Жамият ва инновациялар –
Общество и инновации –
Society and innovations
Journal home page:
https://inscience.uz/index.php/socinov/index
“Winnie-the-pooh” as the reflection of children’s psychology
Yulduz SATTOROVA
1
Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received April 2021
Received in revised form
20 April 2021
Accepted 15 May 2021
Available online
25 June 2021
At a time when teaching English has become one of the
current topics, we must first of all aim to teach English to the
young generation with English literature. In this regard, it is
worthwhile to learn the peculiarities of children’s literature. A
piece of children’s literature given in the article a collection of
stories called “The Winnie the Pooh and all, all, all” also refers to
subtleties of children’s psychology.
2181-1415/© 2021 in Science LLC.
This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru)
Keywords:
psychology,
animals,
extrovert,
introvert,
sanguine,
phlegmatic,
choleric and melancholy.
“Vinni pux” bolalar psixologiyasini aks ettirishi sifatida
ANNOTATSIYA
Kalit so‘zlar:
psixologiya,
hayvonlar,
ekstravert,
introvert,
sangvinik,
flegmatik,
xolerik va melanxolik.
Ingliz tilini o‘qitish hozirgi kunda dolzarb mavzulardan biriga
aylangan bir vaqtda, biz avvalombor ingliz tilini yosh avlodga
uning adabiyoti bilan o‘rgatishni o‘z oldimizga maqsad qilib
qo‘yishimiz kerak. Bu borada bolalar adabiyotining o‘ziga xos
xususiyatlarini bilib olish maqsadga muvofiq. Maqolada berilgan
bolalar adabiyotining bir parchasi: “Vinni Puh sarguzashtlari”
deb nomlangan hikoyalar to‘plami ham aynan bolalar
psixologiyasining nozik ekanligini isbotlovchi asar haqida so‘z
yuritiladi.
1
lecturer, Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
E-mail: yulduzsattorova@gmail.com.
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
Special Issue – 5 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
307
«Винни-пух» как отражение детской психологии
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
психология,
животные,
экстраверт,
интроверт,
сангвиник,
флегматик,
холерик и меланхолик.
В то время, когда преподавание английского языка стало
одной из актуальных тем, мы должны, прежде всего,
стремиться обучать молодое поколение английскому языку
с его литературой. В связи с этим стоит изучить
особенности детской литературы. Фрагмент детской
литературы, приведенный в статье сборник рассказов
«Приключения
Винни-Пуха»
также
относится
к
произведению,
доказывающему
тонкости
детской
психологии.
“… Piglet in this way gets more education than Pooh,
but he doesn’t mind. Some have brains, some haven’t he says,
and there it is”.
(A.A. Milne)
Few people know that the most famous Winnie-the-Pooh was created by humorist
writer of the twentieth century Alan Alexander Milne. The collection of stories “Winnie-
the-Pooh” by Alan Alexander Milne is the only work which we can call famous among
young readers of our time.
Alan Alexander Milne is most famous for his two Pooh books. Originally the name of
Pooh was derived from a swan called “Pooh”. Author gives a brief introduction to this name
in his book that when he asked his son to give original name to his bear, he, without any
time for thoughts said “Pooh”; therefore Winnie was taken from a black Canadian bear
Winniepeg, a mascot during the World War II, which was left later to London Zoo. Other
characters, such as bouncy Tiger and gloomy donkey Eeyore were also Christopher Robin
Milne’s own toys. The magnificent forest of Pooh was copied from real Ashdown Forest
where A.A. Milne took his little son Christopher robin walking. Later adult Christopher
Robin commented: “Pooh’s forest and Ashdown forest are identical”. Now, tourist can
enjoy the wooden Pooh Bridge in Ashdown Forest.
Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1926, followed by The House at Pooh Corner in
1928. They quickly became popular among readers which left unnoticed Milne’s other
serious works. His book “World of Pooh” won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.
The children’s ingenious psychology was fully and simply characterized by Forest
Animals as it had been kept characterizing any children’s literature through animals and
their hilarious performance. This article focuses on typology of different characters used
in Alan Alexander Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and distinguishes psychological features of the
most famous children’s characters analysing it as well as criticising using psychological
and descriptive approaches. As far as we know children’s literature is based on the
psychology of children and mostly analysed by using different methods of psychology.
Before we go deeply to analysis on the piece of children's literature, the useful terms and
phrases should be considered. Psychology is a scientific study of the way how the human
mind works and how it influences on the character or behaviour of the person. [1. Peter
Childs, (edited by Roger Fowler) “The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms”. Taylor &
Francis e-Library, 2006-191] Psychology studies the mind of the children and its influence
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
Special Issue – 5 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
308
on the children’s behaviour. However, psychology deals with the motives, which push the
person to go forward. Also, it looks at the culture as informative of our psyche, therefore,
it deals with many basic elements of which we might think of as poetic or literary, including
metaphor or metonymy. Let’s go back to analysis of characters in A.A. Milne’s book
“Winnie-the-Pooh”. As psychology scholars suggest, there are 4 main types of human
characters: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholy. They are divided into main
groups: Extrovert and introvert and respectively into optimist and pessimist groups. Latter
ones include particularly choleric and melancholy types. Sanguine people are optimistic,
intuitive, energetic and curious. They tend to know everything and always inspires people
around and try to be always in the centre of the stage. They can be trustworthy friends as
they are the best storytellers, they always look for adventures, naive as child and never
grow up. For this type is the best appropriate character Piglet, the smallest animal of Pooh
books. Piglet is real sanguine personality as in the beginning of the book she asks the
author:
“I had written as far as this when Piglet looked up and said in his squeaky voice, “What
about Me?”. “My dear Piglet”, I said, “the whole book is about you”. “So it is about Pooh”, he
squeaked…” [2. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-4].
Piglet got jealous thinking that the whole book is about Pooh, of course Pooh is
favourite but Piglet can be there where Pooh misses. The another factor which
proves his sanguine personality is that he is always optimistic and can apologize in front
of his friends:
“Oh, dear!” said Piglet. “Oh, dear, oh, dearie, dearie, dear! Well, it’s too late now.
I can’t go back, and I haven’t another balloon, and perhaps Eeyore doesn’t like balloons very
much”.
[3. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-28].
Being very disappointed with the blown-up balloon he tries to apologize for not
bringing his present:
“… Yes, but I’m afraid – I’m very sorry, Eeyore – but when I was running along to bring
it you, I fell down… No, but I – I – oh, Eeyore, I burst the balloon!” [4. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-
Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-28].
Piglet is very energetic and spends all his energy to his friends; he cares about them
all, however, we can also notice some of phlegmatic and melancholy traits in his behaviour.
He is quite than sanguine and thinks about other which is a bit unusual for them. As an
example:
“It’s a little Anxious”, he said to himself, “to be a Very Small Animal Entirely
Surrounded by Water. Christopher Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and
Kanga could escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and Owl could
escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by – by Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and
here am I, surrounded by water and I can’t do anything”. [5. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh
and All, All, All” 1969-43].
The next type is a choleric personality which is also extroverted and optimist, thus
a bit aggressive and quick-tempered. They are bossy, goal oriented and never give up when
they lose. Also they are quick in decisions, think they know everything, although they are
always right may be unpopular among friends [6. Lightning Rod “Temperaments Theory
as explained by Winnie-the-Pooh Characters” London 2014-6]. For this type of personality,
the Rabbit is perfect
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
Special Issue – 5 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
309
example. He always tries to show how clever he is or only him and Owl own brains,
of course after Christopher Robin, he trusts only his humble calculations although they
were wrong, and never listens to other because he is so stubborn:
“The best way”, said Rabbit, “would be this. The best way would be to steal Baby Roo
and hide
him, and then when Kanga says, ‘Where’s Baby Roo?’ we say, ‘Aha!’ – “Aha!” said Pooh,
practising. – “Pooh”, said Rabbit kindly, “you haven’t any brain”. – “I know”, said Pooh
humbly. [7. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-31].
As Rabbit is usually right, he tries to show his dominance over his friends even.
Christopher Robin, when he asks the way to north pole, on his turn Rabbit tries not
to show his inability to answer:
– “Well”, said Rabbit, stroking his whiskers. “Now you’re asking me”. – “I did know
once, only I’ve sort of forgotten”, said Christopher Robin carelessly. – “It’s a funny thing”,
said Rabbit, “but I’ve sort of forgotten too, although I did know once”. [8. A.A. Milne “Winnie-
the-Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-40].
Choleric personalities are born leaders; despite his unpopular brain Rabbit is leader
and sets goals clearly. [9. Lightning Rod “Temperaments Theory as explained by Winnie-
the-Pooh Characters” London 2014-4] In the Chapter 7 where all three friends try to
capture Baby Roo, the Rabbit comes with perfect plan of it, however, the last part of plan
does not work, Rabbit remains himself as the leader for group organisation.
Melancholy is the next type of personalities and they belong to pessimist and
introvert groups. Their bright feature is they are born under the pressure of art, therefore,
it can be seen that they are mostly poetic, artistic, talented people. [10. Lightning Rod
“Temperaments Theory as explained by Winnie-the-Pooh Characters” London 2014-5] As
they are faithful and ready to share other’s problems this type perfectly resembles the grey
donkey Eeyore. The pessimistic and sorrowful Eeyore always expects the worst to happen;
has always moody and sad mood, sees himself in low image, and always contradicts himself
with sceptical and critical opinions:
“Many happy returns of the day”, called out Pooh, forgetting that he had said it
already. “Thank you, Pooh, I’m having them”, said Eeyore gloomily. “I’ve brought you a little
present”, said Pooh excitedly. “I’ve had it”, said Eeyore sadly. [11. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-
Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-39].
Being very anxious and pessimist he thinks all his unhappiness is the result of
someone else’s:
“That accounts for a Good Deal”, said Eeyore gloomily. “It explains Everything.
No Wonder”.
– “You must have left it somewhere”, said Winnie-the-Pooh. “Somediv must have
taken it”, said Eeyore. [12. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-16].
Peaceful, agreeable, sympathetic, easy-going and relaxed; whom can these
adjectives belong to? No doubt all of them belong to our Silly bear, how he is called by
Christopher Robin, The Pooh. There is no denying that he is pleasant to be around, that is
what makes him lovable bear. In fact, all phlegmatic people are all alike: they are expert of
steady and relaxed life, they know how to say and what to say and when; they always find
easy way to their problems or they pretend they do not have them at all. As they are good
listeners they have a lot of friends around, however, not always faithful to them. At work
Жамият ва инновациялар – Общество и инновации – Society and innovations
Special Issue – 5 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
310
they can be very lazy but they can always prove themselves with calmness. As it comes to
Pooh he never gets upset easily. What is wonderful is that, he can see good things through
bad situations, especially when he is stuck in Rabbit’s hole:
– “Hallo, are you stuck?” he asked.
– “N– no”, said Pooh carelessly. “Just resting and thinking and humming to myself”.
– “The fact is”, said Rabbit, “You’re stuck”.
– “It all comes”, said Pooh crossly, “of not having front doors big enough”.
[13. A.A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh and All, All, All” 1969-40].
Yet Pooh is loved by all animals in One Hundred Acre Forest, he lets other strong
personalities or circumstances lead him.
As a conclusion, we would like to say the above discussion was made with the help
of psychological and descriptive approaches, however, to analyse this work critically the
Biographical method could be used. The author tried to show us wonderful world of
children through very carefully described animal characters, although, they portray
children’s psychology, in the deep meaning they resemble adults who remain a bit of
childish behaviour in deep of their souls.
REFERENCES:
1.
A.A. Milne 1969 “Winnie-the-Pooh and All, All, All”.
2.
Anne Thaxter Eaton, Cornelia Meigs. 1953. A Critical History of Children’s
Literature.
3.
Peter Hunt. 1995. Children’s literature: An illustrated history.
4.
Ghesquiere, R. 2006. Why does children’s literature need translations?
5.
Chung-Yuan Liu. 2014. Analysis of the Characteristics of Children’s Poetry.
6.
Jan van Coillie, Walter P. Verschueren. 2006. Children’s literature in translation:
challenges and strategies.
7.
Karen Coats. 2013. The Meaning of Children’s Poetry: A Cognitive Approach.
Illinois.
8.
Elizabeth A. Dunn. 2006. Talking Animals: A Literature Review of
Anthropomorphism in Children’s Books. North Carolina.
9.
Booth D., & Moore B. 2003. Poems please! Sharing poetry with children.
Markham: Pembroke.
10.
Emer O’Sullivan. 2006. Comparative children’s literature.
11.
Emer O’Sullivan. 2010. Historical Dictionary of children’s literature.
