THEMES+OF+THE+POOH+WAY+-+AGATHA

Thematic Analysis //Wu Wei// or Pooh Way?

//"For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, 'There is no hurry. We shall get there some day' "(67).// T his excerpt from the very beginning of the chapter shows the principle of //Wu Wei// very effectively. Normally when people age, they tend to worry and fret much more than those who are younger and carefree. (Look at the society today and the people in your class.) However, the river when it is grown-up becomes slower than when it was a stream. This is so because it now knows the principle of //Wu Wei// that if you let yourself go, things will take care of themselves. This relates to the Taoist idea of //Wu Wei// that people shouldn't worry because things will work out without their interference.

O f course, you can't suddenly let go of everything and expect them to work out by themselves. (Your homework isn't going to do itself!) Taoism isn't supposed to be taken literally. The practical way of applying the //Wu Wei// principle is doing things "without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort" (68). In other words, don't interfere too much, and make sure that the motive of your actions is a humble one unlike that of Rabbit, who learns for the sake of being Clever (15).



H off doesn't forget to criticize Rabbit in this chapter: "Well done, Pooh," said Rabbit kindly. "That was a good idea of ours" (75). Notice that he uses the word //ours//. Rabbit, the epitome of Cleverness, tries to take all the credit when Pooh is the one who came up with the idea of dropping the rock. It isn't his Cleverness that saves the day, but Pooh's way of letting the rock create ripples over to Eeyore. Because Rabbit thought too hard to come up with a way to appear wise, he fails to come up with an idea to save Eeyore.

P iglet has a hard time opening a jar, and Pooh explains that all you have to do is twist. Tigger, however, only breaks the jar because he //tried to hard// to open it. When you try too hard, you tend to think more than you really need to. When you think more than you need to, you become Confused. Thus, "I think, therefore I am Confused" (77). When you are faced with a problem, such as a stuck jar, you should "relax and try it again" (76).

When bad things happen, we tend to complain, but if we were to follow the Pooh Way, we would accept them as they are. Remember The Way Things Work? All things are right as you leave them. It's when you start fixing them that problems arise. When you withstand your problems, you will later realize that they happened in order for other things to happen in your life. By trying hard to fix your situation, you will only worsen what you have, and what you have is good!



E ven though Pooh accidentally eats Eeyore's birthday present and Piglet pop Eeyore's balloon, in the end, Eeyore is happy because he has a useful honey jar and a popped balloon to put into that jar. Given bad circumstances, things turn out well at the end!