The Three Little Pigs Essay, Research Paper

The Three Little Pigs

When reading Text Book we learn about Intertextuality, which is the technical term for a relationship between any form of literature that produces another in relation to its original. Such as the resent movie remake of the William Shakespeare s Taming of the Shrew called 10 Things I Hate About You. In today s society everywhere we go, intertextuality can be present to the naked eye. Such forms of this can be seen on bumper stickers, in speeches, in poems or even in many different forms of advertisements, as discussed in Text Book on pages 130-133. Text Book explains how the text can be looked at in its literal and its figurative stages. For instance, intertextuality can be seen in the bumper stickers SAVE THE BAY and PAVE THE BAY both literally and figuratively. The figurative meaning of PAVE THE BAY would not make sense if you couldn t refer back to the SAVE THE BAY and notice the connection and the opposing political view. Intertextuality even plays in the original fairy tale story of The Three Little Pigs. Green Jelly, an alternative group from the early nineties, gives an intertextual look at The Three Little Pigs.

When talking about the original version of The Three Little Pigs , it is easy to remember how the story goes: three pigs living in three different houses made out of three different materials, straw, sticks and bricks. The Big Bad Wolf enters the scene and commands, Little pig, little pig let me in. This is the timeless line that is used by the wolf. The pigs answer back, Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin. In response to this the wolf huffs, puffs, and blows down their houses. To look deeper in to the fairy tale the first two pigs run to the next brother s house to avoid getting eaten. The story moves along to the last brother s house where the first two pigs take refuge. Of course the wolf tries huffing and puffing but with no success. Next the wolf tries to slide down the chimney to gain entry in the brick house. But the wolf is out smarted and greeted at the bottom of the chimney with a pot of boiling water and all three pigs dine on wolf stew.

It is a very entertaining story. The wolf acts as the villain and the pigs are the victims, but by the end they are the heroes. The story is great for kids in that it leaves a lot to the imagination; it gives little description about the pigs, nor did the tale give much information on the wolf other than he wanted to eat the pigs, but at the end was out smarted. The way I see it the story is left open to interpretation.

Green Jelly tells the story of three little pigs living in the Hollywood and LA area. Each pig is of a different social class, for example, the first pig is a hippie from the farm that comes to the city dreaming of being a rock star who builds his house of straw. The second pig is a pot smoking religious pig whose house is made of old cans and sticks. The third little pig is a son of a rich rock star who graduated from Harvard as an architect and built a tri-level mansion out of concrete. The band Green Jelly fills in the blanks to make the story their own. The lyrics give each little pig a background that separates them as characters. During each verse the band describes briefly the personalities of each pig, which match them with their house. This description helps the reader understand where the characters are coming from and explains the events that occur in the song, for instance, Living on the farm he knew nothing of the city, he built his house out of straw what a pity. The band s lyrics also make the wolf more illustrated through description. The wolf receives his introduction as well as a chance for the listener to get to know him unlike in the story. After each pig is introduced the wolf comes to blow down their house: Then one day he [the second little pig] was cranking up Bob Marly and along came the wolf on his big bad Harley. To truly make the story theirs they made a modern ending, nothing like the original. After the wolf fails in blowing down the third house the pigs call 911 and Rambo comes and shoots the wolf.

The relationship between Green Jelly s version and the original is an interesting case of intertextuality. In that the original is a fairy tale and fairy tales are constantly changing every time it is told also demonstrates a form of intertextuality. The Green Jelly version of the story is told through song. In addition to the words, the story is accompanied by music, which is a powerful evaluator.

The story is far from the fairy tale version but the alternative song does well in making a very memorable cover of an old preschool favorite. The Green Jelly interpretation stays with the plot of the original very well. However the changes in character and the description of each character brings a twist to the fable that is entertaining to a different audience. The music that goes with the story is more geared to the teenagers and the use of swear words defiantly does not make suitable for small children. The intertextual changes in the Three Little Pigs were made to provide listeners with a familiar story with a new slant that is interesting, funny, entertaining and in a language that teenagers group can recognize and identify with.

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