The version of childhood constructed in A.A Milne's classic children's story, Winnie the Pooh, is both complex and contradictory. This can be clearly seen when analyzing Chapter Nine from the book.

Childhood is portrayed in Chapter 9 of A.A Milne's children's story, Winnie the Pooh, as both complex and contradictory. The version of childhood created is that childhood is a time for playing with friends (developing social skills), learning to problem solve and learning to become independent and brave. Childhood is a time when the child is illiterate thus can not speak, read or write well. Contradicting an element of childhood, as the child can show elements of problem solving, being independent and brave however at the same time the child is basically illiterate. The cultural assumption that underpins the story is that childhood is a time for curiosity, adventure and friendship. Children are not expected to have perfect grammar, this is evident when Pooh receives a "missage",illiterate, Pooh has to ask for help from someone "older" and literate to read it. Milne uses the contrast of mature characters such as Roo and Owl in order for the audience to distinctly understand the version of childhood that he constructs. These characters are important as they almost act as the parents, creating that sense of hierarchy within the text. Narrations are used and relied on to position the audience help them understand that a story is being told, as children are often find it hard to understand what is going on in from basic dialogue. Milne relies on repetition to emphasise the extremity of the rain "It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never in all his life..." The use of repetition of words such as 'rained' and 'days' creates a sense of drama for the audience. Also for children repetition is such a useful tool in helping them comprehend exactly how much it rained. As it is often when children are explaining something they say the important things over and over agin just so that you understand the importance of what happened.
Milne makes reference to the self-involved behaviour that children display. " The letter is a 'P', and so is that, and so is that, and 'P' means 'Pooh', so it is a very important Missage to me, and I can't read it." Pooh cannot read, however he is able to grasp the idea that Pooh starts with P so everything that is P is his or for him. There is a cultural assumption within this idea, that early childhood is a time when you are very self-invloved, as you don't do have that awareness of other people. As Pooh doesn't realise that 'P' could also stand for Piglet. Milne's Winnie the Pooh, creates implicit representations of childhood. Through the use cultural assumptions, childhood becomes a time when children learn how to make friends, a time for play, learning to problem solve, becoming independent and brave. It is also a time when being illiterate and a time when the child is self-involved.