice tells us that he probably got this name from the aftermath of the bee adventure (WP 17). Furthermore, the whole chapter has the feel of a self-contained short story, complete with a frame story that disappears and resurfaces only on the last page. Even Pooh himself acts strangely, acting secretively about his penchant for honey, and devising a plan the way Rabbit might have, only more imaginative. All this considered, my conclusion is that this chapter does not properly belong to the book as such; it is weaker and less coherent than the rest, as well as differing in both character style and narrative style. Thus, I believe that any and all conclusions drawn on the basis of this chapter hold little relevance, since the chapter itself does so, and I can therefore safely disregard that one failing of Pooh's.

Pooh is the one who finds Eeyore's tail, the North Pole and Small; he rescues Roo, and helps rescuing Tigger and Roo; he is awarded with a pencil-case at the end of WP and with Christopher Robin's trust at the end of HPC - and this is just a sample of his numerous rewards and successes. Pooh, then, clearly possesses the most desirable trait of all, even better than friendliness: harmony and the ability to trust in instincts.

In contrast to the friendly, positive Pooh and Piglet, Eeyore stands out as gloomy and isolated. The old donkey is one of the most important characters, on par with Pooh, Piglet and Rabbit, but his mentality is very much Eeyore's own.

Eeyore

`That's right, Eeyore. Drop in on any of us at any time, when you feel like it.'

`Thank-you, Rabbit. And if anybody says in a Loud Voice "Bother, it's Eeyore," I can drop out again.' (HPC 147)

There is, I believe, some justification for comparing Eeyore to Piglet. Where Piglet is quite content to lead a quiet life, where he spends much time in the company of his friends, Eeyore always wants something better than what he has, and he rarely visits anyone else. Eventually, Rabbit points out to him that he should move about more, "come and go," (HPC 147) and that revelation seems to genuinely surprise the donkey. He has always been quick to complain about being lonely, but he never realised that he could easily alleviate the situation himself. He sets out at once to "move about," with the end result being that he tries to give Piglet's house away to Owl. As for his probable behaviour after the end of the books, the fact that the rest of the characters come to Eeyore's house to have a meeting about Christopher Robin's imminent farewell instead of him going away to someplace else seems to indicate that he is still as immovable as ever. Even though he does accompany the others to Christopher Robin's house to present his poem, he quickly leaves the scene when his duty is done.

Whenever anyone comes to visit Eeyore, he has his chance to prove what sort of relationship he wants with them, but this is not much better than not having any relationship at all. He is not exactly mean, but even the kindest greeting is likely to receive a biting sarcasm in reply - sarcasm he uses to manipulate his friends, although they for the most part do not realise they are being manipulated. He always tries to get someone else to do things for him, avoiding any real effort on his own part, precisely as is the case with the issue of visiting.

Overall, Eeyore does not socialise with the others as much as he uses them. To begin with, this attitude serves Eeyore well, and his friends generally do what he expects of them, finding his tail and arranging a few birthday surprises. However, he repeatedly experiences physical shortcomings, as in losing and subsequently freezing his tail, and getting bounced into the river. He seems well aware of this trend when Piglet suggests standing on Eeyore's back to get Tigger down from a tree: "`And if Eeyore's back snapped suddenly, then we could all laugh. Ha ha!'" (HPC 66). It is almost as if Eeyore knew he was being punished. Furthermore, Milne makes him look very foolish to the reader occasionally - the party at the end of WP, where Eeyore thinks it is his party when it is not, his self-supposed superiority at knowing what an A looks like, and when he claims that his house must have been blown from one place to another, because he built it, and surely Pooh and Piglet would not be capable of doing any such thing.

All in all, Eeyore leads a largely ineffective life, with little mobility and little flexibility, which is shown to be an undesirable attitude. In fact, he is an antithesis to Piglet, contrasting Piglet's warm friendliness to his own isolation, while at the same time subscribing to Rabbit's attitude towards his friends: use them first, and socialise later.

The fourth and final of the central characters, Christopher Robin excluded, is Rabbit. Like Eeyore, he does not come across as very positive, but unlike Eeyore, he often makes contact with the other characters, but for entirely different reasons than Pooh and Piglet have for making the social round.

Rabbit

`Did you make that song up?'

`Well, I sort of made it up,' said Pooh. `It isn't Brain,' he went on humbly, `because You Know Why, Rabbit; but it comes to me sometimes.'

`Ah!' said Rabbit, who never let things come to him, but always went and fetched them. (HPC 80)

Captain Rabbit is always at the front-line whenever anything needs to be Organised or Planned. His greatest dream is to organise everything for everyone all the time, and when he does not get to plan or co-ordinate anything, he makes up something to supervise. Such is the case with, for instance, the Unbouncing of Tigger and the Plan to Do Something about Kanga and Roo. Now I shall examine these two occasions closer.

In the Unbouncing of Tigger (HPC 106-124), Rabbit persuades Pooh and Piglet into taking Tigger for a walk deep into the Forest and then lose him there, in order to make Tigger more humble and less bouncy. Rabbit plans out the whole event in great detail, of course, as well as leading the way through the Forest. Then, after depositing Tigger in the middle of nowhere, he starts to lead his two accomplishes back home. However, he fails miserably, going in circles until even Pooh notices this fact, and finally he has to admit to losing his way, and Pooh suggests trying to find the sand pit they kept finding instead of trying to get away from it. Rabbit, thinking it a ludicrous idea, scampers off and gets even more lost, now unable to find the sand pit or the way home, and while Pooh and Piglet follow Pooh's infallible instincts back home, Rabbit is found by the Tigger he set out to lose, showing in one scene Tigger's finest talent - finding his way - and Rabbit's punishment; his plan fails completely, and is turned upon himself, leaving Rabbit lost, helpless and utterly embarrassed.

When Kanga and little Roo arrive in the Forest, they upset the long-established order, and Rabbit finds this most disturbing. He devises a Plan to get rid of them by kidnapping Roo and using him as a hostage until Kanga agrees to leave. With the help of Pooh and Piglet, the plan works as far as kidnapping Roo, but Rabbit did not consider exactly what to do after that. Instead, while Kanga bathes Piglet and feeds him strengthening medicine, as well as subtly insulting him, Rabbit befriends baby Roo, simply because he "[says] `Yes, Rabbit' and `No, Rabbit' almost better than anybody else in the Forest" (HPC 71). Again, then, Rabbit's plan fails and brings about some unexpected results, though not as bad as the Tigger one, and Rabbit gains another false friendship, based on Roo's ability to stroke Rabbit's ego the right way.

Rabbit is seldom rewarded with anything. He gets a bear stuck in his doorway for a week, he gets lost in the mist by accident, his Searches and Plans inevitably fail, and he is never directly rewarded by Christopher Robin. All in all, Rabbit and his obsessive love of power over others and organisation is a failure. Power and organisation as such must then be undesirable goals to pursue.

Entering the second division of characters, Owl is net up for examination. He is closely aligned with Rabbit by association through devotion to a specific end - in Rabbit's case, this is to control everyone else; in Owl's, to make others respect him.

Owl

`Owl,' said Rabbit shortly, `you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest - and when I say thinking I mean thinking - you and I must do it.'

`Yes,' said Owl. `I was.' (HPC 75)

Advice from Owl makes everyone in the Forest, even the narrator, feel enlightened. He gladly tells anyone within earshot anything they want to know, or his version of it, at any rate, liberally mixed up with family anecdotes from the remote past. To the other characters, Owl is an authority worthy of respect; Rabbit says that "Owl . . . you and I have brains. The others have fluff" (HPC 75), Pooh says that "if anyone knows anything about anything . . . it's Owl who knows something about something . . . or my name's not Winnie-the-Pooh . . . Which it is . . . So there you are" (WP 42-43), and Piglet, the resident judge of character, thinks that "Owl hasn't exactly got Brain, but he Knows Things. He would know the Right Thing to Do when Surrounded by Water" (WP 118). To the reader, however, it is apparent that Owl is not all he seems to be. He is aware of this fact himself, and very anxious to hide it from the others, which becomes apparent from time to time, as when Pooh asks him to write "Happy Birthday" on a pot, so Eeyore can have it as a birthday present:

`Can you read, Pooh?' [Owl] asked a little anxiously. `There's a notice about knocking and ringing outside my door, which Christopher Robin wrote. Could you read it?'

`Christopher Robin told me what it said, and then I could.'

`Well, I'll tell you what this says, and then you'll be able to.' (WP 73; my underlining)

He shows it again when Rabbit asks him to read the Bisy Backson notice, evading Rabbit's questions to the best of his ability and then making up a story about Spotted and Herbaceous Backsons, which he unfortunately fails to describe, and that breaches his image (HPC 77-78). Rabbit, however, does not seem to even notice.

Owl's house fits his personality well: it is old and grandiose, and looks good on the outside, but its underlying flaws can, and eventually will, show through, and then it is not so thoroughly good anymore. It is also the highest placed of all the houses, and like Icarus or the Tower of Babel destined to plummet down. If there was a third Pooh book after HPC, Owl would possibly have to abandon his image in it; it is only a matter of time. It is hard to find an instance where Owl manages to do anything useful in these books, though it does happen - his ability to fly is utilised by Christopher Robin during the flood, to look for Piglet. To the reader, Owl stands out as a somewhat ridiculous figure, who serves no real purpose, only upholding an image of himself as better than he really is. His hollow nature, with an insubstantial surface and nothing beneath it, does not pay off in the long run. Wisdom may be desirable, but a mere pretence of wisdom is not.

The next character is not concerned with looking wise, though he is concerned about his image. Impulsive and energetic, Tigger wants to be admired for his physical abilities. However, he does not know what these abilities are.

Tigger

`Tiggers can do everything.'

`Can they climb trees better than Pooh?' asked Roo, stopping under the tallest Pine Tree, and looking up at it.

`Climbing trees is what they do best,' said Tigger. `Much better than Poohs.' (HPC 60)

Tigger plays rather a small part, coming in late in the stories and not taking the main stage very often. However, he does co-star in three chapters: the first, when he comes to the Forest (HPC 18-34), the second, when he climbs a tree and cannot get down (HPC 53-70), and the third, when Rabbit decides to Unbounce him (HPC 106-124). In two of these chapters, he reveals his weaknesses, and in the third, his strength. Let us have a closer look at them.

Tigger arrives in the forest, totally unaware of what his capabilities are and are not. He does not even know his own desires. He finds out quickly enough that his favourite food is Roo's strengthening medicine, which is ironic because if there are two characters that do not need anything strengthening, that would be Tigger and Roo. However, in the process he reveals his incomprehension of his own abilities, and also his naïvely exaggerated optimism and curiosity. In the tree-climbing episode, he continues to show his incapabilities. His ambitions carry him speedily upward, and once he is at the top, or high up at least, his fears paralyse him, and he does not dare go further up, just as he does not dare to try getting down; both actions involve a risk of hurting himself. With this attitude, he will never achieve much, because even though he does not mind taking risks when nothing is at stake, as shown in the Breakfast chapter, he becomes too cautious to do anything when it really matters. Furthermore, short-sighted planning is what brings him into this tricky situation. These are Tigger's weaknesses - short-sightedness, fear of failing, and lack of understanding of himself. Milne treats him accordingly, making us regard him as a fool when he sits in the tree, and he is rarely good at what he says he can do.

There are occasions when Tigger is Useful and Good, though. In the third chapter mentioned above, it is shown that Tigger can find his way through the mist, whereas Rabbit cannot. This talent does not outweigh his flaws, but it is a genuine quality, and because he has it, he is finally accepted even by Rabbit: "a Friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large and Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he bounced at all, in just the beautiful way a Tigger ought to bounce" (HPC 124). Tigger is clearly rewarded, in spite of being chastised earlier. His optimism and ignorance seem to balance out, and that puts Tigger somewhere in the middle, neither clearly applauded nor reproached.

Tigger's best friend is Roo, a little bundle of energy not unlike Tigger himself. The differences between them lie in their restrictiveness, something that makes a world of difference to impulsive and inquisitive creatures such as Tigger and Roo.

Roo

. . . Roo fell in twice, the first time by accident and the second time on purpose, because he suddenly saw Kanga coming from the Forest, and he knew he'd have to go to bed anyhow. (HPC 104)

Little baby Roo seems very similar to Tigger, and indeed they become great friends, but there are some major differences. Consider the scene where they are stuck together in a tree (HPC 61-70). Whereas Tigger wishes he would be somewhere else, and fears any movement because he might fall down, Roo has no such qualms. He jumps about recklessly and suggests going down to have their sandwiches, and then going back up again. To Tigger, this is a Dangerous Situation; to Roo, it is an Exciting Adventure. Kanga is nowhere around, and they are in an exciting place, high above the ground, which means that the childish Roo feels exultantly free. Throughout both books, Roo continually seeks to get away from mother Kanga's watchful eye as much as possible in order to have more fun. However, he does obey when she gives him orders. All things considered, Roo is a typical, if exaggerated, child character, with the reckless, optimistic and rebellious nature of, say, a five year old. Milne treats him as neutrally as he treats Tigger, though in an entirely different way. Tigger is chastised and rewarded; Roo is neither. Being simply treated as a child by everyone, Roo is not distinguished as neither bad nor good, and thus his childishness and energy are neutral too.

Next, we have Roo's mother, Kanga, who plays a very minor part in the books. Her role is probably the smallest one except for Rabbit's friends-and-relations, and deals mostly with controlling Roo.

Kanga

`I think not to-day, dear. Another day.'

`To-morrow?' said Roo hopefully.

`We'll see,' said Kanga. (HPC 111)

The most marginal of all the main characters Kanga. Her role is largely peripheral, and her one overriding concern is Roo. In fact, she is never allowed to show anything but stereotypical motherly traits: caring for Roo and the equally helpless Tigger, reproaching Owl for having a messy house, and that is all. With so little material to judge her from, it would not be fair to say she is either a failure or a success. Like Roo and Tigger, then, she falls in between. However, it is interesting to note that she is also the only overt female in the Forest, which inevitably leads to certain conclusions regarding the view of feminism in the Pooh books. Her role is stereotypical at best - that is, when she is allowed to appear at all. Milne seems vaguely bashful about treating females this way when he dedicates both books to his wife (WP, no page and HPC, no page), but this scarcely alleviates the feeling of discrimination that permeates the treatment of Kanga. It is easy, then, to think that Milne insinuates that it is undesirable to be female, but I think this is not the case. Rather, I see Kanga as a hidden character, not a punished one. Females are not undesirable, but they should make themselves known as little as possible, avoiding all attention. The centre stage is reserved for the males.

With the animals and toys thus covered, it is time to turn to Christopher Robin and what his personality can do to confirm or refute my assessments of the other characters' moral fibre.

Christopher Robin

`When I'm - when - Pooh!'

`Yes, Christopher Robin?'

`I'm not going to do Nothing any more.' (HPC 174)

Now then, let us look at what we have. Christopher Robin, in true Velveteen Rabbit fashion, has made all his toys come to life, simply through loving them so much. But some of them are actually more deserving of this love than others. There are Pooh and Piglet, or Harmony and Friendship, who can do anything and succeed. There are Eeyore, Rabbit and Owl, or Isolation, Control and Pretence, who can try anything but always fail. Lastly, we have Kanga, Roo and Tigger, or Mother, Child and Ignorant Optimism, who fall in between, neither models for a life nor examples of what to avoid. With this, Christopher Robin should turn out to be Friendly and in Harmony with his inner self and his surroundings. He should not Isolate himself from society, try to Control other people at all times or Pretend to be better than he is.

Christopher Robin changes over the course of the stories, and especially so in HPC. Because I am interested only in the mature Christopher Robin, where all impressions have been assimilated into his personality, what is important for my purposes is how he turns out at the end, and thus I will limit my study of him to the last chapter of HPC, where Christopher Robin bids his childhood fantasy world farewell (HPC 159-176).

In this chapter, Christopher Robin tells Pooh about the adult world, and what is expected of him now that he has started school. As he does so, it becomes apparent that he already knows things Owl would never be able to learn, things about the real world Outside, like what comes from Brazil and some European history (HPC 172). Christopher Robin is clearly not becoming an Owl, then, because he is receiving genuine learning, not having to pretend that he is knowledgeable any more. He goes on to tell Pooh how much he likes doing nothing, and also states that he will always return to his fantasy world every now and then, just to do Nothing:

`Pooh, when I'm - you know - when I'm not doing Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?'

`Just Me?'

`Yes, Pooh.'

`Will you be here too?'

`Yes, Pooh, I will be really. I promise I will be, Pooh.' (HPC 175)

Intimidated by the pressures of the world around him, Christopher Robin vows to be a child always, and to keep in touch with his childhood friends - his toys. In this way, he renounces the isolation of Eeyore as well as Rabbit's will to power; to return to his friends is far from isolation, and if Rabbit was evident in Christopher Robin, he would not want just Pooh to come back with him; he would have made everyone promise this, in order to control more people. It is also hard to organise anything with just one other person to order about. He furthermore acknowledges both Piglet's friendliness and Roo's childishness, promoting the child within him that made up this fantasy world with real friends. His grim reality will always be connected to his childhood reams, ensuring that he never loses his imagination. Being motherly and feminine is not a natural part of a young boy's life, and so Kanga is left out again.

The end product is a young boy, very attached to his friends, and understanding of their needs as well as his own, who will not let adult life take the boy out of him, and who will surely lead a Good Life, the way A. A. Milne would define it. Milne gave out clues to a moral vision in Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, but you have to decode them yourself and decide whether or not to agree with that vision. Eeyore would put it this way:

` -- It's called - written by - but we've all - because we've heard, I mean we all know - well, you see, it's - we - you - well, that, to put it as shortly as possible, is what it is.' (HPC 168)

It is not an easy task, but a necessary one for anyone who wants to learn from literature. The Pooh books are no exception.