A Study of Friendships in Fantasy Stories—Using Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner as Examplesas Examples

• Main Authors: SUNG,CHIN-MEI, 宋金梅
• Other Authors: KUO,CHIEN-HUA
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73014907153453830494

碩士 === 國立臺東大學 === 兒童文學研究所 === 97 === Abstract Alan Alexander Milne (1882~1956) was a British writer of children’s literature. Based on his son Christopher Robin’s play with the toy bear, Milne completed two great children’s books, namely Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. In these two books, Milne depicts personality traits of personified characters using friendly and humorous tones to present the heart-warming friendships in the Hundred Acre Wood. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions among characters, development of friendships, and conflicts or balances in friendship in these two books as well as their inspirations for child readers. “Textual analysis” method was adopted. The theoretic foundation of this research was as follows: The factors of interpersonal relationships in Interpersonal Relationships asserted by Diana Dwyer were employed to discuss the friendships among characters in these texts. The five development stages of friendship proposed by Levinger and Levinger, including “acquaintance,” “buildup,” “continuation,” “deterioration,” and “ending” and the social skills that help maintain and sustain a friendship in its development stage suggested by Selman were employed to explore the development of and changes in the friendships. In the study of cognitive psychology, Piaget proposes that while one adapts to the environment, he maintains a psychological equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation of his cognitive structures or schemas to acquire new knowledge and experience. In this study, this theory was also employed to examine the changes of psychology and behaviors in the characters. Through analysis, it was found that frequent interactions among characters increase opportunities for them to get along and develop friendships, and friendships between characters with similar traits are more likely to develop into more intimate relationships. In their interactions, maintenance of friendships relies on mutual care, reciprocal treatment, mutual support, offering compliments to each other, and increase of confidence. All these social skills can help maintain and sustain development of friendships. In the development of friendships, they need to find a balance in the conflicts between internal and external needs and between assimilation and individual adaptation to obtain self-identity. Research result showed the uniqueness of friendships in these two children’s books lies in all the characters' positive attitude toward development of friendships. Besides, the content of the stories is so vivid and close to the reality that it can provide child readers with role-taking experiences and lead them to actively offer care to friends, establish positive peer relationships, and pursue their value of life.