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Smart Pigs Win
Children and adults have long known the tale of The Three Little Pigs. Over the years,
folk and fairly tales have been shaped and molded with deliberate exaggeration and
reinterpretation from their verbal form. Tails like The Three Little Pigs are customized in a way
that the writer feels is appropriate for the current day and age, and for a point they wish to make.
Fairy tales can help to structure a child's moral thinking and imply particular ideas that are
related to current social events and morals of the era. In modern times the stories are often
altered to shelter children from unnecessary gruesome parts that at one point were relevant, but
now could lead to a childs misunderstanding. The Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs (1890),
James Finn Garner (1994), and Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. (1943), show differences and
similarities surrounding the central idea, which tells the audience that in spite of danger, a
developed intellect will conquer a large and much stronger adversary. (Bettelheim)
Although the many versions of The Three Little Pigs have been written at different
points in time, each story reveals a common concept that the world is full of wickedness out to
harm the innocent. Each version has an antagonist is built around the character of a wolf,
whether the wolf is a literal or figurative character, he is always bad. The bad wolf gives the
audience a visual concept of evil while subtly implying the dangers of people in real life. In the
version by Jacobs, the wolf is an animal out to get the poor little pigs. Jacobs opens his version
with, Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme... (Jacobs 289) This implies that this is indeed

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a fairy tale meant for a certain audience. Unknown to children, they are learning the concept
which is widely accepted teaching, that wolfs are bad. In life you must be smart, witty and
prepared in order to survive a run in with a mean wolf. Jacobs version of The Three Little Pigs
invites the audience to feel compassion for the protagonists, giving the reader hope yet he clearly
states that intelligence, planning and hard work must be used to bring victory in the end.
(Bettelheim). In later times, The Three Little Pigs was redeveloped to still incorporate the key
ideas but geared more towards the specific audience of children. A child will more readily learn
concepts of a moral education when taught subtly. A simple fairy tale can deliver the moral
lesson indirectly while keeping a child's attention. A direct lecture of the moral lesson would
usually be less meaningful and perhaps boring. (Bettelheim 325)
Looney Tunes has long been a favorite of millions of Americans. In 1943 Warner Bros.
Pictures, Inc. created a comical version of The Three Little Pigs they called Pigs in a Polka.
This video version of The Three Little Pigs gives a midway point of view between Joseph Jacobs
written version, and more recent versions. Pigs in a Polka shows the antagonist as a wolf, but
he also loosely represents the axis powers of WWII. The wolf makes his first appearance in the
cartoon, marching in while doing a Russian dance. (Pigs in a Polka) This entertains the ideas that
Pigs in a Polka played on thee times when the fickle Soviet Union was not a trusted country.
To children the Looney Tunes version subtly underlines the fact that the wolf is an unknown,
untrustworthy entity that we dont want to necessarily destroy but definitely wanted to avoid and
outsmart. This version of The Three Little Pigs omits the death of any character including the
wolf; this suggests it was geared toward an audience of children, and the metaphoric enjoyment
of adults. The first two pigs find themselves in immediate danger because their homes were
poorly built; they chose fun and games over time spent building a solid home that provides

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protection. Eventually with the help of the third pig, they outmaneuver the wolf so he is
disoriented, incapacitated then easily escorted out the back door. Metaphorically, the wolf
represents more than just a bad person, but a bad country. The subtle metaphors children see but
dont always need to completely understood, it will still allow them to mold the framework of the
story to future life encounters. If there were an absence of these metaphors, there would be no
meaning to what is learned in the tale. (Rader) Reasoning hard work and planning over shortcuts
which would allow time for fun and games, brings advantage, good fortune and well being to the
thinker. More current versions of The Three Little Pigs have sometimes worked satire around the
wolf being more than an individual.
In The Three Little Pigs version written by James Finn Garners, the wolf takes on a
larger role as an entity portrayed to be an oppressive government or monopolizing conglomerate.
All versions of The Three Little Pigs bring about an enemy that is clearly seen as a wolf but
threads together different meaning appropriate to the different times the stories were written.
Garners version quickly changes the mood and intention of the story from the very beginning by
using lines that are completely opposite of traditional Three Little Pigs. Once There Were Three
Little Pigs who lived together in mutually respect and harmony with their environment. (Garner
291) Note the quick transition from a normal tale to a modern language and concern of today.
One day along came a big, bad wolf with expansionist ideas. In spite of the obvious vernacular
changes and metaphors of a bad government or monopolizing conglomerate, the story does
loosely follow along the traditional pattern of the wolf terrorizing the pigs. In Garners version,
the pigs represent the little guys in the corporate or political world. Later Garners wolf died of a
heart attack after huffing and puffing too much against the house of bricks. The pigs ...liberate
their homeland, and, set up a model socialist democracy with free education, universal health

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care, and affordable housing for everyone. (Garner 292) The writers satirical agenda is obvious
with the clear references to political and higher social power yet still, woven in are the elements
necessary to show that the hard work and planning of a solid house built on solid ground will
stand up to the enemy and prevail. A developed intellect will find a way to conquer the stronger
adversary.
The idea that survival is achieved through intelligence and outsmarting the enemy is
identified in each of these three versions of The Three Little Pigs. In any case, a pig will never be
as strong or stronger than a wolf but as we see in the stories he can outwit him. Each version
gives the protagonist the chance to undermine the enemy and prove the fact that brains are the
advantage over brawn. In Jacobs version, the wolf is caught dead in a pot of boiling water, and
eaten by the third pig who stayed alive because of his efforts to build a solid home for himself.
(Jacobs 289-91) In Garners version, the three pigs were safe in the brick house, wrote letters to
the UN and waited it out until the wolf huffed and puffed so much that he had a heart attack and
died. (Garner 291-92) In the Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. version, the wolf was not killed, but was
outwitted by the third pig. The wolf ran through the house and ended up falling down an elevator
shaft. (Pigs in a Polka) Through the years, The Three Little Pigs story has been used to convey
good judgment to the audience. The story shows that hard work does pay off in the end. Being
smart and making the decision of delayed gratification will surely help when one encounters the
wolves that life is sure to bring.

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Works Cited
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Struggle For Meaning. Folk and Fairy Tales. Ed. Martin Hallett and
Barbara Karasek. Canada: Broadview Press, 2009. 325.
Bettelheim, Bruno. ""The Three Little Pigs" Pleasure Principal versus Reality Principal." Uses of
Enchantment, The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. (1975) Web. 26 Sep 2010.
<http://www.shol.com/agita/pigpsych.htm>.
Garner, James Finn. The Three Little Pigs. Folk and Fairy Tales. Ed. Martin Hallett and
Barbara Karasek. Canada: Broadview Press, 2009. 291-92.
Jacobs, Joseph. The Story Of The Three Little Pigs. Folk and Fairy Tales. Ed. Martin Hallett
and Barbara Karasek. Canada: Broadview Press, 2009. 289-91.
Pigs in a Polka. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.: 1943, Web. 20 Sep 2010.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh11A41klL4>.
Rader, Dennis R. "The Three Little Pigs in a Postmodern World." Web. 26 Sep 2010.
<http://frank.mtsu.edu/itconf/proceed98/drader.html>.