Interpreting Folklore:The Three Pigs

By: Djinni Yancey

The Three Gosl ingsI ta ly

Voices:

Djinni Yancey (Narrator)

Brianna Yancey (Goslings)

Lauren Yancey (Wolf)

When a mother goat leaves her seven kids at home, a hungry wolf disguises himself as their returning mother and gobbles whole all but the youngest kid. But the mother goat thinks up an ingenious way to save all of her children and punish the wolf by sewing rocks into his stomach! When six of her seven kids are swallowed by a wicked wolf, Old Mother Goat devises a way to rescue them.

Modern Tales ofThe Three Little Pigs

Setting in Texas, Three Tamales are told by a tortilla to escape a restaurant in fear of being eaten, they jump out of a window. The Tamales each build a shelter, first one of sage, next of cornstalks, third one out of cactus. They live happily for a while until Seῆor Lobo (The big Bad Wolf) comes along. The wolf blows down the first two houses, the two tamales run to the last tamales house just before the wolf gets there. The big bad wolf can not blow down the cactus, it’s roots are too strong. The wolf escapes after being pricked by thorns, thrown in a pot to be cooked as a wolf tamale, and never comes back.

The phrase the wolf uses to threaten the tamales:

“ I’ll huff and I’ll puff like a Texas Tornado and blow your casita from here to Laredo!”

The Three Little Rigs each build a garage. First garage made of wood, the second garage made from stone blocks, and the third garage made of steel. The big bad wrecking ball threatens to smash the garages, succeeding to smash the first two. The little rigs come up with a plan and get help from several large cranes and finally throw the wrecking ball and his friends the big magnet and cutter into a melting pot destroying them once and for all.

C o m p a r i s o n o f v e r s i o n s o f T h e T h r e e L i tt l e P i g s

S i m i l a r i ti e s : A l l b u i l d s o m e s o r t o f s h e l t e rA l l h a v e a “ Tr i c k s t e r ”

M o r a l :M a k e w i s e d e c i s i o n s , t e a m w o r k i s b e s t , b e a w a r e o f c o n a r ti s t s / t r i c k s t e r s , h a r d w o r k p a y s o ff .

D i ff e r e n c e s : S e tti n g s w h e r e t h e s t o r y t a k e s p l a c eO c c a s i o n a l l y a d i ff e r e n t t r i c k s t e r s u c h a s t h e w r e c k i n g b a l l i n t h e T h r e e L i tt l e R i g sM a t e r i a l s u s e d t o b u i l d s h e l t e r sH o w t h e t r i c k s t e r i s s t o p p e d f r o m t h r e a t e n i n g

Brief Analysis by Robert D. Robinson:

Mother is responsible for sending her children out into the world.

Christian Beliefs:Holy Trinity (Threes)

Garden of Eden – starting with comfort and safety of the mother, cast out into the Garden, journey and danger.

Analogy of Mothers in places such as Africa handing over child for rituals such as coming of age.

Bibliography

ImagesThe Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. N.d. Photograph. http://www.barnesandnoble.comWeb. 24 Oct 2013. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wolf-and-the-seven-little-kids-jacob-grimm/1102505083.

Slides 1 & 2 from Microsoft Images within Powerpoint software.Photos of Three Little Tamales and Three Little Rigs, Book Covers photographed by Djinni Yancey

Text

Gordon, David. The Three Little Rigs. 1st. Laura Geringer Books an imprint of Harper Collins, 2005. Print.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Children's and Household Tales. 1st. 1. •Translated by D. L. Ashliman, 200-2002. No. 5. Print.

Kimmel, Eric A. The Three Little Tamales. 1st. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Children, 2009. Print.

Robinson, Robert D. "The Three Little Pigs: From Six Directions." National Council of Teachers of English 45.No. 3 (1968): 356-359, 366.