The Three Little Pigs
Traishelle, Paul, Rory and Eric
Kazia Estrada
English 1301-175
19 Feb 2016

#BWBPigs
“Be Wise Little Pig, Your Character Is What Determines Your Life”

New Criticism of The Three Little Pigs by Andrew Lang

In the second version of The Three Little Pigs, Andrew Lang tells his version and provides significant imagery in the storyline. He begins describing the characteristics of the main characters, Browny, Whitey and Blacky. Although throughout the text, there are patterns and symbols that help create this fairytale. The words Lang chooses to use in this text are very detailed and easy to understand. Such as wisdom, which the mother pig bestows upon her pigs to help protect themselves against the fox, who is the villain of the story. The author writes this version in third person and the thesis is to be that the pigs all chose their material based on their level of maturity that would become real life consequences.

The title relates to the protagonists of the story. The word “little” in the title, refers to their youth and related to youth is immaturity. Browny is a “filthy pig that just roams in mud all day”. Portrayed to be the oldest yet ironically, he is mindless. Whitey is “clever but greedy” and puts her food before anyone else. The youngest, Blacky, is described as a nice and good looking pig. The mother pig seems to favor the youngest pig. As she is optimistic for him. As a parting gift, the mother is to give each of her pigs a home, the material they choose says a lot about each pig. Browny disappoints by choosing mud, a material to which he put no thought into at all. It says that there is a very childlike innocence to his character. Whitey chooses cabbage, which just proved that her greed and gluttony stood in the way of her making an important decision for her future. Her decision can relate to that of a young person who does not have their priorities straight but lives in their present wants. Greed and Gluttony are also two of the seven mortal sins; this may or may not have been a symbol in the passage. Blacky chooses bricks to build his house, a conscience decision based on logic. He wanted his house to "be safe all year long". Blacky showed a level of maturity that his eldest siblings clearly lacked.

Soon the mother passes away after they built their houses but not before warning the pigs of a dangerous sly fox. The mother was a symbol of a safe carefree life that has now left the pigs. When the fox does come to Browny's house but he does not let him in. Unfortunately, the fox makes his way in and snatches up Browny taking him to his den. The author writes this part of the text as a stanza for the fox continues and does the same thing to Whitey’s house and Blacky’s house which. However, Blacky out smarts the fox several times before the fox ends up burning to death from the scalding water that Blacky set out for him. When all danger is gone, Blacky goes to the fox’s den and saves his older brothers.

From then on, Browny is no longer messy and Whitey is no longer greedy. Each pig's decision in their building materials showes a different level of maturity that most humans pass through in their lifetime. In addition, we can relate to how experiencing a life-threatening situation can change our attitude about how we live our life.

Work Cited

Image: Dreamstime. Web. Feb. 2016. <http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/three-little-pigs-holding-signs-clip-path-761683.jpg>.

Group Name: The Three Little Pigs

Traishelle, Paul, Rory and Eric
Kazia Estrada
English 1301-175
4 Feb 2016

Blog Summary: Little Pig Little pig let me come in! Not today, you are not! #LittlePigLittlePig

The fairy tale we would like to share with you today is going to be The Three Little Pigs, it is the first version on the list and is from England. The literary criticism that we are applying to this story will be the Marxism. We selected this type of criticism because of the way the story was written. The beginning of the story sets the scene.

“There was an old sow with three little pigs, and as she had not enough to keep them, she sent them out to seek their fortune.”

The first half of the story appears to be the same story that we are all used to hearing as a child. However, in this version the first and second pig do not escape from the wolf, possibly because they were not ready to live out on in the world on their own, because if you continue to read, they did not get strong supplies to build their houses. Straw and Sticks, and when the wolf came they were not prepared thus being eaten. The third pig however more than likely the eldest, had a lot more wisdom than the first two, because he built his house out of bricks.

When the wolf came, he was sure that the wolf could not come in. The wolf did try, but to no avail. The wolf thought he was smart, because in the beginning of the story he appeared to be the dominant one, taking over the first two pigs.

“Well, he huffed, and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he puffed and huffed; but he could not get the house down. When he found that he could not, with his entire huffing and puffing, blow the house down, he said, little pig, I know where there is a nice field of turnips."

 Nevertheless, the third pig had a few tricks up his sleeve and knew the wolf would not give up. The wolf still believed he had the upper hand, he thought he could trick the pig into coming with him to the field, the apple in hopes to try to eat him. The third pig quickly caught on, and instead of falling for his tricks, he tricked the wolf by getting up extra early and going to the field and the apple tree. The wolf frightened the pig, so he threw the apples far enough to give him time to run away. After that, the wolf was getting pretty agitated and one last time he invited the pig to the fair. Of course, the pig got there early and upon leaving, he saw the big coming, jumping into his churn bucket, he rolled all the way home in the process scaring the wolf. Soon the wolf realized what was going on. Therefore, he climbed down the chimney and then fell into the boiling pot of water. In a twist of events, the pig eats the wolf.

            The version of this story is not widely known. We all are used to the first two pigs escaping and running to the third pig’s house. They trick the wolf and boil him up in the pot of water, but this Author chooses a different way to write his version. Although it is a misfortune the first two do not survive, but he does add a twist in how the third pig survives his run in with the wolf. However, it does capture the reader’s attention, this could be the reason why he changed the story, to give readers something new to read but use a popular storyline that is easy enough to understand as a fairy tale.

Work Cited

Photo Pitucci, Rina. When the Wolfs at the Door. 2013. Flickr. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.