Friday 28 January 2022

Problems of obesity in children's literature

The first example is Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne's greedy little bear, who is always looking for "a little something" whenever he goes out. He keeps many jars of "hunny" in his house also.

One morning, he notices a hole in a sandy bank, which is the entrance to his friend the Rabbit's house. Winnie squeezes through the hole with difficulty & accepts the host's hospitality of bread, milk & honey. However, Winnie gorges himself so much that he is stuck in the hole, trying to leave. Dismayed, the Rabbit goes out through a smaller back door & fetches their friend, Christopher Robin. He comes & sees the only solution is for Winnie to become slimmer by fasting. So Christopher reads him stories to pass the time & after a week, Winnie gets slim enough to be pulled out.

The second example is from the equally famous Beatrix Potter story, "Timmy Tiptoes", a fat squirrel, who goes to pick up nuts, with his wife Goody. Due to a misunderstanding, the other squirrels push him through a hole in a hollow tree trunk. But here, Timmy finds a friendly chipmunk, but cannot get out. Goody is distraught outside. But after a fortnight, a big wind blows off the top of the tree, & Timmy comes out & goes home with Goody. It can be noticed here that Timmy doesn't starve, but lives on the nuts stored in the hollow of the tree.

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