What is it about Milne's Pooh Bear that makes him so lovable, intriguing, and enduring? What is it that has inspired such spin-offs as The Piglet Movie, The Tao of Pooh and The Pooh Perplex? What is it that has kept kids reading Winnie-the-Pooh since its first appearance in 1926?
"All over the world, A.A. Milne's children's books are loved and cherished by children and parents together, and by a good many adults who are not parents. There are no better stories for sharing. There are no better stories for reading aloud and for finding one's way back to that childhood world where it is possible to do Nothing, or at least nothing that has anything to do with anything" (Ann Thwaite, in her A.A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh, Random House, 1990).
Critics have lined up Winnie-the-Pooh right next to such classics as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows and have compared Milne's poetry and prose to E. Nesbit, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The book was received warmly and continues to be hailed as an accurate and enjoyable account of childhood, but it has also had its share of negative criticism throughout the years.
One criticism made by Vera Ohanian in 1970 was this: "[What] is the true message conveyed to children [by Winnie-the-Pooh]? The real meaning is a denial of several great problems and pressures experienced in a parent-child relationship, in sibling and peer rivalry, and in accepting maleness and femaleness." She also mentions the problem of having only one animal of each kind (except Kanga and Roo), the denial of problems associated with aging, and the lack of character development as hindrances to Milne's story. She believes that the book wrongly teaches children to cope with burdens and problems through escape and denial...coping mechanisms she clearly views as unhealthy. Other criticisms include Milne's negative view of women (and exaltation of the male), his overly sentimental writing that reflects a bourgeois lifestyle, and his creation of Christopher Robin as overly sympathetic and unrealistic in his idealisms.
It seems as more years pass since Winnie-the-Pooh's original publication and as Pooh Bear becomes more and more of a cultural icon and a commercial product, more criticisms and analyses are being made. While it may be true that Milne was trying to make a political statement (though I doubt that was his intention) or to satirize adult behavior, Milne was mostly just trying to entertain children and their parents and to create a whimsical yet secure world full of imagination, friendship, adventure and fun.
So what is it about Pooh, that Silly Old Bear, that keeps us chuckling and turning pages? He's humorous, naive, occasionally brilliant, hungry for honey, slightly egoistical, simple, loving and true to himself. He captures childhood, and he doesn't hold back. He is just "that sort of bear".
