In search of the real three little pigs - different versions of the story 'The Three Little Pigs'

Washington Monthly, Nov, 1996 by Steven Waldman

My search for the real "Three Little Pigs" began after viewing a disturbing puppet show. I had taken my two-year-old son Joe to a production of the classic tale at a nearby park. In this rendition, the moral of the story was not that hard work will be rewarded, but that the wolf had been woefully misunderstood.

The wolf, it seems, had actually been pursuing the pigs so he could encourage them to pick up their litter. In their panic, the narrow-minded pigs mistakenly thought that the wolf was shouting, "I'll huff and I'll huff and blow your house in," when actually, it turns out, he was wheezing, "Enough, enough. I have to lay down" The wolf was tired from having to pick up all those recyclables.

Part of the cause of the confusion may have been that the wolf delivered his message in verse, accompanied by rap music. I took this to mean not only that "pigs" were ruining the environment, but that minorities get a raw deal.

I left the show thinking, this is Bill Bennett's worst nightmare. It's not that there's anything wrong with conservation and racial tolerance as lessons, but what was wrong with the old one about hard work and diligence?

I went to the library to find the "correct" version. In the first contemporary children's edition I took home, written by Glen Rounds in 1992, the wolf was appropriately wicked but the pigs didn't come close to getting their roles right. The third pig finds a brick house--already built. "It had a good strong door, and when the little pig went inside, he found there was even a fireplace and a big black kettle on the hearth."

The moral of this story seemed to be the importance of using a good realtor. "Remember, son," I could explain to doe during a heartfelt fatherson chat, "always remember to find out what conveys with the house."

I went back to the library. This time I got an edition written by James Marshall in 1989. This came closer to my memory. The first two pigs were, in fact, warned by the merchants that straw and sticks were not ideal building materials for houses, and the pigs disregarded the warnings with suitable arrogance. "Oh pooh," one said. "What would you know?"

But the author ruined it by making the third little pig a foppish chap with an elegant walking cane, derby, and British accent. "Capital idea my good fellow!" he said to the brick salesman. It was hard to admire the third pig. One suspected that he came to his fortune not by hard work but through good trust fund investments.

Enough is enough. Perhaps Bill Bennett was right. Perhaps we have to eschew the moral relativism of modern versions and return to the classics to get the good values. I found one from 19th century England, preserved more for students of folklore than modern toddlers.

But in this "original" version, no indication was given why pigs number one and two wanted to build the houses out of straw and sticks (i.e., they were frivolous and shortsighted). Nor did the merchants give any warning or advice; the pigs simply asked and got. Nor was there any mockery of the third pig. The moral of that story seemed to be the importance of using sound construction materials. ("Remember, son, always follow building codes. . . ")

What's more, about two-thirds of the tale was devoted to how the pig played mind games with the wolf by promising to meet him at the fair but getting there early and rolling at him with a butter churn, etc. The detail seemed mostly to prove that the pig was capable of being as devious as the wolf.

Another 19th century version from Scotland, "The Three Wee Pigs," was also ethically ambiguous. The protagonists were called Dennis, Biddy, and Rex, and they were kicked out of the old sow's house because Dennis had accidentally stepped on one of the new piglets. They got caught in a horrible snow and rain storm; when Biddy saw a cart of straw he quickly built a house. Soon they bumped into a pig named Jimmie McLaughlin, "who was at school with Dennis "Jimmie felt sorry for them and gave them some wooden slats. ("Son, school is where you'll make the important connections") Finally, a man came by with bricks and Rex built a house out of them. After the requisite huffing and puffing, the wolf knocks down the first two houses but gets stuck in the chimney of the brick house. "So they hooked him down the chimney, and cut him up into collops, and roasted him for their supper."

The story concludes confusedly. "But there are no houses up in the wood now, for the pigs were all taken to the old people's houses, and there they died " I'm not sure if that means the pigs were lovingly protected by the townspeople or shipped off to nursing homes to watch TV and play bingo. In any event, this version still didn't have the proper moral differentiation, since each pig seemed to have an equally sensible reason for using those materials. If you're in the middle of a snow storm and someone offers you some wood to build a house, you'd be quite sensible to accept.

So much for the conservative notion that we can only reclaim sound values if we return to the wholesome morality of the classics.