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Angela Smith
Paddington Bear: A Case Study
of Immigration and Otherness
This paper seeks to explore issues of immigration and Otherness
through a study of the first of Michael Bond’s Paddington books. I
will argue that this book and those which follow in the series,
intended for a readership of young children, deal with the issue of
immigration at a more subtle level than more recent books which
are largely aimed at older children who, it is assumed, are better
able to cope with the complex political and psychological issues
involved. Paddington, as a series of books begun in the late 1950s,
presents issues of anti-racism and ‘Otherness’ which can be revealed
through a close textual analysis of the introductory chapters of the
first book in series, A Bear Called Paddington (1958)
1
, whilst also
showing how the dominant culture retains its superior status.
KEY WORDS: anti-racism; immigration; Otherness; critical discourse analysis.
Although multiculturalism is integral to the day-to-day life of most parts
of the world, Van Dijk et al. (1997, p. 144) have observed that ‘cultural
misunderstanding, ethnic conflict, prejudice, xenophobia, ethnocen-
trism, anti-Semitism and racism frequently characterise relations be-
tween groups that are somehow ‘‘different’’ from each other.’ The
groups of individuals which do not exhibit the characteristics of the
dominant group or culture are often subject to misrepresentation or
misunderstanding, leading to them being marked as out-group mem-
bers through complex strategies of Othering (Smith, 1991). Despite
the fact that everyone has an ethnic identity, it tends to be emphasised
mainly for minority groups who are treated largely as outsiders to the
majority norm. The effect of this is that the distinctive nature of
minority groups is constantly flagged. This representation in turn
reinforces the perception of these groups as different or Other and,
Angela Smith is Senior
Lecturer in Language and
Culture at the University
of Sunderland, where she
teaches in the areas of
sociolinguistics and chil-
dren’s language acquisi-
tion. She has published
articles on issues relating
to language and gender
and language and the
media.
Van Dijk, ‘Discourse,
ethnicity, culture and
racism’
Smith, National Identity
Children’s Literature in Education, Vol. 37, No. 1, March 2006 (Ó2006)
DOI: 10.1007/s10583-005-9453-3
35
0045-6713/06/0300-0035/0 Ó2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
sometimes, as threateningly distinct to the norm. In terms of ‘us’ and
‘them’, the majority stance can be expressed as ‘they’ [the minority]
live in ‘our’ land and should be part of ‘our’ culture, learning ‘our’
language and social norms. In such situations, the majority’s ethnic
identity becomes invisible (because it is ‘normal’) and that of Others,
marked.
In the past half century the Western European press has been con-
cerned with matters of immigration, especially ‘illegal immigration’.
This has been particularly noticeable in the last 10 years. In Britain, as
in other countries, there are frequent scare-mongering headlines
highlighting a perceived threat to the purity of the nation from the
supposed taint of immigration as well as concerns about immigrants
taking ‘our’ jobs and (paradoxically) state benefits, thus conflating it
with racism. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall has pointed out that, although
instances of overt racism occasionally arise, the restraining influence
of the norms of political correctness has led to the more widespread
use of covert or inferential racism. Hall defines this form of less overt
racism as consisting of
those apparently naturalised representations of events and situations
relating to race, whether ‘factual’ or ‘fictional’, which have racist pre-
mises and propositions inscribed in them as a set of unquestioned
assumptions. These enable racist statements to be formulated without
ever bringing into awareness the racist predicates on which the state-
ments are grounded (Hall, 1990, p13).
He goes on to point out that ‘inferential racism is more widespread
[than overt racism] – and in many ways more insidious, because it is
largely invisible even to those who formulate the world in its term-
s’(ibid), through common sense assumptions about what is ‘normal’ in
the dominant culture. ‘Race’ as a social construct is used as ‘a legiti-
mising ideological tool to oppress and exploit specific social groups’
(Reisigl & Wodak, 2001, p. 2) by which means certain minority groups
are denied access to material, cultural and political resources.
In the 1970s, inferential and overt racism were highlighted in chil-
dren’s books in Britain by many critics, perhaps most famously by Bob
Dixon (1976). This led to widely-reported instances of well-meaning
librarians and teachers withdrawing some Enid Blyton books such as
the Noddy series from the shelves of classrooms and children’s
libraries. As Sutherland has discussed in detail elsewhere (1985), at the
same time ‘classics’ such as PL Travers’ Mary Poppins were edited to
remove racial stereotypes (by replacing human racial stereotypes with
animals in Travers’ case). Notably, from this period onwards, writers of
children’s books sought to promote anti-racist discourses. There are
several books which offer tales in the realist mode dealing with
Hall, ‘The whites of their
eyes’
Reisigl and Wodak,
Discourse and
Discrimination
Dixon, Catching Them
Young I
Sutherland, ‘Hidden
Persuaders’
Travers, Mary Poppins
36 Children’s Literature in Education
contemporary wars in Africa or Afghanistan as a backdrop to a char-
acter’s move to the West (such as Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy
(2001) and Alan Gibbons’ The Dark Beneath (2003)) representing the
‘immigrant’ in a positive, sympathetic light. For younger readers, Mary
Hoffman’s Grace books (1991 onwards) offer an insight into the life of
a second-generation immigrant family through the eyes of the epony-
mous hero, but the actual topic of immigration is dealt with only
implicitly through Grace’s grandmother’s stories of life in the West
Indies. However, as Hollindale has argued (1992, p. 36), books which
seek to actively educate children in anti-racist morality can be coun-
terproductive if they are too overt. In a broader context, overtly anti-
racist texts can actually deepen children’s entrenched attitudes,
whether these be racist or liberal. As Hollindale observes with regret,
‘if it were not so, the stresses on our social fabric would be a great deal
easier to deal with’ (1992, pp. 36–37). Pinsent has defined ‘anti-racist’
fictions as those books which tend ‘particularly to focus on one or two
individuals who are at least for a time alienated from their community’
(1997, p. 106), yet are themselves represented as positive characters
with whom we can sympathise. Amongst the earliest of those she lists
are Paula Fox’s (1973) The Slave Dancer and Bernard Ashley’s (1974)
The Trouble with Donovan Croft which employ such alienating de-
vices to facilitate a focus on racist attitudes ‘in a way which a fully
rounded portrayal of society would not allow’ (1997, p. 106). The
device of the arrival of a newcomer in an alien culture is one which is
commonly found in narratives. I would argue that such a strategy is
deployed to introduce a positive immigrant character in Bond’s
Paddington books which were published much earlier than the
1970s.
The first book in this immensely popular series, A Bear Called
Paddington, appeared in October 1958. Bond has described how the
inspiration for the character came from the purchase of a last-minute
Christmas present for his wife; the only remaining toy bear left on the
shelf in Selfridges on Christmas Eve, 1956. The story of Paddington
emerged from an amalgam of residual war-time images which had
remained with Bond since his time as a young serviceman in the early
1940s. He has described the lasting images of evacuees leaving London
during the Second World War, with luggage labels around their necks
and their possessions crammed into small suitcases. Interestingly,
Paddington is an evacuee to London, not from it, thus framing London
as a safe haven rather than a war-time place of danger. Added to this,
London in the 1950s was becoming rapidly more multicultural than
ever before. The first of many large groups of West Indians (frequently
called ‘Windrush’ immigrants after the Empire Windrush on which
they had sailed) had arrived in 1948, adding to this cultural mix. The
differences between these new immigrants and the more established,
Zephaniah, Refugee Boy
Gibbons, The Dark
Beneath
Homan, Amazing Grace
Hollindale, ‘Ideology
and the children’s book’
Pinsent, Children’s
Literature and the
Politics of Equality
Fox, The Slave Dancer
Ashley, The Trouble
with Donovan Croft
Bond, A Bear Called
Paddington
37Paddington Bear
dominant ethnic groups in London at this time did not always sit
comfortably. Indeed, by the summer of 1958, just before the first
Paddington book was published, there was severe racial tension in
some of the main cities in Britain which led to media reports of the
worst race riots Britain had ever seen. In particular, the Notting Hill
riots have passed into history as a watershed in race relations in Brit-
ain. It is against this backdrop that Bond produced the first Padding-
ton book, explicitly locating the stories in the Notting Hill area.
As Hollindale points out, ‘a large part of any book is written not by its
author but by the world its author lives in’ (1992, p. 32). I would like
to argue that the case for Paddington being a refugee or immigrant
actually runs deeper within this first book than Bond has claimed.
Using close textual analysis of the first two chapters, I hope to show
that Paddington, right from the start, exhibits some of the behaviour of
an adult foreigner. He is represented in a positive light as a sympa-
thetic character whilst also being portrayed as Other under the
(benevolent) control of the dominant culture. Using a critical dis-
course analysis framework, I hope to demonstrate the greater com-
plexities of Bond’s creation of a ‘foreign’ character who is, by his own
admission, an illegal immigrant. As we shall see, when we as readers
are introduced to Paddington in the opening chapters, he is presented
as Other to us and the characters he meets. In later chapters and
books, this Otherness is used to question the dominant culture in a
more explicit manner that goes some way towards disputing Hunt and
Sands’ (2000) argument that these books are typical of post-empire
children’s books which reinforce positive images of an imperial Britain.
Within Bond’s Paddington books, the eponymous hero is subject to
the power vested in the Browns through their place as middle-class
members of the dominant culture. The linguistic choices made by
Bond reflect this underlying ideology which, as Hunt and Sands (2000)
have observed, is firmly rooted in a pre-war, imperial Britain, although
aspects of this culture are not always unquestioned. After all, Padd-
ington’s Aunt Lucy has taught him English in preparation for his
emigration to a better life in Britain. However, Paddington’s place as
an immigrant involves wider issues of assimilation into the dominant
culture. Close textual analysis allows for an exploration of Padding-
ton’s construction as a genial Other through a variety of linguistic
strategies after an initially uncertain introduction.
Bond has recounted the tale of how the character Paddington Bear
came to originate in Peru, the original location of Africa being dis-
counted by his publisher on the grounds that bears had been extinct
there for centuries. This link between African immigration and Bond’s
character is replaced by one which is less obviously a starting place for
Hunt and Sands, ‘British
Empire and Post-Empire
Children’s Literature’
38 Children’s Literature in Education
immigration to Britain: South America. Bond claims that he settled on
Peru as the species of bear found there was ‘about the right size and
nothing much is known about them, which seemed a good thing’
(www.harpercollins.com)
2
. The adjective ‘Darkest’, in Bond’s words,
added a ‘touch of mystery’, but also acts as a semantic link to ‘Darkest
Africa’. The explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley recounted
his imperialistic ‘adventures’ in Africa in books such as Through the
Dark Continent (1878), In Darkest Africa (1890) and My Dark
Companions and their Strange Stories (1893), using the adjective
darkest reflecting the Europeans’ view of the mystery of that vast
continent as well as to refer to the dark-skinned races he encountered
there. His real-life adventures inspired children’s stories, as well as
those intended for a more adult readership, which drew on the impe-
rialistic assumption that Africa was a continent in need of civilising, its
people at best portrayed as ‘noble savages’. Therefore, the ‘mystery’
Bond refers to is tied uncomfortably up in a colonial past that will
become part of the underlying message in these books where Britain is
largely (but not wholly) uncritically presented as ‘a good thing’.
The opening paragraph of A Bear Called Paddington neatly summa-
rises the rest of the chapter, omitting the complicated narrative
undercurrents that construct Paddington as an immigrant:
Mr and Mrs Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform. In fact,
that was how he came to have such an unusual name for a bear, for
Paddington was the name of the station. (BCP, p7)
3
Here, the transactive verb met carries equal status to the participants,
although by placing the Browns in primary position, Paddington is
rendered less powerful. There is also an assumption that he had no name
before arriving; his past including his name does not exist before he
meets the Browns at the station. Like many immigrants, Paddington
arrives in the country apparently without a name or any other form of
identity. The first sighting we have is through Mrs Brown’s eyes. The
certainties of the authorial narration which open the story have van-
ished:
Mrs Brown followed the direction of [Mr Brown’s] arm and dimly made
out a small, furry object in the shadows. It seemed to be sitting on some
kind of suitcase and around its neck there was a label with some writing
on it. The suitcase was old and battered and on the side, in large letters,
were the words WANTED ON VOYAGE. [...]
She peered at it more closely. It seemed a very unusual kind of bear. It
was brown in colour, a rather dirty brown, and it was wearing a most
odd-looking hat, with a wide brim, just as Mr Brown had said. From
beneath the brim two large, round eyes stared back at her.
39Paddington Bear
Seeing that something was expected of it the bear stood up and politely
raised its hat, revealing two black ears. ‘Good afternoon,’ it said, in a
small, clear voice. (BCP, pp. 8–9)
The bear is described through the consciousness of the human char-
acters as being Other through adjectives such as unusual and odd-
looking. One strategy commonly used to dehumanise the Other is to
use gender-neutral pronouns (for example, see Reisigl & Wodak, 2001)
and in this passage it is deployed, despite the fact we have already
been introduced to a male bear in the opening paragraph
4
. That this
bear is not part of the dominant culture is further constructed through
a lack of comprehension relating to the bear’s actions, possessions and
appearance. In fact, through Mrs Brown’s consciousness he is initially
not even allowed to be an animal, instead being an ‘object’. The action
of sitting on a suitcase is tentatively prefixed by seemed to be, which
reflects the behavioural uncertainty of the Other. Even the suitcase
lacks a clear identity, being described vaguely as ‘some kind of suit-
case’, implying it is not of a known variety.
Having established Mr Brown was right in identifying the object as a
bear, again Mrs Brown’s consciousness takes over and we are given a
more detailed physical description that intensifies this Otherness. Not
allowed to be simply a bear, this is a ‘very unusual kind of bear’,
although how this differs from the normal expectations of what a bear
(even in children’s fantasy fiction) should look like, we do not learn.
Instead, a negatively-charged description follows in which the travel-
soiled arrival is disapprovingly described as being ‘a rather dirty
brown’ and, eventually, is revealed to have ‘two black ears’
5
. This
shadowy creature is further visualised as Other by a hat which is
initially described by Mr Brown as ‘a funny kind of hat’ and later
through Mrs Brown’s consciousness as being ‘most odd-looking’. They
are unable to attach a name to this hat as it does not belong to their
known hyponymy of headwear, although later we learn from Padd-
ington that this is a ‘bush hat’, a description which serves to intensify
his Otherness through its obvious foreignness (BCP, p. 48).
The first action ascribed to Paddington is in the metonymic attribution
of ‘two large, round eyes’ staring at Mrs Brown from beneath the brim
of this peculiar hat. The use of stare may also imply a more thoughtful,
intelligent observer than the strange, genderless animal of the pre-
ceding paragraphs might have led us to believe. Any menace is further
removed by the switch into Paddington’s consciousness and the use of
the mental process verb seeing which offers him an insight into the
expectations of others, as Paddington stands and raises his hat to the
Browns. When he speaks, we learn that it is with a ‘small, clear voice’,
carrying with it no bear-like menace or marked ‘foreign’ accent
6
.Heis
40 Children’s Literature in Education
presented as a willing learner who has already adopted the dominant
culture’s language.
In fact, we see Paddington extending the conventions of formal (hu-
man) politeness to the Browns whilst they are content to peer at him
and talk about him as if he were an animal in the zoo, or a stranger
from another land whose appearance betrays little knowledge of the
society in which he has arrived. Mrs Brown’s first comment to Padd-
ington could be interpreted as a face threatening act (Brown & Lev-
inson, 1978), where the addressee’s positive face, or desire to be liked,
is threatened. Here the threat to Paddington’s positive face comes in
Mrs Brown’s declaration, ‘You’re a very small bear.’ Paddington
responds to this perceived criticism by asserting ‘I’m a very rare sort of
bear’ (BCP, pp. 9–10), again demonstrating self-awareness and intelli-
gence as well as a pride in his ethnicity and Otherness which is often
the cause of benign amusement.
Paddington’s status as an illegal immigrant is quickly established when
he responds to the Browns’ questions about where he has come from:
The bear looked around carefully before replying. ‘Darkest Peru. I’m not
really supposed to be here at all. I’m a stowaway!’
‘A stowaway?’ Mr Brown lowered his voice and looked anxiously over
his shoulder. He almost expected to see a policeman standing behind
him with a notebook and pencil, taking everything down. (BCP, p10)
The use of the nominalisation stowaway carries connotations of
romantic adventure and thus is an interesting choice from the range of
possible lexemes Bond could have chosen, such as immigrant or
refugee. Both Paddington and Mr Brown are apparently aware of the
illegality of this situation and are careful they are not overheard. What
would be the fate of this ‘stowaway’ at the hands of the police is left
unspoken, although we are led to assume it would certainly be an
unpleasant experience, triggered by the cautionary adverbs carefully
and anxiously. Instead, Paddington’s safety is sealed shortly after this
when Mrs Brown chances to read the label around his neck: ‘PLEASE
LOOK AFTER THIS BEAR. THANK YOU’ (BCP, p. 11). Bond states that
he based the characters of Mr and Mrs Brown on his own parents and
tried to imagine what they would do had they found an evacuee in
London. Again, basing their reaction on war-time experiences, he
decided they would have taken in such an evacuee. The use of ‘thank
you’ on the label assumes compliance with the request to look after
the (still nameless) bear.
The choice of name for the bear is worthy of note. Through the use
of no other explanation other than the employment of gendered
Brown and Levinson,
Politeness
41Paddington Bear
pronouns that the bear is male, it is Paddington himself who intro-
duces the problem of his own name: ‘The bear raised its hat politely –
twice. ‘‘I haven’t really got a name,’’ he said. ‘‘Only a Peruvian one
which no one can understand.’’’ (BCP, p. 13). Here, the bear is still in
the fluid state of gendered identity, but is less frequently it. Written at
a time when wearing hats was the norm, Paddington is frequently
described as employing the specifically male politeness strategy of
raising his hat in greeting or courtesy. Here, however, he raises it
twice, as if apologising in advance for what he is about to say. The
premodifier really here indicates that he does in fact have a name. He
expands on this, placing minimal emphasis on his real name, down-
playing its Peruvian origins, and claiming it is one which ‘no-one can
understand’. Who these people are is never explained, but the use of
the mental process verb understand rather than the more expected
pronounce is further evidence of Paddington’s Otherness. In fact, in
later books, we learn his Peruvian name is Pastuso, which is quite
easily pronouncable by English speakers but, as Paddington himself
has suggested, is not easily translatable into a comparable ‘English’
name. In these early books, none of the other characters takes the time
to ask Paddington about his ‘real’ name. He is treated in much the
same way as, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, immigrants to
Anglophone countries such as Britain and America would be given
English-sounding names by immigration officers or even by their own
choice in order to assimilate more readily into the dominant culture
(for example, see Castles & Miller 1998). Like these immigrants,
Paddington has arrived at his intended destination without a clearly
defined identity or recognisable past. As Hunt and Sands have ob-
served, it would appear that ‘Paddington sacrifices all he knows in
order to achieve kinship with England: this includes not only his lan-
guage, but his name as well’ (2000, p. 48).
The arrival of the actual name Paddington is remarkable for the lack of
attention given to the personal opinion of this demonstrably intelligent
bear. Mrs Brown declares ‘We’d better give you an English one’ (BCP,
p. 13), leaving no room for Paddington himself to offer a suggestion.
The active agency of the native humans is further highlighted by the
decision to call him after the station where ‘we found you’ (BCP, p.
14). The only opinion the bear offers is that ‘it seems a very long name’
(indeed, in the next chapter we find Paddington having problems
spelling this name before settling on ‘Padingtun’, which remains his
orthographical representation of this name for the rest of the series),
but these reservations are discounted by the authoritative Mr Brown
who declares: ‘Quite distinguished. [...] Yes, I like Paddington as a
name. Paddington it shall be’ (BCP, p. 14). This declarative speech act
(Searle, 1969) seems to have felicity conditions
7
that only those from
the dominant culture are vested with the power to bestow a new
Castles and Miller, The
Age of Migration
Searle, Speech Acts
42 Children’s Literature in Education
name on an immigrant, as discussed above, and is further evidence of
the dominant forces that are controlling the Other.
8
Blount has pointed to the joke which is carried throughout the series
that Paddington ‘is a bear trying to be, and succeeding in being, a
person, with the inevitable farcical mistakes. Not only is human life
foreign to him, but English human life as well, as he comes from Peru.
He is both a child trying to grow up and a character from Mars
observing the contemporary scene’ (1977, p. 310). We can see the
start of this in the first chapter when the newly named Paddington is
taken to the buffet for tea and cream buns by Mr Brown. Paddington’s
cultural Otherness is emphasised through his request to drink tea from
a saucer and to stand on the table to eat, both of which mark him as
different from the expected table manners of the dominant culture.
Although the necessity of both of these actions is explained by
Paddington as owing to his physical attributes (paws instead of hands,
short stature which means he is unable to see clearly over the table top
when ‘correctly’ seated), Mr Brown is embarrassed as Paddington’s
‘different’ table manners attract the attention of the other buffet users.
This emphasis on the difference between the dominant culture and
Paddington’s Otherness does indeed form the joke Blount refers to
but, in offering Paddington’s own explanation or understanding, adds
a more subtle dimension to his Othering whereby he is never pre-
sented as a fool.
The introduction of the Browns’ daughter, Judy, leads to the first
indirect enquiry about his past when she says ‘I’m sure you must have
had lots of wonderful adventures’ (BCP, p. 20). The noun phrase
wonderful adventures links back to the romance of the stowaway,
and triggers the assumption that Paddington’s journey has been a
positive experience, full of excitement. Although he is occasionally
asked such questions again, it is not until later books in the series that
we learn anything about Paddington’s life in Peru. The humans in A
Bear Called Paddington appear to be quite lacking in curiosity about
their guest’s past. As is found in the case of many immigrants to
Western Europe, there is a general lack of concern about immigrants’
countries of origin and cultural norms. This adds to the level of control
exerted over the Other as their identity is reformed in line with the
dominant culture’s expectations and customs. As Fanon notes, the
dominant culture of the colonizer turns ‘to the past of the oppressed
people, and distorts, disfigures, and destroys it’ (1995, p. 154). In the
Paddington stories, as Hunt and Sands have observed, the characters
‘embrace this destruction willingly: they represent an English author’s
attitude of how a foreigner should ingratiate him- or herself into British
society, and the key word is sacrifice’ (2000, p. 48). The dominant
culture is presented largely uncritically (although there is a hint of
Blount, Animal Land
Fanon, National Culture
43Paddington Bear
intolerance towards anyone who does not comply with the (adult?)
dominant culture in the character of the disagreeable Mr Curry), and
Paddington is a model immigrant in his attempts at assimilation.
Occasionally as readers of Paddington books we learn about differ-
ences between England and Paddington’s Peru. For example, in this
first chapter, during the cab ride to the Browns’ house we are given
Paddington’s view of London: ‘There were people and cars and big,
red buses everywhere – it wasn’t a bit like Darkest Peru.’ (BCP, p. 21).
From this the reader is invited to assume Peru is an un-Westernised
country which is not heavily urbanised. However, the earlier infor-
mation that Aunt Lucy is in a home for retired bears offers a link
between the known civilisation of the British Welfare State and some
similar system in Peru. Nevertheless, as Hunt and Sands (2000, p. 48)
have commented, for readers of Paddington books, ‘Peru remains
dark’.
Paddington’s Otherness is again subtly highlighted in his view of his
new room at the Browns’ house:
There was a large bed with white sheets against one wall and several big
boxes, one with a mirror on it. Judy pulled open a drawer in one of the
boxes. ‘This is called a chest of drawers,’ she said. ‘You’ll be able to keep
all your things in here.’ (BCP, p. 28)
The cultural differences between Paddington’s Peruvian world and
that of 1950s London are clear here in that he is unable to identify the
chest of drawers and wardrobe as being useful items of furniture. Judy
seems to understand this and, without needing to be asked, instantly
assumes the role of teacher and explains the name and purpose of one
of these mysterious boxes.
It is at this point that we learn the contents of Paddington’s suitcase: a
jar of marmalade, his scrapbook, some centavos and a ‘tattered pho-
tograph’ of his Aunt Lucy. This sorry collection of belongings is
indicative of the meagre possessions of an immigrant who has had to
travel light. These are the bare essentials for existence (food and
money) along with some rudimentary mementoes of the past. It is
perhaps evidence of Paddington not being a child that this collection
does not include any toys.
Blount (1977, p310) has observed that ‘Paddington is cast in the role of
the observant stranger, or foreigner which he fulfils at the same time as
being a live object, the lost or strayed pet that has been adopted and
cared for’, thus identifying his dual role as amiable immigrant and
dependant innocent. Almost straight away, the Browns decided to
44 Children’s Literature in Education
keep Paddington thus marking him as something which can function
as a possession, emphasising the dominant culture’s control over the
Other, however compassionately intended. In discussing pocket
money, Mrs Brown declares Paddington can have ‘the same as the
other children’ (BCP, p. 32), other triggering the assumption that
Paddington can be part of the dominant (human) culture. Only Mrs
Bird sees him as something other than human in this respect when she
remarks ‘I’ve always had a soft spot for bears myself. It’ll be nice to
have one about the house’ (BCP, p. 33). Here, Paddington is rendered
less human than the stray pet Blount has observed.
As a non-human character, Paddington is unusual in children’s books
in that he is not a toy (such as Winnie-the-Pooh) or an animal living in a
primarily animal world (such as Rupert). No-one queries his place as a
talking, thinking bear in the human world. In fact, such is the lack of
curiosity as to his place in the human world, in the later book Padd-
ington Goes to Town (1968)
9
we actually find him dressed as a doctor
in operating mask and gown being mistaken for one of the many
overseas doctors who could be found working in the British National
Health Service. Here, no-one comments on the fact that he is a bear
dressed as a doctor. Paddington is thus being implicitly linked with
another group of accepted, assimilated immigrants.
However, Paddington’s Otherness is repeatedly flagged in the framing
of him within the expectation that bears, as ‘foreigners’, will be
lacking intelligence, gullible or otherwise socially undesirable, as with
the racist stereotyping of ‘Johnny Foreigner’. This negative view of
bears generally comes from strangers Paddington encounters in the
course of his adventures. For example, the taxi driver in the opening
chapter views the travel-soiled Paddington as an undesirable passenger
who merits an extra charge on the fare: ‘‘Bears is extra,’’ he said
gruffly. ‘‘Sticky bears is twice as much again.’’ (BCP, p. 20). It is not
just his travel-soiled appearance that leads to the demand for an extra
fare as this is on top of the ‘extra’ a bear passenger merits, thus
positioning him as an undesirable Other, at least as far as the taxi
driver is concerned. The framing of bears as lacking intelligence is also
found, usually being uttered by a character who is portrayed nega-
tively or else as uninformed, this serving to highlight Paddington’s
own intelligence. For example, one of the beach photographers in
‘Adventure at the Seaside’ observes ‘‘Fancy you being taken in by a
bear, Charlie!’’ (BCP, p. 123), carrying the assumption that bears are
not usually capable of outwitting representatives of the dominant
culture. Here, Paddington’s intelligence is rewarded by the beach
photographer with a free photograph. Of course, his non-human
Otherness can be used to his advantage, such as Judy’s point that
Underground regulations only apply to ‘persons’ (BCP, p. 59), which
Bond, Paddington Goes
to Town
45Paddington Bear
gets Paddington off the charge of improper use of the escalator.
However, on the whole, strangers can appear to regard Paddington as
a potentially Dangerous Other who needs to be controlled through
social practices such as exclusion (or, in the case of the taxi driver,
additional payment), or else that he is a gullible foreigner who can be
easily duped into parting with his money (such as with the beach
photographer, but also more seriously when he is duped out of his
savings in ‘Paddington buys a share’ in Paddington at Work). That
Paddington comes out ‘on top’ in all of these encounters confirms that
he is as an amiable and intelligent Other who, despite his naivety, has a
logical mind that does not tolerate dishonesty, meanness and pom-
posity. These negative encounters serve to show the less appealing
side of British life where not everyone is as amiable as the Browns, but
where Paddington’s own good nature as the naı
¨ve but logical immi-
grant shines through.
Paddington is not the only immigrant we meet in this first book of the
series. One character who is to become a stalwart of the series is Mr
Gruber, the Hungarian-born antique shop owner who befriends
Paddington as someone who also understands what it is to arrive in a
foreign country with no money and no place to go. In fact, in the early
books in the Paddington series, it is only Mr Gruber who takes a great
interest in Paddington’s past and culture. As readers, we learn about
this only in passing, through the authorial voice which glosses over
any detail with the summary that ‘they spent many happy hours dis-
cussing South America, where Mr Gruber had been when he was a
boy’ (BCP, p. 83). The adjective happy triggers the assumption that
there is a positive, interesting world outside the 1950s London in
which Paddington and Mr Gruber sit. The combined Otherness of
Paddington and Mr Gruber is emphasised by their shared morning
meetings over cocoa and buns rather than ‘English’ tea. They enjoy a
warm yet highly formal friendship, referring to each other respectfully
by their titles and surnames, one adult to another. Bond has stated that
he based Mr Gruber’s character in part on the autobiography of his
agent, Harvey Unna, a Hungarian refugee who had arrived in England
after the Second World War (www.harpercollins.com). However, like
Paddington, we do not learn much about Mr Gruber’s past life or
culture beyond hints of youthful world travel.
Paddington’s Otherness is further highlighted in the original drawings
by Peggy Fortnum. He is presented as slightly hunched, somewhat
shaggy, with the short limbs which cause so many amusing stories.
His eyes are also rendered capable of giving one of the ‘long hard
stares’ that are so much part of Paddington’s character (particularly
useful when dealing with those who regard him as an inferior
Other). Later editions of the books contain illustrations by other
Bond, Paddington at
Work
46 Children’s Literature in Education
artists such as Ivor Wood, David McKee and RW Alley who offer
their interpretations of the bear which are much closer to the cuddly
teddy bear Paddington that is now often found on children’s nursery
furnishings, stationery and, of course, embodied as a stuffed toy. In
Fortnum’s drawings, as in Bond’s original stories, Paddington is far
removed from the stuffed toy that inspired his creator. Although we
never learn Paddington’s real age, he is clearly not a child any more
than he is an adult. Instead, he contains the sort of mixture of the
two that is typical of Paddington’s character. As Blount has pointed
out, he ‘is quick to learn and very logical, never behaving in a way in
which a child would behave, but in the manner of an adult who is
learning about civilised life because he has been brought up on a
desert island’ (1977, p. 311). These factors contribute towards
Paddington’s role as the immigrant who is willing to assimilate with
the dominant culture (which is implied to be more ‘civilised’ than his
native Peruvian culture), whilst his thoughtfulness and naı
¨ve com-
mon sense ensure he is never presented as being a foolish character.
The logic with which he deals with some of the dominant culture’s
conventions serves to lay them open to question. For example, on
his first visit to a theatre, Paddington is horrified to discover that the
twenty pence
10
he pays for opera glasses does not entitle him to take
them home (BCP, p. 105). The largely ineffective magnification such
glasses offer is, in Paddington’s judgement, hardly worth the price of
his hard-saved money. On learning that the money is only for the hire
of the glasses, with devastating logic, he translates this into the cost
of food, exclaiming bitterly ‘That’s two buns’ worth!’ (BCP, p. 106).
This perceptively excessive cost for the temporary use of substan-
dard equipment is not, apparently, questioned by any other members
of the audience who all appear to be accustomed to this convention.
This incident is typical of the humour found in the Paddington
stories, where it is Paddington’s naı
¨ve logic that reveals the flaws in
the dominant culture.
Bond’s later picture book text Paddington Bear (1972) comprises
the opening two chapters of A Bear Called Paddington. Whilst
necessarily shorter as a text, the Otherness of Paddington is still
found in the impersonal pronouns and description of his hat
11
, al-
though his suitcase is no longer of uncertain identity: ‘It had a
funny kind of hat and it was sitting all by itself on an old suitcase
near the Lost Property Office’ (1992). There is no other written
description of the bear, presumably the pictures themselves serving
to evoke his appearance. Similarly, the male politeness strategy of
raising his hat is found only in the visual images, and there is little
access to Paddington’s inner consciousness beyond learning that he
feels hungry and thirsty, and that he has never been in a taxi be-
fore. The general sense of Otherness that we find in the original
Bond, Paddington Bear
47Paddington Bear
text has been largely removed and, like the more recent illustra-
tions, Paddington is closer to a teddy bear than a rare bear from
Darkest Peru.
Although Hunt and Sands (2000) have argued that Bond shows a
world where British life is uncritically presented as a positive force,
there are other elements of the story which could make the reader
question certain features of this world. Despite the long-running
nature of the series which sees Paddington quite removed from the
stowaway Mr and Mrs Brown meet at the railway station, this
impression of him being a stranger in a strange land never leaves
the stories. Whilst he masters bathing in a bath-tub rather than a
puddle in the first book, other common experiences crop up as
comic incidents, making the reader see them with an objectivity
that might lead them to see the world slightly differently in future
and so not be quite as accepting of the ‘Brits on top’ reading Hunt
and Sands offer (2000, p. 48). As Pinsent has observed (1997, p.
106), the strategy of ‘stranger in a strange land’ allows the author to
pursue an anti-racist agenda, albeit obliquely in Paddington’s case.
The positive representation of Paddington as an immigrant who is
benign and willing to assimilate himself with the dominant culture
is coupled with the underlying narrative of control (however com-
passionately articulated by the Browns and other well-meaning
characters) exerted over him as Other. Notwithstanding Padding-
ton’s apparent assimilation, he is fiercely proud of his Peruvian
origins, rarely passing up an opportunity to point out that he is
from Darkest Peru, thus marking his special foreignness. Despite
Hunt and Sands’ (2000, p. 47) argument that characters such as
Paddington can only hope for assimilation through forgetting their
past lives, and although we learn very little about Peru, Paddington
himself never forgets his Aunt Lucy. He sends her frequent letters
and also financial aid, and at the end of Paddington Marches On
(1965), he actually goes back to Peru to visit her (although his visit
remains outside the narrative). Bond’s Paddington stories are subtle
in their articulation of racist and xenophobic discourses which, I
hope to have shown, present the case for toleration and under-
standing towards immigrants in general, but with the condition that
the immigrant conforms to the dominant culture’s norms. Padding-
ton is thus presented as enthusiastically assimilating into the domi-
nant culture, and so is a positive and unthreatening representation
of an immigrant, but he retains enough of his outsider Otherness to
render some of the ‘common sense’ elements of British culture
open to question.
Bond, Paddington
Marches On
48 Children’s Literature in Education
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Dr Mel Gibson, Dr Michael Higgins, Dr Kay
Sambell and the UK editorial board for their comments and advice in
the preparation of this paper.
Notes
1. Unless otherwise stated, references in this paper relate to the revised text
from the paperback edition published in 2002. This edition differs from
the 1958 version mainly in terms of the decimalisation of currency and
some modernisation to the transport systems.
2. Peru is also the native land of another of Bond’s animal heroes, Olga da
Polga, and in her case we do not learn much about this country either.
3. Page numbers, unless otherwise stated, come from the 2002 paperback
edition of A Bear Called Paddington (BCP).
4. Interestingly, in the next chapter, when Mrs Bird exclaims ‘What is it?’ on
first seeing Paddington, Judy rebukes her with ‘It’s not a what, it’s a bear.
His name’s Paddington.’ (BCP, p. 26).
5. In the next chapter, Judy instructs Paddington to wash his ears clean, only
to receive the rebuke that his ears are meant to be black (BCP, p. 30).
Blackness is again being articulated as a negative attribute, even if in a
humorous way here.
6. In the course of the series, Paddington is introduced to new concepts and
technologies which do require him to learn new words. For example, in A
Bear Called Paddington, we find him stumbling over the appropriate
word for the moving staircases in the Underground, but the helpful ticket
inspector comes to his aid with ‘escalator’ (BCP, p. 53).
7. Yule defines felicity conditions as ‘the appropriate conditions for a speech
act to be recognised as intended’ (1996, p. 130).
8. It could be further argued that, as a children’s book, such adult authority
(and middle class adults, at that) over anyone smaller or apparently
younger is unquestioned and thus provides a model for children’s accep-
tance of such authority.
9. Chapter: Paddington Finds a cure.
10. The decimalisation of the currency in the later editions of Paddington
books removes some of the dramatic effect this amount would have
generated in 1958.
11. In the 1992 picture book version, Paddington is shown waiting at the
station, inexplicably wearing the very British duffle coat which, in A Bear
Called Paddington, he does not acquire until Mrs Brown takes him
shopping in later chapters. This serves to visually downplay his Otherness
at this introductory stage, although this may have been unintentional and
is instead a case of poor editing.
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