Okay, let’s talk about Eeyore.
Thinking About Eeyore’s Mood
So, I was watching some old cartoons with my kid the other weekend, and Winnie the Pooh came on. And there was Eeyore, same as always, kinda slumped over, talking in that slow, sad voice. It got me thinking, just watching him drag his feet – why is he always so down? Is he supposed to be, like, clinically depressed, or is it just his personality in the story?
I decided to dig into this a bit, just out of curiosity. My first step was just to watch a few more bits focusing on him. I paid attention to how he talked and acted.
- He often expects the worst. Like, if they’re planning a picnic, he’ll probably mention how it’s likely to rain.
- His posture and voice are consistently low-energy. Everything seems like a big effort.
- Even when good things happen, his reaction is usually pretty muted, like he can’t quite believe it or expects it to go wrong soon.
- His little house made of sticks keeps falling apart, which can’t help his mood, right?
Looking for Reasons
After just watching, I poked around online a little. Didn’t go too deep, just wanted to see what other folks thought. Saw a lot of chatter. Some people are totally convinced he’s written to represent depression. Others think that’s reading too much into it, saying he’s just a classic pessimist character type, the ‘glass half empty’ guy.
I thought about his role in the group. He’s definitely part of the gang in the Hundred Acre Wood. They include him, they look for his tail, they try to cheer him up. He doesn’t seem totally isolated, which is interesting. He might be gloomy, but he still has friends who care about him, even if they don’t always understand his mood.
It also struck me how different he is from the others. You got Tigger bouncing off the walls, Pooh just kinda happily bumbling along, Piglet being anxious but often excited too. Eeyore provides a real contrast. Maybe that’s his main job in the stories? To show that not everyone is super cheerful all the time, and that’s okay?
My Takeaway
So, after mulling it over and watching him again, here’s where I landed. I don’t know if the author, A. A. Milne, specifically thought “I’m writing a depressed character” way back then, maybe not in the way we understand clinical depression today. But Eeyore definitely embodies a lot of those feelings – the low energy, the negative outlook, the feeling that things won’t get better.
For me, calling him “depressed” feels like putting a modern label on him. I kinda see him more as just naturally melancholic. He represents that part of life, or that type of personality, that’s just inherently a bit gloomy and expects the worst. He’s not necessarily broken, it’s just who he is in that world. And his friends accept him that way, which is maybe the nicest part of it all. That was my little journey into understanding Eeyore’s whole deal. Just one guy’s thoughts after watching some cartoons, you know?
