In The Books
Eeyore appears in chapters IV, VI, VII, and X of Winnie-the-Pooh, and is mentioned in a few others. He also appears in all the chapters of The House at Pooh Corner except chapter VII. His name is an onomatopoeic representation of the braying sound made by a normal donkey, usually represented as "hee haw" in American English: the spelling with an "r" is explained by the fact that Milne and most of his intended audience spoke a non-rhotic variety of English in which the "r" in "Eeyore" is not pronounced as /r/.
Physically, Eeyore is described as an "old grey donkey." In Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations, he appears to be about chin-high to Pooh and about hip-high to Christopher Robin. He has a long, detachable tail with a pink bow on the end, of which he is very fond, but that he is also prone to losing (Owl once mistakes it for a bell-pull). Christopher Robin is able to reattach the tail with a drawing pin.
In The House at Pooh Corner, Eeyore has some level of literacy. He teaches Piglet the letter A in the fifth chapter, but spells his own name "eoR" when signing the "rissolution" that the animals give to Christopher Robin as a farewell present in the final chapter. Eeyore also wrote the awkwardly-rhymed poem called "POEM", which appeared on the "rissolution", making him the only character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books other than Pooh himself who attempts to write poetry. Eeyore is also surprisingly good at the game Poohsticks, winning more times than anyone else when it is played in the sixth chapter.
Eeyore has a poor opinion of most of the other animals in the Forest, describing them as having "No brain at all, some of them", "only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake" (from chapter 1 of The House at Pooh Corner). Eeyore's favorite food is thistles. He lives in the southeast corner of the Hundred Acre Wood, in an area labeled "Eeyore's Gloomy Place: Rather Boggy and Sad" on the map in the book. He has a stick house therein called The House at Pooh Corner. Pooh and Piglet built it for him after accidentally mistaking the original house that Eeyore built for a pile of sticks. On Eeyore's birthday, he is given an empty honey jar from Pooh for keeping things in, a popped red balloon from Piglet to keep in the pot, and a note from Owl.
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