The Three Pigs and Liberating Helpless Characters

David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs disrupts children narrative tropes in the following ways: breaking the fourth wall, giving autonomy to classic helpless characters, and rejecting a single perspective to a story. The act of the pigs leaving the pages of their story and referencing they are in a work of fiction on page four, acknowledges the audience’s existence. The significance of this acknowledgement is it forces readers to question why the characters choose to leave their tale. Moreover, the pigs challenge readers to wonder why ‘classic stories’ should not be taken at face value. Morell argues, “A reader must understand that literary texts are meant to be interrogated and that the reader has more work to do than just decoding the words and understanding the plot” (pg. 243). Likewise, Wiesner has the pigs break the fourth wall and interrogate the messages in their story, thus, encouraging the audience to do the same to every story they read.

The image of the pigs moving around outside their story on pages 8-11, display their autonomy. Furthermore, on page 8 when the yellow pig says, “Now we have room to move”, it expresses a metaphor about ‘helpless characters’ lacking mobilization and a voice in their own stories. In the classic tale, this story is based on, the first two pigs always had to accept being eaten by the wolf. Also this book is an example of critical literacy, as Morell explains, this type of literacy works on “behalf of marginalized populations in the interests of exposing and destabilizing power relations; and promoting individual freedom and expression.” (pg. 241) Consequently, this book ‘exposes’ the audience to the social issue of not giving a certain group of people a ‘voice’ or proper representation in media. The pigs find their individual freedom by leaving their confined story and then, they return to reconstruct the plot.

Finally, The Three Pigs explores the unfairness of looking at a story from only one perspective. In the second half of the story, the pigs rescue other fairy tale characters that have not been allowed to express their perspective. For example, on page eighteen, the pigs rescuing the dragon demonstrates that just because one viewpoint constantly shows a particular figure as an enemy, [a prince slaying the ‘evil’ dragon], does not mean that it is an accurate representation of someone. This story can be used in education to help students understand postcolonial literature and to deconstruct the images they see in media. Morell argues, “…students can develop their literacies of access through a curriculum that is itself a proactive critique of inequitable power relations in society and the role that cultural production plays in legitimating these conditions.” (pg. 237). Therefore, pop culture like The Three Pigs can help create a curriculum that empowers students to question ideologies in their society that are taken for granted as ‘normal.’