Line #17 Literature/WinnieThePooh


1	[[quoteright:244:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/winnie-the-pooh-book_1724.png]]
2
3	->"What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.\
4	''What'' about a story? [[Creator/AAMilne I]] said.\
5	Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"\
6	"I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does he like?"\
7	"About himself. Because he's ''that'' sort of Bear."\
8	"Oh, I see."\
9	"So could you very sweetly"\
10	"I'll try." I said.\
11	And so I tried.
12	-->-- '''Prologue'''
13
14	[[JustForFun/DescribeTopicHere Chapter 1: In which we are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, and the topic begins]].
15
16
17	''Winnie-the-Pooh'' is a British children's book written in 1926 by author Creator/AAMilne. The original book of stories was, famously, inspired by Milne's son Christopher Robin Milne and Christopher's assortment of stuffed animals, including a teddy bear that became Winnie-the-Pooh, a tiger that became Tigger, and a donkey that became Eeyore. Pooh and his friends live in a Forest inspired by Ashdown Forest in Sussex, where Milne had a cottage. (In the [[Franchise/WinnieThePooh Disney version]] it is known as the Hundred Acre Wood, but in the original books the Hundred Acre Wood is just one section of the Forest.) Pooh, his friends, and his best friend Christopher Robin have many adventures.
18
19	The first book had a sequel released in 1928 titled ''The House at Pooh Corner''. Two books of poems -- ''[[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70271 When We Were Very Young]]'' and ''Now We Are Six'' -- include several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh and friends.
20
21	For the many adaptations of these books, [[Franchise/WinnieThePooh go this way]].
22
23	Christopher Robin Milne's original stuffed animals [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_original_Winnie_the_Pooh_toys.jpg have been preserved]] and are on public display. (With the exception of Roo, who was lost in an apple orchard around 1930.)
24
25	Both books are in the public domain in the U.S. The first one can be read [[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67098/67098-h/67098-h.htm here]], and the second one [[https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73011/pg73011-images.html here]].
26	----
27	!!''Winnie-the-Pooh'' provides example of the following tropes:
28	* AbandonedArea: Pooh lives in a house with the name "Sanders" over it, despite none of the characters being able to read or spell very well. Piglet lives beside a sign that says "Trespassers W[ill Be Prosecuted]". Christopher Robin lives in a tree and his parents are missing. What happened to all the other humans in the area? Why did they leave?
29	* AccidentalGoodOutcome:
30	** In "In Which Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents", Pooh tries to give honey to Eeyore for a [[BirthdayEpisode birthday present]], while Piglet tries to give him a balloon. However, the balloon pops and Pooh eats the honey. Despite this, however, Eeyore likes the burst balloon and the pot, since he enjoys [[IncrediblyLameFun putting the balloon in the pot and taking it out again over and over]].
31	** In "In Which a House is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore", Eeyore tries to build himself a house, but doesn't do a very good job, so Pooh and Piglet mistake it for a random pile of sticks. They use said sticks to build him another house, thinking he's still homeless, and this ends up being better than the original house since it's in a warmer part of the forest.
32	* AlternateCatchphraseInflection: Discussed in "A Search is Organdized", when Winnie the Pooh asserts that when a heffalump catches someone, they say, "Ho-ho!" in a gloating sort of way. But if you hum, then they'll say it again, still in a gloating way but less sure of themselves and more surprised, then if you ''still'' hum, they'll try to say it a third time but "[turn] it awkwardly into a cough" because "it isn't ho-ho-ish anymore".
33	* AnimalStereotypes: Played straight with some characters (Tigger is just as strong and fierce as one could expect from a tiger), subverted with others (Owl appears to be [[TheOwlKnowingOne the smartest animal in the forest]], but he's actually a KnowNothingKnowItAll).
34	* AwkwardPoetryReading:
35	** In "In Which Christopher Robin Takes Pooh to an Enchanted Place and We Leave Them There", Eeyore tries to write a goodbye poem, but it doesn't go well -- he simply titles it "Poem", he keeps adding commentary on how good or bad the rhymes are, and at one point, he can't find a rhyme for "is", says, "Bother!", tries to find a rhyme for ''that'', and ends up saying, "Those two 'bother's will have to rhyme with each other. Buther!".
36	** In "In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast", Pooh writes a poem that has the line "Whatever his weight in pounds, shillings and ounces". Piglet doesn't like this line, since shillings are obviously not a weight, but Pooh says that the word "wanted" to be in the poem.
37	** In "In Which Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins In", Pooh tries to write a poem about a fir tree, and comes up with "Here is a myst'ry about a little fir tree: Owl says it's his tree and Kanga says it's her tree", but decides it doesn't make sense as Kanga doesn't have a tree.
38	* BadMoodRetreat: Eeyore has his Gloomy Place, where he hangs out a lot because he's often sad.
39	* {{Balloonacy}}: One of the earliest examples of this trope. Pooh attempts to get honey by rolling in mud (to look like a "small, black cloud") and floating on a blue balloon (to resemble the sky). One of the book's most famous illustrations is of Christopher Robin blowing up said balloon. Because this is a story told by a father to his son, Pooh gets airborne despite this.
40	* BearyFunny: Pooh, who is kind, naive, silly and goofy.
41	* BigEater: Pooh. He sure does love honey and can be seen eating entire jars of the stuff, along with other foods besides.
42	* BigGood: Christopher Robin, the only human, whom the toy animals view as their leader.
43	* BirthdayEpisode: In "Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents", it's Eeyore's birthday, but he doesn't have any presents. Feeling sorry for him, Pooh and Piglet give him a present each (honey and a balloon respectively). The honey gets eaten and the balloon pops, but Eeyore likes them anyway.
44	* BittersweetEnding: Christopher Robin has to leave the Hundred Acre Wood for what is essentially the last time, since he is growing up and can no longer live out his childhood days in the blissful peace of the Wood. The last chapter revolves around his farewell, and last day spent playing with Pooh, who promises that he will always be waiting in the Hundred Acre Wood should he ever return.
45	* BlackBeadEyes: E. H. Shepard draws most of the characters with these. {{Justified}}, as they are toys whose eyes could literally be made of beads.
46	* CarryingACake: Pooh brings a jar of honey for Eeyore's birthday. A variation in that the honey isn't destroyed by outside forces, but rather ''he'' eats it.
47	* CharacterCatchphrase:
48	** Pooh: "Bother!"
49	** Christopher Robin: "Silly old Bear!"
50	%%* ChildrenAreInnocent
51	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Just about anyone besides Eeyore is quite screwy and has bizarre ideas. Kanga's a bit more stable, too, if a little overprotective. While Christopher Robin is a bit smarter than the others, he still thinks odd things sometimes due to being a child.
52	* CountingSheep: Pooh tries to put himself to sleep by counting Heffalumps, but every Heffalump takes a pot of his honey, and when "the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalumps were licking their jaws, and saying to themselves, 'Very good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better', Pooh could bear it no longer".
53	* CoveredInMud: Pooh covers himself with mud to [[PaperThinDisguise disguise himself as a rain cloud]] to fool the bees while he gets their honey. The bees aren't fooled.
54	* CruelElephant: The Heffalumps are depicted as elephant-like creatures on the illustrations. They are said to be malevolent beings, though their villainy mostly consists of [[PokeThePoodle stealing honey]]. That said, [[LovableCoward Piglet]] is utterly terrified of them. Fortunately for Pooh and his friends, everything indicates that they are just imaginary.
55	* CrypticBackgroundReference: "Don't you know what ''ther'' means?"
56	* DeadpanSnarker
57	** Eeyore is good at making wry comments (his favourite kind seem to be stating that some people can enjoy themselves but not him, telling others not to blame him for things, or commenting on no one feeling sorry for him), much more so than in the Disney version.
58	** Rabbit has a couple of snarky moments as well, such as "It all comes... of ''eating'' too much!" in his debut chapter.
59	* DistressedDude: Piglet, in the chapter in which he's Entirely Surrounded by Water.
60	* TheDitz: Deconstructed. Pooh is the self-proclaimed "bear of very little brain" of the Hundred Acre Wood, and does often act the part. However the entire wood is a CloudcuckooLand, with others such as Rabbit and Owl who are regarded ([[KnowNothingKnowItAll self-enforced]]) as wise and sensible animals of the wood being outdone by Pooh's SimpleMindedWisdom (of course, he rarely realises he is outsmarting anyone, and so HilarityEnsues anyway).
61	* ADogNamedDog: Piglet, Owl, and Rabbit. Played with for Kanga, Roo, and Tigger. Even Pooh is sometimes referred to as "Bear". It's pointed out in the book that his real name is Edward Bear, and Winnie-the-Pooh is just his nickname. (Christopher Robin Milne actually called his stuffed bear Edward. His father got the name "Winnie" from a popular bear at the London Zoo.)
62	* DumbIsGood: Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear of "Very Little Brain", and the sweetest, gentlest creature you'll ever meet.
63	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
64	** The first book is framed as Milne himself telling the stories to Christopher Robin. This is done away with in the following volume and the official sequels.
65	** In Piglet's first story, he lies about being afraid. Later stories have him more open about his fears.
66	* TheEeyore: {{Trope Namer\|s}}. Eeyore is perpetually sad, although he can be cheered up sometimes, like when Pooh gives him a pot for his birthday.
67	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: All chapter titles. The first one of the first book was called "In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin", for crying out loud.
68	* ExerciseExcuse: In "Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle", Piglet jumps because he is nervous, then tries to cover it up by jumping more times to make it seem like he is exercising.
69	* FearlessFool: Piglet confesses to being afraid when carrying out the escape from Owl's fallen home, and is assured that makes him even more courageous.
70	* FeigningIntelligence: Both Rabbit and Owl tend to act smart, but are actually just as scatterbrained as the other characters. The others still treat them as if they were the smartest.
71	* FishOutOfWater: Tigger in the beginning has a hard time fitting in with the rest of the animals, but eventually finds his place and the others (except for Rabbit) grow fond of him.
72	* FoulMedicine: In ''The House at Pooh Corner'', Roo is often given malt extract as "strengthening medicine", and he's said to think it tastes awful. Tigger, on the other hand, turns out to love it, and he eats it for him.
73	* FramingDevice: The Narrator (A.A. Milne himself) telling his son Christopher Robin bedtime stories, set in the real world where Pooh is a toy.
74	* AFriendInNeed: Pooh helps out Eeyore twice in the first book: he finds Eeyore's missing tail and takes the initiative to tell everyone it’s Eeyore's birthday.
75	* FunctionalAddict: Man, Pooh ''really'' likes honey. In one story Pooh decides to give Eeyore a pot of honey when finding out that it's Eeyore's birthday. Pooh winds up eating all the honey on the way, and giving Eeyore a Very Useful Pot instead.
76	* GhibliHills: The Forest in which all the characters live.
77	* GoingInCircles: In one story Pooh thinks he is tracking the footprints of a monster, when he is actually following his own footprints in the snow.
78	* GrowingUpSucks: The end of ''The House at Pooh Corner'', when Christopher Robin has to say goodbye to his toys, since he's not allowed to do "nothing" anymore.
79	* HatesBaths: Piglet. When he gets washed by Kanga, the first thing he does is look for a puddle to roll around in.
80	* HaveAGayOldTime: It's somewhat impressive that a character named "Pooh" has managed to endure as long as it has with the same name, since the connotations of the word have [[ToiletHumor changed a lot]] since the original book was printed. Probably because the toilet humor version is spelled differently. ''The News Quiz'', however, was highly amused with a branding magazine talking about kids having "Pooh on their pyjamas, and Pooh on their facecloths". "Pooh" as an expression of contempt or annoyance still exists in the English language, even if it's not as commonly used as it once was.
81	** In France, "Pooh" is how the word "Pou", meaning "Louse" is pronounced. Now, nowadays, this is inconsequential, since he's mostly known under the alias of "Winnie l'ourson". In the early French translations of the books, he was known as "Winnie-le-Pouh", which was changed in later printings.
82	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Pooh and Piglet. (Although, seeing as the book contains nothing even vaguely resembling sexuality or romance, it's more like Asexual Life Partners.)
83	* HufflepuffHouse: Rabbit's friends-and-relations, who often get mentioned but don't get much characterization.
84	* IconicSequelCharacter: Tigger wasn't introduced until the second Winnie-the-Pooh book and is now one of the most popular and recognizable characters from the franchise.
85	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: See ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
86	* ImprobableFoodBudget: Where Pooh gets the massive amount of honey is never explained (especially since the only time he's shown trying to get more, at the Honey Tree, he's not particularly good at it).
87	* IntentionalMessMaking: Tigger knocks over a chair on purpose after seeing Roo accidentally knock one over.
88	* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: Milne's chapters all have titles like "In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets into a Tight Place."
89	* IronicEcho: "Oh, Tigger, I ''am'' glad to see you," cried Rabbit.
90	* IrritationNightmare: In the story "[[BigStormEpisode Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water]]", Pooh's house is flooded with cold rainwater, and the cold goes into his dreams, but the dream renders it as Woozles stealing his fur while he's in [[ArtisticLicenseGeography the cold East Pole]].
91	* KangaroosRepresentAustralia: Averted with Kanga and Roo, who, despite being kangaroos, are never implied to be Australian. Several audiobooks abide by this trope however.
92	* KarmaHoudini: The first book's chapter "In which Kanga and Roo Come to the Forest", Rabbit drags Pooh and Piglet into his kidnapping attempt on Roo, and leaves Piglet at Kanga's mercy. [[SelectiveEnforcement Rabbit and Pooh quickly become friends with the two]], while Piglet decides to keep his distance and stay with Christopher Robin.
93	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: The second book's chapter "In which Tigger is Unbounced" has Rabbit drag Pooh and Piglet into ''another'' vindictive scheme involving getting Tigger lost in the woods to take his exuberance down a notch. While Tigger, and eventually Pooh and Piglet easily make their way back home, a lost and traumatised Rabbit ends up rescued by Tigger.
94	* KidsPreferBoxes: Pooh ''intends'' to give Eeyore a jar of honey... and then absentmindedly eats the honey. Eeyore doesn't actually like honey, but he's very happy to be given the empty jar.
95	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Owl (making him thereby a subversion of TheOwlKnowingOne) and Rabbit.
96	* LaserGuidedKarma: A mild example in ''In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump''. Piglet decides to make Pooh give up his honey as bait out of petty spite (so he doesn’t have to give up his “haycorns”). Pooh gets hungry during the night and decides to check whether the Heffalump has eaten the honey. He goes into the trap and gets his head stuck in the jar. Piglet thinks the Heffalump is in the pit and runs in a panic to Christopher Robin. As a result, Piglet is so humiliated upon discovering the truth, he goes back to bed “with a headache”.
97	* LateToTheAction: "A Search is Organdized [sic] and Piglet Nearly Meets the Heffalump Again" ends with Eeyore searching around. Rabbit asks what he is looking for and Eeyore replies that he is looking for Rabbit's lost friend, a bug named Small. However, Rabbit informs him that Small has already been found (by Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin).
98	* LiteralMinded and {{Malaproper}}: Everything, being based on children's (or dumb/naive characters') logic. For example, the idea that Pooh living "under the name of Sanders" means that he has the word written above his door.
99	* LivingToys: All of the main cast, with the exception of Christopher Robin (who is a child who owns the toys) and possibly Rabbit and Owl (who are implied to be actual animals rather than toys).
100	* MadLibsCatchPhrase: Pooh has "You never can tell with [plural noun]."
101	* ManChild: Tigger, despite being one of the largest members of the gang, is playful and irresponsible.
102	* MythologyGag: In ''Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen'', Christopher Robin, Pooh, and his friends travel to London to meet Queen Elizabeth II for her 90th birthday. At one point, on a bus tour, they pass by Harrods and Pooh feels something familiar about the store. The original Edward Bear doll given to Christopher Robin Milne was from Harrods.
103	* NeverMyFault: Pooh, after inviting himself to lunch at Rabbit's house and eating him out of house and home, gets stuck in his burrow. He proceeds to blame Rabbit for not making his front door big enough. There’s a call-back to this story in ''The House at Pooh Corner'' where, humorously, Pooh still refuses to accept that his overeating was the reason why he got stuck.
104	* NotWhereTheyThought:
105	** Story only. In "In Which Eeyore [[BirthdayEpisode Has a Birthday]] and Gets Two Presents", Piglet falls over and bursts the balloon he's meaning to give to Eeyore. He doesn't realize that the noise was the balloon popping and thinks he's blown up and been transported to the moon.
106	** In "In Which a Search is Organdized [sic] and Piglet Nearly Meets the Heffalump Again", Pooh and Piglet fall into a pit and think it's a trap dug by a Heffalump. It isn't, and neither is it the pit they dug back in "In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump"-- it's a separate pit called the Gravel Pit.
107	* OldWindbag: Owl will often go into lengthy, boring rants about pretty much anything.
108	* OnceUponATime: "...a very long time ago, about last Friday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders."
109	* PaperThinDisguise: Pooh, pretending to be a little black raincloud. In his defense, he's trying to fool ''insects''. They aren't fooled, though.
110	* ParentalBonus: Many of the jokes will go straight over your average five-year-old's head--while the adult reading the book aloud has a hard time keeping a straight face.
111	* PhraseCatcher: Pooh is called by various characters and the narrator "a bear of very little brain."
112	* PickyEater: Tigger doesn't like honey, haycorns, thistles, or pretty much anything Pooh and his friends offer to him. He finally settles with extract of malt, which was meant to be a strengthening medicine for Roo.
113	* ThePowerOfFriendship: A major theme. The friendship between Christopher Robin, Pooh, Piglet and the rest of the gang is what drives the story.
114	* PrimalFear: Piglet has all sorts of phobias.
115	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Many of the jokes in the books are fueled by these.
116	* SecondPersonNarration: Thanks to the FramingDevice of Milne making up stories for Christopher Robin, the first chapter is told from the "you" point of view with Christopher Robin as a character. Afterward, this is abandoned.
117	* ShooOutTheClowns: The final chapter of ''The House at Pooh Corner'' does away with the lighthearted narrative, opening with [[WhamLine “Christopher Robin was going away”]]. The only aspect of levity comes from Eeyore's “Goodbye” poem, which degenerates into an absentminded ramble. When Christopher Robin is given the poem, Eeyore storms off, and everyone except Pooh quietly disappears. Children listening to the story, like Pooh, will likely not understand the implications of what Christopher Robin is talking about, but the adults will be moved by it.
118	* SignsOfDisrepair: The sign over Piglet's door, reading "Trespassers W", which he claims is short for the name of his grandfather, Trespassers William, or Trespassers Will for short. It's likely that the sign actually read "Trespassers will be shot", or, in modern times: "Trespassers will be prosecuted."
119	* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Rabbit delivers this to Eeyore after the latter complains about nobody paying attention to him. Rabbit pointedly tells Eeyore that he essentially brings his depressed state on himself because he's not trying. Eeyore has to make an effort to see others instead of expecting them to come to him. Eeyore surprisingly takes this to heart.
120	* SmorgasbordTest: In "In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast", Tigger arrives in the forest and Pooh invites him to breakfast. Tigger can talk but doesn't know what his favourite food is, so Pooh offers him honey, Piglet offers him acorns (or "haycorns" as he calls them), Eeyore offers him thistles, and Kanga offers him many different things. He [[PickyEater doesn't like any of them]] until he tries some extract of malt.
121	* SneezeInterruption: Parodied when Owl says, "issue a reward" and Winnie the Pooh thinks he'd sneezed in the middle of his sentence.
122	* StockAnimalDiet: Honey for Pooh. Many of the other animals also eat one food almost exclusively - "haycorns" for Piglet, thistles for Eeyore, [[spoiler: Roo's extract of malt]] for Tigger, etc, although they don't match the normal foods for their species.
123	* SurroundedByIdiots: This was A.A. Milne's explanation for why Eeyore is depressed.
124	* SweetTooth: Pooh has a big appetite for honey.
125	* ThinkNothingOfIt: In the last chapter of the first book, Christopher Robin starts his speech at the party, and Eeyore starts this — before Christopher Robin manages to get it in that it's for Pooh.
126	* TokenHouseguest: Tigger is shown to be living with Kanga and Roo despite not being related.
127	* UnwiseOwl: As depicted in Creator/{{Disney}}'s [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh numerous]] [[WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh animated]] [[WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh2011 adaptations]] of the ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' stories, Owl's advice often makes absolutely no sense, subverting TheOwlKnowingOne.
128	* YouSayTomato: Being based on the playacting of a little boy, this is rather common. Notable examples include Woozles (weasels), Heffalumps (elephants), Jagulars (jaguars), Eeyore (Onomatopoeia for the braying of a donkey), Tigger (tiger) and Winnie the Pooh himself (based on Winnipeg, a bear at the London Zoo, and a swan in a pond Christopher called "Pooh").
129	* ZanyScheme: Several, including Pooh's plans to steal honey and catch a "Heffalump", and Rabbit's plans to kidnap Roo and "unbounce" Tigger.

Context Literature / WinnieThePooh