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Lisandro

Hernandez

Professor Dawahare
ENG 115
27 September 2016
Three Little Pigs
The Three Little Pigs is one of the most well known nursery rhymes
around the world. It was first written in England by the author James Orchard
Halliwell-Phillips in the year 1886. But after many retellings the morals and true
meaning of the story have completely changed. But this is nothing new
considering that it is just one of the many children stories that have been tampered
with. There are many factors that have led to these changes. Mainly due to the fact
that these different versions have been told many years after the original in
different cultures and languages. Many of these versions have been retold to fit
their new audiences and generation.
The original Three little pigs was very famously known throughout
England. It told the story of three little pig that were set free by their owners to
seek their own fortune since the owners did not have the means to maintain them.
As they go on through the story each pig encounters a different person. The first
little pig encounters a man with straw which the little pig uses to build himself a
straw house. The second little pig encounters a man with wooden sticks which he

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uses to build himself a sturdier house. The last little pig meets a man with bricks
which he then uses to build himself a house
that is the sturdiest of them all. The thing that makes the original story so different
is that when the wolf blows down the houses of the first two little pigs, the wolf
eats them. Towards the end of the story the third little pig kills the wolf by
trapping him in a pot with boiling water as he tries to slide down the chimney. The
pig eats him afterwards. Which in many of the newer version the three pigs
survive and the wolf is not eaten but instead runs away.
This completely blots out the main moral of this nursery rhyme. With hard
work and diligence comes success. The third little pig who was the smartest and
the hardest working of them all was the one who survived. He outsmarted the
wolf and built himself a house that could not be blown down. It showed how
without hard work and diligence it wouldn't be possible to survive out in the real
world. It is a big life lesson that is learned just by reading this one story. Many of
the new generations are denied this lesson because of the multiple versions that
have been created.
One version in particular changed a small part of the original story but also
completely changed the theme of the original. This was the Disney version.
Disney has had a long history of changing old nursery rhymes and fairytales to
make them fit our new generation. But in doing so they have changed a lot of the
real meaning of these stories and and many times even lost a huge part of their
meaning. Many of these fairy tales include The Little Red Riding Hood, Snow

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White, The Little mermaid, and Sleeping Beauty. All of these fairy tales were
sugar coated to try and please their audience, making them huge hits.
In the Disney version of the The Three Little pigs the storyline is changed
a bit throughout the story. The main differences are that as the wolf blows down
the houses of the pigs they run to next little pigs house to seek shelter and safety.
The wolf unlike the original is also not killed. Instead after sliding down the
chimney to try and eat the pigs. He falls in a burning pot of boiling water. He
burns his bum and just runs away. The end.
Disney does this because they believe that the old versions are too
gruesome or not appropriate enough for the children that these stories were
originally made for. In an article written by Michelle Ingrassia she shows how in
reality there is no intrinsic value of exposing kids under 5 or 6 to death, horror, or
fright. It is not like they will never find out about these things later on in life.
Most child psychologists believe children are strong enough to process the
images(Ingrassia).
When a 6-year-old reads about the Big Bad Wolf, for example, he might be
conjuring up a picture of the scary neighborhood dog; that, in turn, helps him
face his feelings about the animal and his world. Is he afraid of the dog? Did
the dog ever bite him? Or did he love the dog and feel sad when it died?
Perhaps he's feeling very small in a world in which everyone is so big. Even
the grimmest story gives parents and kids a chance to talk about what's going
on in the child's mind. "You have something to focus on -- this story -- as

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opposed to going up to a child and saying, 'Tell me something you're afraid

of'," says psychologist James Garbarino, president of the Erikson Institute in
Chicago. (Ingrassia)
Children are able to take in these stories and change the way they see things.
Literature should not be fed to them lite. It might be hard for children to
comprehend the disheveled world we live in (Ingrassia) But lying and censoring
books does not make it better.
This version was made focusing on kids and family. The biggest difference
between the original and the Disney versions is that the Disney version was made
for more of an entertainment purpose than a learning experience. The time periods
also play a huge role in why they are so different. Back in 1886 fairy tales were
not just recited to children but adults as well. Many times storytellers would tell
these stories because they wanted to scare the hell out of kids so theyd do the
right thing. (Ingrassia) Now Disney likes to tell their versions of the fairy tales in
the most fruitiest and jolliest way possible.
This new Walt Disney version was created in the year 1933. A time
remembered by many animation lovers as the golden age of American animation.
During this time many of Walt Disney's most known characters emerged. Mickey
mouse, Bugs bunny, Donald duck, Daffy Duck, Goofy, Popeye, and many more
were amongst them. The Three Little Pigs was one of the first short films to be
created in 3-color Technicolor. This is part of the reason why this new version of
the Three little Pigs was such a success during this time period. Although it had

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a changed storyline compared to the original. It was really big hit in 1933. An
article written on November 1, 1933 reviews it like this:
This Cinematic gem has swept the country with its crude color, its jingling
rhymes and its adept combination of musical and pictorial rhymes. Its
appeal is delightfully to the lowest in human nature, the moral being that it
is far more important to have the right friends than to be virtuous The
wealth of invention that Mr. Disney and his fellow laborers lavish on a little
picture like this is outstanding. (Barry)
People were amused by the fact that it was a new way of storytelling, the
newest form of entertainment. But they weren't worried about how much was
changed between the original version and this version. Another reason why it
was such a big hit was because it was released close to the time of the great
depression. Three Little Pigs bolstered the American spirit during the
depression as the most popular song changed from "Brother, Can You Spare A
Dime?" to "Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf. (Technicolor History) The
Three Little Pigs was seen as symbolic of the great depression. The wolf
represented depression and the three pigs represented the citizens who
succeeded by working together.
The bottom line is that the versions of these past fairy tales will continue
to change as the years go by. Society changes constantly and people are not
used to the same things people were used to before. The time periods where
these versions are told have to do a lot with the things that are happening during

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that time. In the future there will be many things that will change and so will
these fairy tales. The morals will change to fit what is going on at the time and
place.

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Works Cited
Ingrassia, Michele. "What if the three pigs tried conflict mediation?" Newsweek
31 Jan. 1994: 62+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
Iris, Barry. "The Three Little Pigs (Walt Disney)." The Bulletin. The Museum of
Modern Art, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Waldman, Steven. "In search of the real three little pigs." Washington Monthly
Nov. 1996: 38+.Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
"Technicolor History 5." Technicolor History 5. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.