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In an interesting post by We Are The Mighty, Eric Milzarski theorizes that A. A. Milne, an English author and veteran of both World Wars, wrote Winnie the Pooh to explain the harsh reality of war to his own child when he penned the 1926 children’s classic.

As a young man, Alan Alexander Milne stood up for King and Country when it was announced that the United Kingdom had entered World War I. In 1915, he was commissioned as an officer member of the Royal Corps of Signals into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Soon after, he was sent to France to fight in the Battle of the Somme.

Somme Offensive | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books
World War 1. Somme Offensive. Scottish Highland regiment advancing under fire during the taking of Longueval, July 28, 1916.

The description, “Hell on Earth” is apt, but doesn’t come close to fully describing the carnage of what became the bloodiest battle in human history. More than three million men fought and one million men were wounded or killed, with many of Milne’s closest friends among the casualties. Bodies were stacked in the flooded-out trenches where other men lived, fought, and died.

On August 10, 1915, Milne and his men were sent to enable communications by laying a telephone line dangerously close to an enemy position. He tried warning his command of the foolishness of the action to no avail. Two days later, he and his battalion were attacked, just as he had foreseen. Sixty British men perished in an instant. Milne was one of the hundred or so badly wounded in the ambush. He was sent home for his wounds suffered that day.

Milne returned to his wife, Daphne de Selincourt, and spent many years recovering physically. Writing became his therapeutic outlet for handling his shell shock, now known as post-traumatic stress.

On August 21, 1920, his son, Christopher Robin Milne, was born. Alan put his writings on hold so he could be the best possible father to his baby boy.

Winnipeg the Bear

One fateful day, he took his son to the London Zoo where they bonded over enjoying a new visitor to the park, a little Canadian Black Bear named Winnipeg (or Winnie for short). Alan was drawn to the bear because it had been a mascot used by the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WWI. Despite being one of the most terrifying creatures in the zoo, Winnie was reclusive, often shying away from people.

Alan saw himself in that bear. At the same time, Christopher loved the bear for being cuddly and cute. Understandably, Alan bought his son a teddy — the real-life Winnie the Pooh bear.

‘Winnie the Pooh’ was created by a vet explaining war to his boy
Christopher’s original toys. It all kind of makes you think about that line Winnie’s says to Christopher, “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” (New York Public Library, via We Are the Mighty)

The demons of war followed Milne throughout his life. It was noted that when Christopher was little, Alan terrified him when he confused a swarm of buzzing bees with whizzing bullets. The popping of balloons sent him ducking for cover. Milne knew of only one way to explain to his son what was happening — through his writing. A.A. Milne started writing a collection of short stories entitled Winnie-the-Pooh.

Winnie-the-Pooh and PTSD

The book was written specifically for one child, by name, and features the stuffed animals that the boy loved. However, the stories may also have been a way for Milne to deal with his own post-traumatic stress and, perhaps, even explain it to his six-year-old son.

Every stuffed friend in the Hundred Acre Woods is a child-friendly representation of a characteristic of post-traumatic stress:

  • Piglet is paranoia,
  • Eeyore is depression,
  • Tigger is impulsive behaviors,
  • Rabbit is perfectionism-caused aggression,
  • Owl is memory loss,
  • Kanga and Roo represent over-protection.
  • This leaves Winnie, who Alan wrote in for himself as Christopher Robin’s guide through the Hundred Acre Woods — his father’s mind.

The books were published on October 14, 1926. As a child, Christopher Robin embraced the connection to his father, but as the books grew in popularity, he would resent being mocked for his namesake character. Christopher Robin Milne eventually followed in his father’s footsteps and they both served in the Second World War. His father was a Captain in the British Home Guard and he served as a sapper in the Royal Engineers. It was only after his service that he grew to accept his father’s stories and embraced his legacy, which endures to this day.