#iwasframed

The traditional story of “The Story of the Three Little Pigs,” has three pigs building houses out of different materials. The first two pigs build their homes out of sticks and straw, which does not hold up against the wind from the wolf. The wolf eats them, and moves on to the third pig’s house. The third and final pig out smarts the wolf and ultimately boils him in a pot and eats him. This story is definitely a gruesome story compared to the versions children are read today. What makes this story similar to the story told today is the wolf is still the bad guy. The wolf blows down houses and is seen as an intruder. This is why the wolf ends up getting killed. This would be deemed inappropriate in today’s classroom so they had to change it.

 “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! By A. Wolf,” is a great parody story of the Three Little Pigs story. This story is written from the perspective of the wolf with the idea in mid that he was framed. This parody makes you feel bad for the wolf because he talks about how the pigs were mean to him. This story has the wolf needing a cup of sugar for his granny’s birthday cake. Conveniently, he has a cold and sneezes so hard on the first two houses that they fall over. When the houses collapsed, it killed the pigs and he claimed he could not let good meat go to waste, so he ate them. This gets the wolf thrown in jail in this story and he believes he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 Both stories have the same plot line but the viewpoint is different. The biggest difference from the stories that we normally hear about the three little pigs is the wolf having a cold. The fact that his book gives the wolf human like symptoms makes it seem realistic to its readers. The Big, Bad Wolf has a terrible cold which caused him to sniffle and sneeze the houses down. The illustrator gives him glasses, which makes him look smart. The wolf is making a cake for his dear old granny. The incriminating similarity is the wolf eating the first two pigs which means the wolf gets punished. Everything about these two stories follows the same path as the other. Most importantly it is all about perspective and these two stories portray that. In the traditional, the author portrays the perspective of the pigs while the parody’s perspective is from the wolf. To put it in perspective, if no one knew the real story of The Three Little Pigs, then maybe this is the parody story is the real story. This is just another way to teach perspective to students in the classroom.

 Jacobs, J. (1890) English Fairy Tales. “The Story of the Three Little Pigs.” London: David Nutt.

Scieszka, J., & Smith, L. (1989). The True Story of the Three Little Pigs: by A. Wolf. Viking Press: New York City.