Daehun Kim Rewrite

Commentary

This rewrite is based on a famous children’s book called the “Three little pigs.” (James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps) The story was printed in 1849. However, the story itself is thought to be much older. The story was well known by many people in 1930s when it was re-produced by Walt Disney in 1933.

The story is mainly about a character called Vince who plays the wolf character in the original piece of the story. I chose this particular character because I thought this character would fit perfectly into the “post-colonial” theme. The wolf played a minor character in the original story that did not have a voice.

I tried to put voice to the character, give heroic, strong side of him. I decided to do the rewrite based on third person narrative with a flash back and mainly talking about events that happened 8 years ago. My rewrite is basically about looking at different perspective of different characters and re-asking the viewers “what if? What if the wolf was actually the good guy and the pigs were the bad guys?” I believe that this “what if?” question can be used in many other fictions and novels where it separates the bad guys and the good. My rewrite is about how naïve wolf have been cheated and tricked by the greedy three little pigs and the events that took place.

The Three little pigs

“And the three little pigs lived happily ever after, the end. Now it is time for you to go bed Nathan,” said Vince.

“But dad…”

“No buts, it is over 10. I will tell you what really happened tomorrow. Good night Nathan” Vince gave Nathan a good night kiss and turned off the light for him. Vince then picked up a smoke and as he was thinking about the past, he blew smoke rings. Vince and his family are wolves who lived out near the dumpster located miles away from the village. He lived with his wife Janice and his son Nathan. They were the only family that lived there. Well, no one would ever want to live out here anyway. Since the house was near the dumpster, it has a unique oozy smell, obviously not in a good way, stinky, wet… a smell which is indescribable. So they built their house as far as it could but the smell doesn't seem to go away that easily.

The only other people they would see is the mail man who comes once every month. However, they can only see the mail man inside of their own house because Vince and his family didn't want to scare the poor man away. Every other animal had this stereotype about wolves and how they kill other animals and eat them as their pray. This was just a ridiculous rumor because Vince’s family was vegetarians. They have been living like this for nearly 9 years now, ever since the incident. It was an incident that would never have happened if it wasn't for those greedy pigs.

It was 8 years ago. It was the time when Vince and his wife Janice just have got married.

Vince grew up in a small village called Saffron Walden. Wolves were a common animal to live in a village. When Vince was little, he went through some tough times. He was bullied and beaten by his friends at school. His friends also made silly rumors how that wolf eat other animals. He could not fight back since wolves were the minor race in his village. However, as times went by, people realized that Vince was trustworthy, kind and friendly man. Vince wasn't the smartest man in town but was very strong and honest.

Saffron Walden was a small village, nothing fancy but it was very peaceful. Vince grew up as a builder who was a naïve man. He loved his own house, his town, and always dreamed about his children to live there. Vince thought it was a perfect environment to raise kids.

The village was made by a man called Walden, who was a pig but kind, faithful and was loved by all people in the village. However, Walden was killed by an accident and the ruler of the village was soon passed on to their sons, John, Steven and Walden Jr. There were many negative rumors about these brothers how they were greedy, and wanted more power to fully be in control of the town. However, Vince couldn't care less about what was happening in the village because he was busy raising money since they needed extra money for their upcoming child. Vince wanted to give everything to his child, education, clothing and wealth.

One day, Walden Jr and his brothers came and knocked on Vince’s door.

“Hello? Can I help you?” Vince said politely.

“We are the head of the village.” Said proudly and continued.

“We are recently planning to build a castle that was strong enough to hold anything. We came to hire you as our builder to build it for us. We will pay you with an amount that you will never be able to earn for the rest of your life. We have also heard that you are the best builder in this town. Am I right?” said Walden Jr.

Vince hesitated for a minute. This was because it wasn'tc true. There were so many other professional builders in this town. However, he desperately needed the money. He was tempted by the money but instead he paused for a few second and replied with honesty.

“No sir, I think you have found yourselves the wrong person. I am a builder but not the best.”

The three pigs seemed surprised by the refusal. The three brothers looked at each other and laughed as if they found the perfect builder for them.

“Well, here is our card, so please do contact us if you are interested.” and left his door.

Vince seemed very confused for a few seconds but ran upstairs to share the good news with his wife.

“Janice! Janice! I have got good news to tell you!”

Vince told Janice everything that just happened to him 5 minutes ago. However, Janice also seemed confused.

“Honey, I am not quite sure if you should take this offer. I have a bad feeling about this” Janice said gently since she did not want to hurt Vince’s feelings.

“No, we don’t have enough money to raise a kid right now. This is a perfect opportunity to change all of that. Please Janice, trust me on this one.”

After a long hour talk Vince was able to convince Janice and at once, he called Walden without any doubts.

The three pigs knew exactly what they wanted him to build.

John wanted Vince to build a castle that was made out of straw.

Steven wanted his castle built with wood.

Walden Jr wanted Vince to build him a castle that was made out of brick.

John worked day and night to build the houses for the pigs. He did not stop weather if it was windy, snowing or raining. It took him exactly 6 month to complete building their castles. Once he have completed building he gave the keys to the pigs and the pigs promised they will have the money ready by tomorrow.

The next day morning, Vince kissed Janice on the forehead and said

“What do you want for dinner? We are going to be rich by the end of tonight.”

Janice just laughed and kissed him back.

Vince ran to see John. The castle that was built with straw was standing strong. He knocked on the door bell.

“Ding dong, Ding dong”

“Who is this” finally someone answered.

“This is Vince, your builder. I came to receive the money.”

“Oh…” and there was an absolute silence. He rang and rang the doorbell over and over again.

“I don’t have any money to give you anything. So please don’t touch my bell and go away” Said John as if he was tired of this situation.

“You promised me that you would have the money ready by tonight. Please don’t full around!” Vince started to get a little annoyed with the attitude that John was treating him.

“Oh, yeah? That was a lie so get out of my house.” Vince finally realized that he was cheated by John.

Vince could not hold his anger and at once he brought some matches and lighted up the castle that Vince made with his bare hands. As the fire got bigger and bigger John realized that his castle was on fire and escaped using the ladder. Vince chased John. At this time Vince already turned into a beast because he was unable to control his anger. John ran and ran until he reached Steven’s house and jumped right inside the wooden castle.

Vince arrived at the Steven’s castle few minutes later and shouted, “Where is my money!” Steven opened the window and shouted back.

“There is no money that we can give you, you fool. We just used you because you seemed stupid enough to fall for it.” Steven said confidently. Steven knew that there was no way his wooden castle will be destroyed easily by the silly wolf. Vince walked several steps back and ran straight into the wooden castle.

“Bam!” The strong wooden gate of Steven’s castle smashed into pieces. Vince started to bleed all over his head and started to flow down all over his body.

“Now please! Give me my money. I really need it…” said with tears.

Steven and John seemed shocked. However, they still didn’t want to pay him anything so they instantly ran towards Walden Jr’s house. They both knew it was the safest place to hide in.

When Vince finally reached at Walden Jr’s house, he was already in a bad shape. There were chipped woods all over his body and blood was already covering his whole body.

“Where is my money?!” Vince shouted with all the energy he had left.

“Wow, you were more stupid than I first thought. Did you really think we would even give you a penny? There is nothing to give you, you dirty wolf. Get out of my house before I call the cops. Vince tried everything to smash the castle. However, the castle stood still. The brick walls were built too strongly by Vince. Vince cried his hearts out asking for the money. Vince did not want to disappoint his wife Janice.

“I should have listened to Janice…” said quietly to himself.

He did not give up and constantly tried to smash the walls that he built with his hands.

“Well, I was going to give you the chance to leave this place, but since you don’t seem to leave us alone, I am going to call the guards” said Walden Jr as if he was giving Vince a chance.

Few minutes later the guards came and took Vince away. There were enough evidences which showed Vince looking like the bad guy. Vince tried to explain everything but the guards did not listen. Vince was punished and had to pay money to the pigs for the damage that was done to their castle. Vince returned home few days later and told Janice the whole story. Vince cried over and over saying he was so sorry.

“It’s alright. Everything is going to be okay” said Janice but tears were dropping on her cheeks.

Everything wasn't okay. Vince and his family had to sell his house and had to give everything that they owned in order to pay the Walden Jr and his brothers. Vince was left with nothing but his family.

However, Vince did not give up. He knew there will be more innocent people that will get hurt because of those greedy filthy pigs. We went around neighborhood, streets town everywhere and told them about his story. No one ever believed him and even kicked Vince out. But he knew it was worth trying. He spent another 6 month trying to warn other people. Minority groups of the people started believing Vince. When the 3 pigs found out about this, they felt threatened. They came up with a solution to solve everything. They illustrated a book called “The three little pigs” and made themselves look innocent in the story and making Vince the bad guy. This story has got more famous even outside the village and became the bestselling children’s night time story book around the whole wide world.

Vince’s family had nowhere else to go. The story spread around the whole world. They decided to leave Saffron Walden and moved to a different village. However, they were thrown rocks at them because the people thought they are the bad guys. Vince and his family had no choice but to move into the wild where there was no one but themselves. However, Vince still did not give up and wrote the book called “The three little pigs told by the wolf.”

The small town Saffron Walden eventually falls apart and perishes due to the dictatorship of the pigs.

Vince later on heard that those pigs died. Apparently they killed each other when they were fighting for the fortune that their father have left them with. This event brought up two stereotypes about the both animals. How pigs are very lazy and greedy and how wolves only likes to group with their kind and how they always cry every night.