Christopher Robin Says No to Adulting: Personification and a Silly 'Ol Bear

By Natalie Odisho

Let’s Get Lit: Spotlight on Allegory

Why the new adventure of Christopher Robin brings life in and out of the Hundred Acre Wood. 

Did you know that Winnie-the-Pooh started as one adult’s solution to sleepless nights? Christopher Robin was named after English author A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, who needed bedtime stories to fall asleep.What originally began as a childhood story has grown to become a pastime for the world to enjoy. Today, Winnie-the-Pooh is one of the most successful, celebrated children’s stories in history.

Now a major motion picture, Christopher Robin retells a childhood classic through the eyes of an adult. As storytellers, A.A. Milne and Disney sprinkle the magic of childhood through personified stuffed animals with language, clothing and temperament.

Playing With Personification

By Bonnie Randall 

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly Contributor)

By definition, personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman. In literature, examples of personification number in the thousands, and each of us could present many of our own favorite examples of this device, (one of mine being Stephen King’s (not-so-sweet) ride, Christine).

Why personification works, as opposed to how to craft it, is the topic of this month’s article. When considered at base level, the idea that a place, object, or idea could be emboldened as a person seems not just absurd, but wholly unbelievable. Yet it works incredibly well in novels like Christine or movies like the soon-to-be released Collateral Beauty. Why?