Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tao of Pooh, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Taoism, Nature, and Happiness
Knowledge vs. Wisdom
Self-Acceptance and Personal Growth
Western Culture and Eastern Wisdom
Summary
Analysis
In A House at Pooh Corner, Rabbit goes to visit Christopher Robin, but he isn’t home. Christopher has left a note that says, “GON OUT / BACKSON / BISY / BACKSON.” Rabbit can’t figure out what a Backson is, and neither can Owl. But Chuang-tse knows. He wrote about a man who tried to run away from his footprints and shadow. The man kept running faster and faster until he collapsed and died—he never realized that he could have avoided footprints and shadows by just standing in the shade.
Despite all their cleverness and scholarly knowledge, Rabbit and Owl are just as poor as Christopher Robin at spelling, and they can’t figure out what his note means. (It means “Gone out / Back soon / Busy / Back soon.”) Since they have knowledge (but not wisdom), they totally miss his deeper meaning, which Hoff expresses through Chuang-tse’s parable. This story suggests that many people try to achieve their goals through desperate activity when they can only achieve them through calm and reflection.
Themes
Hoff explains that Bisy Backsons are everywhere: they run around in parks, scurry down sidewalks, and live an “almost desperately active” life. Many fill their lives with sports and treat exercise as work. The out-of-breath Rabbit visits Hoff and explains that he’s been running around to visit Owl, Roo, and Tigger, looking for the Uncarved Block. Then he hurries off. Bisy Backsons are exhausting: they’re always doing something and going somewhere. That’s the opposite of what really makes people happy. In the Pooh books, Eeyore complains that Rabbit greets him while rushing by—Eeyore doesn’t even have time to reply.
Bisy Backsons are the people who live like Chuang-tse’s runner: they think that constant activity will bring them happiness, but Taoists know that happiness really comes from living a calm, reflective life. Rabbit exemplifies the Bisy Backson life because he’s looking for P’u, or the Uncarved Block, as though it were a hidden treasure. But really, the Uncarved Block isn’t hidden somewhere out in the world: it’s inside Rabbit himself. To reach it, he has to slow down, not speed up. Ironically, then, Rabbit’s frantic search for the Uncarved Block actually makes it much harder for him to find it.
Themes
Hoff quips that the Bisy Backson’s sign shouldn’t say “GONE OUT / BACK SOON,” but rather “BACK OUT / GONE SOON.” In the book, Rabbit and Pooh wonder where Christopher Robin went and what he’s looking for. A reward, suggests Hoff: Bisy Backsons always think they’ll get a “Great Reward” if they work hard enough.
Bisy Backsons are always going “BACK OUT” in search of their “Great Reward.” But even if they get this reward, they keep living in the same way, because they can’t think of any other way to live or pursue happiness. Because they’re always chasing after goals, they’re never fully present: they’re always on the verge of disappearing—they’re always going to be “GONE SOON.”
Themes
Pooh is sleeping on Hoff’s writing table, and he falls off. But he doesn’t mind: he was having a nightmare about an unreachable jar of honey that kept moving every time he tried to grab it. Hoff points out that a lot of people’s lives are like that: they’re always grasping for happiness, which they think is just “around the next corner.” Most of them end up bitter and unhappy. Pooh comments that these people “burn their toast a lot.” Then, Rabbit visits and impatiently reports that all of Roo’s blocks are “carved and painted.” He decides that Eeyore must have the Uncarved Block and rushes off to find him.
Pooh’s unreachable jar of honey represents the promise of the “Great Reward” that people always see “around the next corner.” As soon as they achieve one reward, they immediately fixate on another one. Like a mirage in the desert, happiness moves farther away every time Bisy Backsons think they’re getting closer to it. When Pooh says that these people “burn their toast a lot,” he means that they lose track of the present because they’re fantasizing about and chasing after some imaginary reward in the future. Again, Rabbit embodies this: as he frantically searches for the Uncarved Block, he even misses Pooh and Hoff’s conversation about how frantically searching for happiness is futile.
Themes
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Hoff argues that the Puritans were North America’s first Bisy Backsons. They spent their lives working hard in the fields—and starving to death. The wiser native people showed them how to follow the rhythms of the Earth and just farm naturally. But Americans eventually forgot it again. By now, they’ve ruined the soil and their food “taste[s] like cardboard.”
Hoff suggests that while Native Americans knew how to listen to nature—kind of like Taoists—the Puritans didn’t. Ironically, the harder they tried to grow crops, the less successful they were, because they tried to control the Earth instead of working in harmony with it. For Hoff, this Puritan mindset—that the Earth should be manipulated and controlled to yield crops—is the foundation of modern industrial agriculture.
Themes
Hoff asks Pooh why he’s not busy “doing something Important.” Pooh replies that he’s listening to the animals talk about how nice a day it is. That is important. Hoff points out that he could listen to the radio and learn about the news, but Pooh says this doesn’t really tell him about the world. He’s right.
Bisy Backsons constantly worry about “doing something Important,” meaning something that will get them closer to their Great Reward. But Pooh knows that paying attention to nature is important, because it’s what truly brings people peace and happiness. Again, Hoff thinks it’s more important for people to gather immediate, sense-based knowledge about the world around them than abstract information about what’s happening far away.
Themes
Hoff returns to the Europeans arriving in the New World. They couldn’t appreciate its beauty, so they tried to conquer it and kill its inhabitants instead. They didn’t even like singing (or bears), which astonishes Pooh. Eventually “the Miserable Puritan” became “the Restless Pioneer,” “the Lonely Cowboy,” and finally “the Bisy Backson.” All of them are rootless, unhappy, busy trying to change and conquer the world—instead of developing themselves.
Hoff portrays the Bisy Backson mindset as deeply rooted in American history and culture. In particular, it’s associated with American expansion, which is based on a view of the Earth as something to own and dominate, not something to listen to and cooperate with. Hoff views this failure to appreciate nature as a kind of original sin of American society—and he thinks that Americans have to give it up if they truly want to be happy.
Themes
Rabbit and Eeyore visit Hoff and Pooh. Eeyore explains the difference between a swamp and a bog, while Rabbit reports that Eeyore didn’t have the Uncarved Block, either. Rabbit asks what it is, and Pooh says it’s been him all along. Eeyore sarcastically notes that Rabbit is just trying to stay busy.
Rabbit, the Bisy Backson of the Hundred Acre Wood, finally runs out of options and pauses for long enough that Pooh and Hoff can explain what the Uncarved Block actually is. This represents the way Bisy Backsons only start looking for happiness in the right place—within themselves—once they’ve exhausted all their other options and hit rock bottom.
Themes
While Bisy Backsons worship youth, they actually destroy it through their busyness and obsession with saving time. Most countries have establishments where people go to chat, relax, and lose track of time—like teahouses in China. But Americans have hamburger stands, which hurry them up and ruin their health. The more Americans try to save time, the less time they actually have. They waste their whole lives working to save time. Unlike the Bisy Backsons, Taoists actually respect youth. Taoist sages famously live long lives while continuing to look and act young. For example, a man named Li Chung Yun reportedly lived to 256 by keeping to a daily Taoist practice.
Youth, happiness, and longevity are closely connected. Taoism knows how to achieve all three, and Bisy Backsons destroy all three by questing after them. They seem to view youth as an object that can be bought and possessed, not a quality of the self that can develop and deteriorate over time. Hoff criticizes hamburger stands because he thinks that being busy and efficient is incompatible with being truly happy. Hamburger stands don’t give people the luxury of sitting around and doing nothing. The lack of meaningful social spaces in the U.S. suggests that the Bisy Backson mindset isn’t just common there—it’s actually fundamental to the nation’s culture and way of life.
Themes
Similarly, in The House at Pooh Corner, Pooh realizes that the best thing in the world is the moment right before he starts eating honey. This shows that rewards aren’t as valuable as the time between them. Trying to guess what wrapped Christmas presents are is more fun than actually playing with whatever’s inside; as soon as people achieve their goals, they get bored and move on to another. The process of getting to goals is more important and enriching than the achievement of those goals. The secret to living well is enjoying the process, like Pooh does in the moment before he eats honey. This is the opposite of being a Bisy Backson.
Whereas Bisy Backsons only value the results of action, Taoists learn to value action itself. Therefore, they learn to enjoy their lives without constantly waiting for some “Great Reward” to instantly deliver them happiness. For Pooh, this means that he can be happy all the time, and not only in the moments when he’s eating honey. Hoff uses this example to suggest that the Taoist approach to happiness is more realistic, sustainable, and constructive than the Bisy Backson one.
Themes
