The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh Coming of Age Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Book Title.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

GON OUT / BACKSON / BISY / BACKSON. / C. R. (House.5.11.). […] GONE OUT / BACK SOON / C. R. (House.5.128)

Milne shows us Christopher Robin's intellectual development through these improvements in his literacy. Within the same story, we see him go from emergent literacy's invented spelling to correct spelling and spacing. 

Quote #5

By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day." But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late. (House.6.1)

Metaphor anyone? What's interesting here is that Milne doesn't necessarily place judgment on either the vision of childhood or adulthood. With his idealized view of youth, we might expect him to show being a grown-up as all work and worry. But no. There's something good on the other side of Christopher Robin's journey—a confident and steady sense of direction.

Quote #6

Christopher Robin was going away. Nobody knew why he was going; nobody knew where he was going; indeed, nobody even knew why he knew that Christopher Robin was going away. (House.10.1)

Christopher Robin's physical departure from the Forest emphasizes the enormous transformation that children go through from pre-school to school-age years. As members of his childhood world, the other characters have no knowledge of what lies beyond. Being limited to the innocent world of the Forest, they help us recognize CR's need to leave for a bigger and broader world.