We're all familiar with the lovable characters created by A. A. Milne in the Pooh stories. The characters seem to depict certain qualities that we often find in ourselves. We sometimes feel small and weak like Piglet, or excited and sure like Tigger, or even morose and depressed like Eeyore. Milne did an excellent job of incorporating all of the basic characteristics of a society into his characters. Many of us overlook that fact with one of the characters. In all society, and element of evil is present, and the Hundred Acre Wood is not exception. In this storybook society, evil has the name Rabbit.

Many readers don't recognize Rabbit for the criminal that he truly is. However, a close examination of the stories shows this to be the case. For example, we have instances of Rabbit lying. I refer to Chapter 2 of "Winnie-the-Pooh" (WtP), 'IN WHICH Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Spot.'

	So [Pooh] bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:
	"Is anybody at home?" 
	There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then silence. 
	"What I said was, 'Is anybody at home?'" called out Pooh very loudly. 
	"No!" said a voice; and then added, "You needn't shout so loud. I heard you 
quite well the first time." 
	"Bother!" said Pooh. "Isn't there anybody here at all?" 
	"Nobody." 
	Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little, 
and he thought to himself, "There must be somebody there, because somebody must 
have _said_ 'Nobody.'" So he put his head back in the hole, and said: "Hallo, 
Rabbit, isn't that you?" 
	"No," said Rabbit, in a different sort of voice this time. 
	"But isn't that Rabbit's voice?" 
	"I don't _think_ so," said Rabbit. "It isn't _meant_ to be." 
	"Oh!" said Pooh. He took his head out of the hole, and had another think, 
and then he put it back, and said: "Well, could you very kindly tell me where 
Rabbit is?" 
	"He has gone to see his friend Pooh Bear, who is a great friend of his."

Many people will read this passage and note the humour in it. However, it's important to notice here that Rabbit is in fact lying. No other character in the stories lies (except perhaps for Eeyore, who goes on immediately to explain that it was a joke, or Pooh, although he was lying as a part of a plan Rabbit concocted) like Rabbit. Worse, this is not an isolated incident. Rabbit continues to lie to Pooh about his own identity in Chapter 8 of WtP, ' IN WHICH Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole.'

        
	The first person [Pooh] met was Rabbit.
	"Hallo, Rabbit," he said, "is that you?"
	"Let's pretend that it isn't," said Rabbit, "and we'll see what happens."
	"I've got a message for you."
	"I'll give it to him."

Lying does not a criminal make. However, this is just a sample of the evil convictions the permeate throughout the core of Rabbit's being. We find, through careful examinations of the stories, that Rabbit is elitist, and very self-centered. In Chapter 5 of "The House at Pooh Corner" (HaPC), Rabbit thought about visiting Kanga and Roo, all because Roo was the best in the Forest at saying "Yes, Rabbit" and "No, Rabbit." Obviously a creature looking for a yes-man to simply follow him around. Worse yet is his reason not to go.

    
	...but there was another animal there nowadays, the strange and Bouncy 
Tigger; and he was the sort of Tigger who was always in front when you were 
showing him the way anywhere, and was generally out of sight when at last 
you came to the place and said proudly "Here we are!"

In other words, the entire reason that Rabbit decides not to visit Roo, his favorite yes-man in the Forest, is because there is another character there that refuses to also be a yes-man to Rabbit. Rabbit then continues on and explains why he is Christopher Robin's favorite.

	"After all," said Rabbit to himself, "Christopher Robin depends on Me. He's 
fond of Pooh and Piglet and Eeyore, and so am I, but they haven't any Brain. 
Not to notice. And he respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody 
who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't 
everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count. And 
Kanga is too busy looking after Roo, and Roo is too young and Tigger is too 
bouncy to be any help, so there's really nobody but Me, when you come to look 
at it."

Once again, Rabbit stands out as the only character in the book that is elitist and prejudiced against the other characters, simply because they don't have any brains.

But where is the evil in that? Prejudice simply shows a lack of understanding, not evil intent, right? Only up to the point where you decide to act on your prejudice, and Rabbit does that plenty of times. Would you agree that brainwashing, kidnapping, and attempted murder constitute evil intentions? There are plenty of examples where Rabbit performs these very actions.

Brainwashing occurs in Chapter 7 of HaPC, 'IN WHICH Tigger is Unbounced.' Rabbit attempts to brainwash Tigger, and for what reason? "...it's time we taught [Tigger] a lesson." So Rabbit comes up with a plan to lure Tigger off into the woods and leave him there overnight. All alone, Rabbit expects that Tigger's personality will change dramatically. But we see the real reason for this endeavor when Pooh asks Rabbit why he want's to do this.

        
	"Because he'll be a Humble Tigger. Because he'll be a Sad Tigger, a Melancholy 
Tigger, a Small and Sorry Tigger, and Oh-Rabbit-I-_am_-glad-to-see-you Tigger. 
That's why."

If you recall, I mentioned earlier how it was that Rabbit refused to go to Kanga and Roo's place one afternoon all because Tigger was there. And I showed how Rabbit resented the fact that Tigger refused to just go along with Rabbit, following Rabbit blindly. That is what Rabbit desires most, and this plan is an attempt to bring Tigger into the mass of mindless minions that Rabbit wants following him.

Rabbit is obviously biased against any new-comers to the Forest, as his treatment of Tigger shows. The other new member to the Forest, Kanga, receives a similar treatment. We see this treatment in Chapter 7 of WtP, 'IN WHICH Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath.'

	"Here---we---are," said Rabbit very slowly and carefully, "all---of---us, 
and then, suddenly, we wake up one morning and, what do we find? We find a 
Strange Animal among us. An animal of whom we have never even heard before! 
An animal who carries her family about with her in her pocket!"
                               ...
	"The best way," said Rabbit, "would be this. The best way would be to steal 
Baby Roo and hide him, and then when Kanga says, 'Where's Baby Roo?' we say, 
'Aha!'"
                               ...
	"We say 'Aha!' so that Kanga knows that we know where Baby Roo is. 
'Aha!' means 'We'll tell you where Baby Roo is, if you promise to go away from
the Forest and never come back.'

Again, Rabbit's prejudices show forth. Imagine, an animal that carries around her family in her pocket! There is no room for acceptance. Rabbit simply sees someone different, and acts to remove them from his territory. Rabbit's plan to get rid of Kanga doesn't work. However, Rabbit does succeed with an even more nefarious plot. For while he is holding Roo hostage, he apparently manages to brainwash Roo. We see this in Rabbit's statement that Roo is the best in the Forest at saying "Yes, Rabbit" and "No, Rabbit." One more recruit in Rabbit's mindless minions.

Finally, Rabbit proves that he is willing to go to any lengths to get rid of an enemy. I refer to Chapter 6 of HaPC, 'IN WHICH Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins In.' In the previous chapter, we see that Eeyore is scornful of Rabbit.

	[Piglet speaking] "Yes, Eeyore. He's clever, Rabbit, is."
	"Clever!" said Eeyore scornfully, putton a foot heavily on his three sticks. 
"Education!" said Eeyore bitterly, jumping on his six sticks. "What is Learning?" 
asked Eeyore as he kicked his twelve sticks into the air. "A thing Rabbit knows! Ha!"

Obviously, there's some tension between Eeyore and Rabbit going on in the background. This all comes to a head as Eeyore is floating down the river in the midst of a Poohsticks game. Bounced in by Tigger, Eeyore is just floating down the middle of the river, stuck in an eddy. Pooh comes up with an idea to get Eeyore out of the river: throwing a large stone to the side of Eeyore so that it would make waves and push him off to the other side. Immediately, we see Rabbit tell Pooh that it's a good idea. We'll shortly see why.

	Rabbit began to feel that it was time he took command. "Now, Pooh," he said, 
"when I say 'Now!' you can drop it. Eeyore, when I say 'Now!' Pooh will drop his 
stone." 
	"Thank you very much, Rabbit, but I expect I shall know." 
	"Are you ready, Pooh? Piglet, give Pooh a little more room. Get back a bit there, 
Roo. Are you ready?" 
	"No," said Eeyore. 
	"Now!" said Rabbit. Pooh dropped his stone. There was a loud splash, and Eeyore
disappeared ...

From the previous chapter, we saw the tension between Eeyore and Rabbit. Now, when his adversary is stuck in the river, Rabbit sees his chance. Pooh's idea is one that he can work with. By taking command of the situation and telling Pooh when to drop the stone, he can get Pooh to drop the rock on Eeyore, which will either kill him from the impact, or likely cause him to drown. Fortunately, his effort was thwarted and Eeyore survived.

The evidence is clear. The world that A. A. Milne wrote was meant to be a utopia of sorts. But a utopian world cannot exist...something is bound to interfere. In the Hundred Acre Wood, that interference is caused by Rabbit. Through his prejudice, his elitism, and his need to control others, he causes strife throughout the forest. Years of conditioning by loyal readers and a silly appearance in the Disney cartoons have only confused the issue. Rabbit is, in this world, the embodiment of evil.