The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh Foolishness and Folly

Ironically, in assuming the foolishness of the bees, Pooh reveals his own foolishness. Oh, Pooh.

Especially in the first few chapters, Christopher Robin responds incredibly positively to Pooh's foolishness. Most of them end with a quote like this, in which CR expresses his love for Pooh immediately after the bear has done something, well, brainless. It's what we love about Pooh.

Pooh's lack of understanding, such as in this case when he and Piglet follow their own tracks around in circles, allows the reader—even a very young child—to be in on the joke while the characters are left in the dark. This is Milne's version of dramatic irony for young audiences. And it's an amazing source of fun.

Okay, so this isn't a quote, but Shepard's illustrations often help expose the folly of the characters. Take this one (and open up the book to look at it), where we see Eeyore's tail hanging on Owl's door. Once again, dramatic irony keeps us drawn in by providing tension that the characters aren't aware of yet. Only this time, it comes from the illustrations. Pay attention to the pictures!

Classic Pooh. We get his catch phrase, we get the drive for honey, we get the imagination, the forgetfulness, even the pondering. He's good at pondering. It goes to show you how much foolishness and folly define Milne's characters. The repetition of this running joke throughout the stories probably adds to the hilarity for young readers.

It's not all fun and games. Milne shows us the downside of being a fool...it's embarrassing. 

Here's the realization of one's own foolishness. Milne does it often throughout the books, and in this case he chooses to focus on the physical reaction. As the audience, we already know the story of Eeyore's house, even better than Christopher Robin does, so instead we get to delight in Pooh and Piglet getting up to speed with us. And for once, they know something CR doesn't know. 

Irony again. In his effort to be official and organized (by making a list), Pooh just ends up making a convoluted plan that makes him seem all the more silly.

Not even the smart ones are above the folly found in the Forest (we hope the alliteration helped drive our point home). While Owl and Rabbit see their conclusion about Christopher Robin's message as an intellectual triumph, we see their mistake. And we laugh.