Winnie-the-Pooh

The titular character of Milne’s collection, Winnie-the-Pooh is based on the teddy bear of the real-life Christopher Robin, A. A. Milne’s son. In Chapter 9, Piglet thinks that Pooh “does silly things and they turn out right” (131), and this description characterizes most of Pooh’s actions and their outcomes.

Pooh lives in the moment, making decisions based on what feels right or best at the time. He doesn’t focus on the future or worry about what will happen two or three steps ahead. If he’s hungry, he eats, and if eating causes a problem, as when he eats the honey he meant to give Eeyore as a birthday present, he finds a solution rather than wallowing in feeling like he did something wrong. Pooh symbolizes the theme of Keeping Things Simple, as evident in both in his easy way of solving problems and how he thinks simple thoughts to reach a correct answer, assuming, often correctly, that the simplest explanation is the right one.

Both a character in the stories of the Hundred Acre Wood and the listener of the tales as the narrator tells them, Christopher Robin is a real-world child who is entertained by the stories of a bear and his friends.