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The How of Pooh?
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tao of Pooh, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Taoism, Nature, and Happiness
Knowledge vs. Wisdom
Self-Acceptance and Personal Growth
Western Culture and Eastern Wisdom
Summary
Analysis
Pooh tells Hoff that he’s learned about Taoist principles from his ancestors, like the painter “Pooh Tao-tse” and the poet “Li Pooh.” (It’s actually Wu Tao-Tse and Li Po.) But there is an important Taoist principle called P’u, which means “the Uncarved Block.” Since principles like P’u are realities, not just ideas, Taoists usually prefer to illustrate them through examples rather than explain them intellectually. But P’u does need some explaining. It means that things have power in their natural, simple form—but when their simplicity gets changed, they lose their power. The two Chinese characters for “P’u” mean “‘tree in a thicket’ or ‘wood not cut.’” This gives the concept its meaning of anything in its natural state (which is translated as “uncarved block” in English).
Taoists prefer illustrating concepts like P’u through examples to explaining them through logic because they don’t want their followers to mistake understanding a concept for embodying it. After all, the purpose of studying Taoism isn’t merely to learn how to become happy—it’s to actually become happy. P’u is an important concept in Taoism because it shows how individual beings and people relate to nature. Specifically, it shows that everyone and everything can fit into the natural order if it takes the proper form. Thus, just as an uncut tree in a thicket is fulfilling its proper role in nature, people can also fulfill their own proper roles in nature when they exist in their natural state. However, as Hoff will later argue, most people have strayed from this state.
Themes
Pooh embodies P’u. At one point in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, for example, he can’t tell his left paw from his right. But this simplemindedness is his strength. In Taoism, simplicity doesn’t mean stupidity: it means calmness and reflection. Pooh’s simplicity—his P’u—makes him the books’ hero.
Even though he’s a stuffed bear, Pooh embodies the P’u, or natural state, of human beings—which is to calmly reflect on the world as they move effortlessly through it. His inability to tell left from right shows that he doesn’t approach the world through abstract concepts, but rather through his body and intuition. Taoists think that abstract concepts distance people from the truth, so people should live like Pooh if they want to be happy.
Themes
In another passage, Rabbit tries to lead Pooh and Piglet home, but keeps coming back to the same sand pit. Pooh tells Rabbit that maybe he’ll make it home if he goes looking for the sand pit instead. Rabbit thinks this is ridiculous, but agrees to try and disappears. With talkative Rabbit gone, Pooh leads Piglet home by listening to the sound of his honey pots calling to him. Hoff explains that Pooh’s simplicity is more valuable than Rabbit’s cleverness. In another passage, Pooh wishes Rabbit “a Very Happy Thursday,” but Rabbit doesn’t get it. Pooh remarks that Rabbit’s clever brain is “why he never understands anything.”
Rabbit’s cleverness is the opposite of Pooh’s P’u. Rabbit tries to impose his plans and ideas on the world, but he consistently fails—the world doesn’t act the way he wants it to. While Rabbit tries to order the world around, Pooh listens to the world and works with it. He’s highly attuned to nature: he observes it, notes patterns in it, and cooperates with it to find effortless solutions to his problems. Rabbit’s confusion at Pooh’s “Very Happy Thursday” remark underlines this point. While Rabbit needs an explanation in order to “understand[] anything,” Pooh intuitively understands the world because he lives in his P’u, or natural state. Like a tree in a thicket, Pooh occupies the place that he ought to, according to his inner nature, and is connected to other natural beings. As a result, he can navigate the world through his intuition (like by hearing his honey pots or seeing the beauty in an ordinary Thursday).
Themes
Similarly, the donkey Eeyore can’t be the books’ hero because of his sour attitude: he’s always complaining, so he can’t be wise, happy, or successful. In one passage, he looks at his reflection in a stream and calls himself pathetic. Pooh asks, “What’s the matter?” Eeyore replies that nothing matters. His attitude is sometimes darkly funny. In another passage, Pooh and Piglet visit Eeyore to make sure his house is okay after a storm. Eeyore responds by complaining that nobody cares about him enough to push over his house.
Kind of like Confucius or Buddha in The Vinegar Tasters, Eeyore is angry and bitter at life: he thinks that there’s something wrong with the world. As a result, he can’t appreciate the beauty or value in it. He overlooks good things or paints them in a negative light, like when he views his house being saved from the storm as evidence that nobody cares about him and fails to see that Pooh and Piglet visited him precisely because they do care about him. This is the opposite of the Taoist mindset, which sees beauty and goodness in nature’s underlying order (Tao), even in places where others do not.
Themes
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Hoff repeats that Pooh is lovable because of his simplicity. Since Pooh embodies the Uncarved Block, Hoff asks him to explain it. Concerned, Pooh insists that “I didn’t do it.” He blames Piglet, then they both blame Rabbit, who says he also hasn’t seen the Uncarved Block. Pooh and Piglet admit that they don’t know what the Uncarved Block is. Hoff argues that, because Pooh “just is” the Uncarved Block, he can't explain it in words.
Pooh can’t explain the Uncarved Block—but understanding it from an intellectual perspective isn’t necessary to actually embody it. As Hoff has already argued, it’s impossible to fully explain Taoist concepts like Tao and P’u—and it’s also impossible to fully understand them through such explanations. Instead, truly understanding Taoist principles requires living them out, and examples can teach them even better than explanations. So Hoff pokes fun at the difficulty of understanding Taoism through explanations when he humorously shows Piglet, Rabbit, and the Taoist master Pooh fail to understand the Uncarved Block.
Themes
Pooh embodies a fundamental Taoist secret: “Life is Fun.” After all, Pooh and Piglet have plenty of fun when they check on Eeyore’s house and wish Rabbit “a Very Happy Thursday.” Hoff concludes that the simple state of P’u lets people enjoy the simplicity of the world and take spontaneous actions that end up working out.
Taoism makes life fun by teaching people to realize their inner nature and appreciate the beauty in everyday life and the world. When people embody P’u, or fulfill their rightful place in nature, their spontaneous actions also tend to harmonize with the rest of nature, which is why those actions tend to work out.
Themes
