Jones                                                                                                                                              Karen Jones

Period ½                                                                                                                                  October 17, 2007

Appearances Are Not Always What They Seem

            Jon Scieszka’s The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is a retelling of the classic children’s story The Three Little Pigs.  In Scieszka’s version, we hear the story from the wolf’s point of view.  According to A. Wolf, he has been misjudged and given a bad rap by the pig community.  Unjustly accused he persuades the reader to consider that he might be innocent of all the charges made against him.  The wolf presents his case by showing the reader that he is basically a good guy who is acting according to his nature while living in a community that is prejudiced against him.  This story is a clever entreaty for readers to understand that appearances can be deceiving, so don’t judge a book by its cover.

            Primarily, we can see that the wolf has a sterling character and is basically kind at heart because of his actions during the story.  This becomes immediately apparent as the story begins.  When we first met the wolf he is baking for his grandmother even though he is sick.   “Way back in Once Upon a Time time, I was making a birthday cake for my dear old granny.  I had a terrible sneezing cold.  I ran out of sugar.”  (p. 6)   His unselfish act of baking for his grandmother and disregarding his own health helps us see he has a caring personality.  The way the wolf approaches the pig’s homes is another example of his mild demeanor.  When he goes to their houses, he politely knocks on their front doors and calls out to them.  Also, at the first pig’s house, after the door falls in, he doesn’t just barge in and take the sugar he was seeking.  He decides he will just go without what he needs and continue on rather than disturbing the pig that lives there.  Without question, any wolf that is so caring about his family and so polite to his neighbors should not be considered big and bad.

            Next, it would be unfair and illogical to judge the wolf as bad or evil for acting as nature intended him to act.  It is widely accepted that wolves are carnivorous predators and that eating meat is a normal acceptable behavior.  Humans are omnivores that eat both meat and plants.  In most of our society it is considered perfectly acceptable for people to eat steak, chicken, fish, and pork.  The wolf explains,

                   I don’t know how this whole Big Bad Wolf thing got started, but it’s

                all wrong.

                   Maybe it’s because of our diet.

                   Hey it’s not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep

                and pigs.  That’s just the way we are.  If cheeseburgers were cute, folks

                would probably think you were Big and Bad, too.          

                                                                                                            (pp. 2-3)

When the houses of the first two pigs fall on them and kill them, the wolf eats them instead of letting them sit there to rot and decompose.  It is completely natural for him to do so since that is part of his diet, and furthermore it helps the community at large by ridding the countryside of two foul, smelly, rotting corpses that could breed illness.  The wolf is actually doing the community a service by eating the first two pigs. 

            Finally, the wolf may have been painted in a bad light because the pig community seems to hold great prejudice for him.  Neither the second nor the third pig is willing to even come to the door let alone help the wolf when he knocks on their doors.  “I knocked on the brick house.  No answer.” (p. 21)   When the wolf approaches the third pig’s house, he is treated in a very disrespectful way.  His polite salutation is returned with a rude comment and an insult to his family.  When he calls out to the third pig, he hears, “Get out of here, Wolf.  Don’t bother me again.”  (p. 21)   Finally when the wolf sneezes, the third pig doesn’t even wish him a god bless you, he insults his grandmother.  “Then the Third Little Pig yelled, ‘And your old granny can sit on a pin!’”  (p. 22)    Furthermore, when the police arrive and see the wolf’s upset.  The police just assume he is the guilty party which shows that they are judging him unfairly.  They considered him guilty before they even arrived.

            Thus, it is apparent that the A. Wolf is not the big, bad wolf the pig community makes him out to be.   Instead, he is a kind-hearted grandson and courteous neighbor who should not be judged for acting upon his natural instincts.  Just as we would not want to be judged for our natural eating habits or our species affiliation, we should not judge A. Wolf for those characteristics that make him uniquely him.  Instead we should look beyond the surface and see his true nature, one that is polite and caring.   In The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka expertly uncovers a fundamental truth: looks can be deceiving so don’t judge a book by its cover.