preview

Milt Banta And Dempster's Three Little Pigs

Decent Essays

The classic Disney story of the Three Little Pigs, written by Milt Banta and Al Dempster tells the tale of three brother pigs who each decide to build their own homes. The first pig builds his home of straw, careless thinking about the strength of his materials because all he wants to do is go play. The second little pig builds his home of twigs, once again not interested in the strength of his material because he just wants to play as well. Yet the third little pig spends hours building his home of brick. The two other pigs make fun of the brick-building pig, but he knows the power and strength of the big bad wolf. And sure enough, the big bad wolf approaches the first pig’s home and blows it down. He does the same with the home made of sticks. …show more content…

For example, the big bad wolf exclaims, “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow the house down” (Banta & Dempster 1948). This plays on the child’s belief that animals can have the “same characteristics as the child” which is called animism (Berger 173). The animism also appears in the way the pigs can build, play musical instruments, and come up with clever tactics to thwart the big bad wolf. In this element, the writers are connecting directly to the child’s thought process. In addition to figurative language, two of the pigs seem pre-occupied with playing rather than being responsible. As children develop they are learning impulse control, which is “the ability to postpone or deny an immediate response to an idea or behavior” (Berger 171). However, many children, because of egocentrism, only think about fulfilling their desires rather than being responsible to clean up after themselves, as their parent would instruct. Therefore, the Three Little Pigs is teaching the consequences to not having impulse control and the benefits of being responsible as in the case of the third pig who builds his house of brick. All in all, the Three Little Pigs helps children develop cognitively by leveraging their animism through figurative language and addressing the need for impulse

Get Access