Analysis of own fairytale

Piglet, the fairytale written by myself, Mike and Joe, is a different version of the classic fairytale ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ Our fairytale, instead of being told in the third person by a passive narrator, is told in the first person from the point of view of Francoise- the little French pig. Our story follows the general story structure of having a beginning, a middle and an end – the growing threat of the wolf at the beginning, the destruction of the Polish and French houses in the middle and the failure to destroy the British house at the end.

Our story is an allegory, the traditional story of the three little pigs has been changed and the characters made to represent different figures and countries from 1939-1940, the beginning of the Second World War. The ‘big bad wolf’ represents Hitler, and his attempted destruction of the houses represents Hitler’s attempted takeover of Europe. The three houses represent Poland, France and Britain respectively. The Polish and French houses are destroyed to represent the Nazi occupation in those countries, while the British house holds firm against the wolf to represent Hitler’s failure to invade Britian.

Of course in History Hitler took months in between attacking different countries, in our story the time in between attacks is not specified but the attack on the French house comes almost immediately after the attack on the Polish house, as Francoise can hear the wolves coming just after he sees the Polish house be destroyed. There seems to be a longer gap from the French attack to the attack on the British house as Churchill and Francoise have time to strengthen the house with tin. This pause in Hitler wolf’s attack goes unexplained, to represent the real unexplained pause Hitler took when attacking the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk.

While the basis of the story is set in Europe 1939-1940, the fairytale is set in an imaginary world, where Poland, France and Britain are contained in three adjacent houses, with the German house presumably near by. The time is also unspecified, though it seems to be fairly recent, with references to Eastenders and ‘footie.’ This suggests this imaginary world is set in much more recent times than the beginning of the second world war, and presumably brings the story to the current day, although Hitler’s weaponry doesn’t seem to be from the 21^st Century.

Parts of the dialogue in our fairytale have been directly copied both from the original story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and from quotes taken from Winston Churchill during the war. The famous line “not by the hair of my chinny chin chin” is uttered both my Michel and Churchill, and acts as a reference to the original story. There is also a real Churchill quote, acting as Churchill pig’s speech to Francoise when Francoise comes to warn him. These two different quotes help to combine the two stories being amalgamated, the story  of the three little pigs and the real story of the beginning of the Second World War in Europe.

Francoise acts as the main character. Francoise first sees his neighbour being killed before losing his house and sole family member, his beloved father. This initial tragedy is in line with the real tragedy suffered by millions of European country during the war. However Francoise, who is a lively character, despite being devastated by the death of his father, refuses to give up and instead goes to try and save his neighbour Churchill, showing Francoise to be selfless and brave in facing Hitler Wolf again. Francoise’s father is a contrasting character, portrayed as rather more serious and grumpy. Francoise enjoys a bitter sweet ending, despite losing his house and father, he is left with the hope of a new life in the British house with Mr Churchill, this perhaps corresponds to the opinion of many at the end of WWII, though most had some personal tragedy to remember, there was the hope of a new and bright future.