Fairy tales mostly consists of fictional stories that often feature fantasy elements mostly. However, despite most of the well-known fairy tales targeting children they always have a moral teaching to them which is aimed at ensuring that they becomes more aware of their surroundings. Hence, they usually tend to have an happy ending whereby the hero actually triumphs whereas the wicked creatures are made to pay for their deeds. Thus this emphasizes on the fact that there is need of upholding the virtues while at the same time strongly discouraging social vices.
However, the most well known fairy tale that I have selected is The Three Little Pigs. This fairy tale constitute of a story of three little pigs who made a decision of making houses for themselves. Practical Pig, Fifer Pig and Fiddler Pig are three brothers who build their own houses with bricks, straw and sticks respectively (Jacobs, 1890 p. 68). Two of the three pigs such as the Fiddler and Fifer compared to Practical who is more hardworking. The type of the houses these three pigs builds loudly speaks about their characteristics, that is, whether they are really hardworking or not as well as the efforts they are interested in putting towards their duties.
However, the three pigs plays distinct musical instruments whereby Fiddler Pig plays the fiddle, Fifer Pig plays the flute while the Practical Pig plays the piano. However, both Fiddler and Fifer easily build their own houses and spends most of their time having fun. In contrast, Practical Pig works throughout the day building his brick house which is strong compared to that of his brothers, however, his brothers make fun of him not knowing the significance of a strong shelter (Jacobs, 1890 p. 69). However, the angered Practical Pig warned his brothers that if they do not build strong houses, then their lives will be threatened by the Big Bad Wolf who will be aimed at having them for dinner. The Practical Pig then insists that he will be safe when they will be struggling to find somewhere to hide. Furthermore, Fifer and Fiddler continues to ignore him and goes on with their playing and singing “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” which was by then a famous song (Jacobs, 1890 p. 69).
One day, a hungry Big Bad Wolf really comes by and with a great desire to eat the pigs he blows down the Fifer’s house with exception of the roof, but Fifer is capable of escaping and hiding at the house of Fiddler. The wolf is more disgusted and continues to blow down the house of the Fiddler made up of sticks, however, the two pigs manages to escape the wrath of the Big Bad Wolf and hides goes on to the Practical’s house. However, The Big Bad Wolf continues to the Practical house more disguised as a Fuller Brush man in order to try tricking the pigs so that they can let him in but all in vain. The attempts of The Big Bad Wolf to blow down Practical’s house that is strong due to the bricks used in building it does not succeed (Jacobs, 1890 p. 70). Finally, the Big Bad Wolf tries entering the house through the chimney, but Practical Pig removes the lid of a boiling kettle that is full of water filled with water under the chimney, resulting to the Wolf falling right into it. However, shrieking in pain, the Big Bad Wolf flees away swiftly leaving the pigs very happy.
Therefore, viewing the fairy tale through the personal creative lens of the vision of the world it is likely to see that the Three Little Pigs who are the fairy tale’s main characters are constantly targeted by the Big Bad Wolf. Therefore, in modern world these four main characters in this fairy tale resembles different character traits that are also integral in the modern day to day activities (Jacobs, 1890 p. 70). For instance, Fifer Pig who is lazy and like playing the flute tends to be extremely lazy from the way he made his house with mere straw and hay which was not strong enough to keep the Big Bad Wolf away since he managed to blow it down with a lot of ease. In addition, his brother Fiddler Pig likes playing the fiddle built a house of sticks which could also not protect them from the disgusted Wolf. Furthermore, the Practical Pig is portrayed as serious, stern and lives up to his name. This is mainly because he is the only one among the three who is able to use his common sense as well as portrays himself as the most competent compared to other pigs (Jacobs, 1890 p. 70). He also likes to play piano but has a strong feeling that you are supposed to work first. This makes him to build a brick house which ensures that he saves his as well as himself from the Big Bad Wolf who is strongly interested in destroying them.
However, considering the characters in the Three Little Pigs fairy tale such as the three pigs and the wolf into modern world it is likely to find out that they really resembles exact characters that we usually interact with on daily basis. For instance, the first two pigs the Fifer and Fiddler portrays the lazy people we encounter in our lives. These people tend to hastily carry out their duties thereby leading to works that are not perfectively done. As indicated in the tale these two pigs ends up building houses using straws and sticks respectively which are weak and not able to protect them from the wolf who is strongly interested at destroying them (Jacobs, 1890 p. 71). This is the reality of the people who are lazy and not ready to devote most of their time making up a strong foundation for their future lives whereby they ends up in miserable situations later unless somebody else comes to their rescue as the Practical Pig came to the rescue of the two of his brothers. Therefore, this indicates that both Fifer Pig and Fiddler Pig shares common characteristics mostly concerning their work behaviors and perception of the future.
In contrast, the Practical Pig seems to be totally different from his two brothers. Hence, considering his characteristics on the basis of the modern world the Practical Pig is seen to be stern, serious, hardworking and absolutely living up to his name by being practical in all his plans. He seems to be concerned about the future and caring. This is evident from the fact that he manages to take most of his time a brick house which is strongest in comparison to those of his brothers while at the same time accepting to accommodate them hence they were the ones making fun of him when he spend of his time making a stronger house which later saves them all (Jacobs, 1890 p. 71). In modern world, Practical Pig is likely the characters who are determined, organized, focused and purpose oriented. This enabled him to see the danger The Big Bad Wolf posed to their lives which made him spend more time making a stronger house. However, he is also portrayed as an hardworking character in contrast to his brothers who only loves playing and singing. Moreover, his efforts pays since he is capable of saving his two brothers from the disgust of the wolf meaning that if he failed to embrace hard work and become lazy as his brothers they would have been destroyed by the wolf on that particular day.
The Big Bad Wolf is however another character who can be equated to the modern world characters that are ready to take advantage of the situations of other characters. Therefore, he was always after the pigs since he knew their shelters were not strong enough to keep him away (Jacobs, 1890 p. 71). This makes him blow away the weaker houses of both Fifer and Fiddler in his attempts of having them for dinner, but unfortunately fails to reach them. However, the house building event is in modern world comparable to the continuous efforts that people put on every day to make their ends meet while the Wolf is the challenges that must be overcome to succeed.
Reflective paragraph
In the peer review of the Three Little Pigs fairy tale the changes that have been made involve placing both the characters and the main events that took place into modern world scenario upon which they are evaluated against. The character traits of all fairy tale characters have then been analyzed. Moreover, the objectives of the fairy tale which are entrenched into its moral lesson have also been evaluated whereby the advocacy on valuing hard work has been identified as the key factor. This is intended to evoke the effects of hard work as well as heeding advice whenever genuinely accorded.
Works Cited
Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. Oxford: Oxford University, 1890.
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