The Three Little Pigs...

I want to take you down a small tangent, and into a series of ideas I have had over one particular, commonly known fable. As the title, rather unfortunately spoils, I refer to the classic fable of the three little pigs written in 1843 by James Orchard Halliwell- Phillips. Just for those who prefer para-phrasing and cant be bothered to read, or perhaps didnt have a childhood of any kind, the story involves three, pigs (presumably siblings) who leave home and are warned by their mother of the evil tyranny of the 'big bad wolf'. Thus in their infinite wisdom they decide to build three detached houses, presumably (single bedroom, single bathroom, with great views and a massive garden) using the rather unconventional materials of straw and furze and the more commonplace material of brick. To cut a short story even shorter, the first two die undignified death through basic the principles of the natural food chain, and the other toys with the wolf before the wolf meets his demise by trying to impersonate santa claus crossed with Scream.

Have a read of the classic story, and whilst you do, consider two things:

#1: What are the underlying moral values of this story?

#2: Place the story in a modern context. What I mean by that is, put yourself into the story and consider the thousands of variables and scenerios that occur and/or could of occurred to alter the outcome of this fable...

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* The [original] Story of the Three Little Pigs *

Once upon a time there were three little pigs, who went from home to seek their fortune. The first that went off met a man with a bundle of straw, and said to him:--

"Good man, give me that straw to build me a house."

The man gave the straw, and the little pig built his house with it. Presently came along a wolf, and knocked at the door, and said:--

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."

But the pig answered:--

"No, no, by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin."

So the wolf said:--

"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."

So he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew his house in, and ate up the little pig.

The second little pig met a man with a bundle of furze, and said:--

"Good man, give me that furze to build me a house."

The man gave the furze, and the pig built his house. Then once more came the wolf, and said:

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."

" No, no, by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin."

"Then I'll puff, and I'll huff, and I'll blow your house in."

So he huffed, and he puffed, and he puffed and he huffed, and at last he blew the house in, and ate up the little pig.

The third little pig met a man with a load of bricks, and said:--

"Good man, give me those bricks to build me a house with."

The man gave the bricks, and he built his house with them. Again the wolf came, and said:--

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."

"No, no, by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin."

"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."

So he huffed, and he puffed, and he huffed, and he puffed, and he puffed and huffed; but he could NOT get the house down. Finding that he could not, with all his huffing and puffing, blow the house down, he said:--

"Little pig, I know where there is a nice field of turnips."

"Where?" said the little pig.

"Oh, in Mr Smith's field, and if you will be ready to-morrow morning we will go together, and get some for dinner."

"Very well," said the little pig. "What time do you mean to go?"

"Oh, at six o'clock."

So the little pig got up at five, and got the turnips before the wolf came crying:--

"Little pig, are you ready?"

The little pig said: "Ready! I have been and come back again, and got a nice potful for dinner."

The wolf felt very angry at this, but thought that he would be a match for the little pig somehow or other, so he said:--

"Little pig, I know where there is a nice apple-tree."

"Where?" said the pig.

"Down at Merry-garden," replied the wolf, "and if you will not deceive me I will come for you, at five o'clock to-morrow, and get some apples."

The little pig got up next morning at four o'clock, and went off for the apples, hoping to get back before the wolf came; but it took long to climb the tree, and just as he was coming down from it, he saw the wolf coming. When the wolf came up he said:--

"Little pig, what! are you here before me? Are they nice apples?"

"Yes, very," said the little pig. "I will throw you down one."

And he threw it so far that, while the wolf was gone to pick it up, the little pig jumped down and ran home. The next day the wolf came again, and said to the little pig:--

"Little pig, there is a fair in town this afternoon; will you go?'

"Oh yes," said the pig, "I will go; what time?"

"At three," said the wolf. As usual the little pig went off before the time, and got to the fair, and bought a butter-churn, which he was rolling home when he saw the wolf coming. So he got into the churn to hide, and in so doing turned it round, and it rolled down the hill with the pig in it, which frightened the wolf so much that he ran home without going to the fair. He went to the little pig's house, and told him how frightened he had been by a great round thing which came past him down the hill. Then the little pig said.--

"Ha! ha! I frightened you, then!"

Then the wolf was very angry indeed, and tried to get down the chimney in order to eat up the little pig. When the little pig saw what he was about, he put a pot full of water on the blazing fire, and, just as the wolf was coming down, he took off the cover, and in fell the wolf. Quickly the little pig clapped on the cover, and when the wolf was boiled ate him for supper.



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Dowling's ['Dr Freud'] Analysis of the Three Little Pigs

So what did you think? Interesting story no? Here is my take on it, and I would love to hear your own thoughts and opinions on the fable, I would be very interested and intrigued. Now I will explore those original two considerations made before...


The Pigs...
Lets talk about the pigs! I guess the first consideration within the story has to be the pigs leaving home. Clearly the pigs are very akin to any adoslecent being introduced to the world, students leaving home to university perhaps, moving house for the first time. Perhaps renting a house or those first time buyers on the property ladder. I think the first moral teaching here is don't leave home until your ready, and if you do, listen to your mother! They know everything. fact.Secondly if you buy a house, don't buy one that is made of straw or sticks, its not big and its not clever. If you do, quite honestly you deserve to be eaten. Ok, ill stop being too anecdotal. But you do have to question the immediate moral that you should respect your elders.


--> Pigs are not politically correct?!
There are also more modern variations of the story you might have heard whereby the pigs are not in fact eaten at all, and they move to the next house, eventually all of them are safe in the brick house. These modern adaptations, I believe, were attempts to be more sensitive to the brutuality of murder on the part of the wolf. How PC is that though, lets change the story so no one dies except the bad guy. No way, I say if the two pigs were stupid enough and behaved in such a way, then rightly so, they should be punished! There is a certain concept of cowardice on the part of the inferior pigs, who quite literally run to the safety of the next pig isn't there? How good of an moral teaching is that? when your in shit, run to someone cleverer and generally better in life than you! ha. Perhaps that is why pigs were cast as the lead trio within this story. Why wasn't it horses, or cats, or dogs, chickens even (chickens would have worked well!), interesting isn't it. There are a number of characteristics associated with pigs that may suit the story. The clumsiness, the apparent laziness of pigs etc that might have been criteria for their shortlisting. Perhaps it suited the british ideology of those who are inferior overcoming, the 'underdog' (or pig in this case), that as a collective you cannot kill us all. You may get most of us, but one day, one of us will get you Mr Wolf. May I call you Mr Wolf? (hoodwinked reference, if you haven't seen the movie, I highly reccommed it, it was one of the things that inspired this blog). Saying that, this is a classic case of three vs one. The wolf is very much outnumbered by the pigs, surely the pigs might have been more successful i.e. alive, had they have worked together. collectivism! solidarity! all thses things clearly the pigs lacked. Why weren't they savvy enough to consider just living together. They could have quiet easily built a mansion with a surplus of materials they all clearly managed to forage. They could have had a better standard of living, with company. Its just stupidity. Interesting thoughts in their own right nonetheless.

Whilst we are on the subject of PC, a number of modern versions have also been written with 'puppies' or 'cowboys' instead of pigs, mainly because of the insult to muslims on the account of pork. How stupidly, stupidly PC is that. Sorry everyone, we must change hundreds of years of fable, and entirely deny the existence of a particular animal in the pursuits of 'fairness' and appeasement. high amusing, yet bollocks.

Oh the stupidity...
On the other hand, I would question the parenting abilities of the mother who willingly lets two of the three pigs into the forest knowing fully well the educational and inherent ability of them to 'look after themselves' is not quite up to scratch, especially as the cost of ineptitude is your life. How bad must she have felt as a parent, to lose two kids out of three to a wolf. Why is she not out there with a ram or something knocking some sense into either the wolf (an obvious preferential) or her kids saying you cant life in a house made of straw you idiot, I can push it down with a hoof.

Furthermore right, how stupid and moronic does one have to be to establish that building a house out of anything other than oak, brick and metal is just plain wrong. I don't pretend to be anything of a builder, but seriously! I simple question of whether it would be watertight and resist the lightest of elements such as wind would have crossed my mind at some point during the planning and construction phase of my first house, no?


Mr Wolf...
Also, how seriously powerful does one's lungs have to be in order to blow down an entire house, the wolf was officially a superhero, no question. Their is no question that the wolf is a god like character. The obvious moral story in the case of Mr Wolf is not to 'bite off more than you can chew', literally. The wolf should had only taken what he needed, and obviously three helpings to the same dish was one too many. The wolf is obviously the villainous protagonist in the story. Of which you would expect bad guys to get his comeuppance. In his case it was an eye for an eye. He killed, and in return was killed. Would the story have been different has he just committed destruction or a mild form of vandalism. Would a simple 'ASBO' of been his judgement? A restraining order perhaps? As for the episodes of trying to trick the third pig out of his house, surely with enough repeated games (game theory) the wolf would have clocked onto the third pigs strategy and caught him. Failing that, wait til the bugger leaves the house and jump in it, hide and hey presto espionage. Had he not heard the story of little red riding hood? Impersonation and identity theft was clearly a more fruitful pursuit, no? On that note, right, is the wolf within the three little pigs a relation to the one in little red riding hood? brothers perhaps, distant cousin twice removed? Seriously, wolfs have a bad rep. Similarly to the pigs clearly there is an inherent and subtle suggestion that wolfs have characteristics that portray evil, cunning, tricky and so on and so forth. Equally why was the wolf not a badge, or a monkey, or a rodent, or a bird. In the case of a bird the chimney method would have been far more successful. What about an elephant, you would be buggered them wouldnt you piggies!


(Jerry Springer's) Final thoughts...

I appreciate that most if not all of what I have said is highly ancedotal, and of course its just a fairy tale and all that jazz, but I just wanted to share with you a number of simple, highly amusing observations that can be made about the most taken for granted things. I just wanted to share with you the general idea that we don't question things around us enough, and that the seemingly 'taken for granted' world can very often hold some interesting, stimulating and fun ideas

Hope you enjoyed it :)

x9