This little piggy went to
Social media post reveals the unsettling truth about the first little piggy – Chicago Tribune
It had been many years since I’d thought of the five little piggies, protagonists of the first nursery rhyme I told my kids, the first nursery rhyme I heard and probably the first nursery rhyme my parents heard.
My children are young adults now, but back before they could walk, my wife and I would take their little bare feet in our hands as they lay in their cribs, wiggle each toe in succession starting with the big toe and … say it with me:
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“This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none and this little piggy …” the pinkie toe, voice rising to falsetto, “… cried wee wee wee all the way home.”
Tickles. Giggles. Repeat.
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It always struck me as a little weird that a pig would be eating roast beef. Is there no solidarity in the barnyard? But pigs are, in fact, omnivores. In 2012, according to news reports, they ate a 69-year-old farmer in Oregon after he fell in their pen.
Then the other day I was browsing my Twitter feed when I saw a posting from @AngelicGirlxD that changed everything: “I’m 22 years old,” she wrote Aug. 20, “and I just realized that ‘This little piggy went to … market’ doesn’t mean he went food shopping.”
Ye gods. Of course! All these years I’d had in my mind’s eye the image of a pig standing on two feet, a hat on its head and a basket under its “arm,” waddling off to the grocery store to purchase edibles: apples. Carrots. Grain. Farmer-flavored biscuits.
But no. Obviously, no. I’m 60 years old, and I just realized that the fattest little piggy — the big toe — was being sold into slaughter. It went to the market, sure, but it never came back.
Many of the best-loved nursery rhymes have dark elements. Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater “couldn’t keep” his wife so he “put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well” in domestic servitude and bondage.
Georgie Porgie “kissed the girls and made them cry,” making him the central villain in numerous #MeToo stories.
“Goosey Goosey Gander” takes a grim turn and becomes fodder for a PBS documentary about elder abuse and religious violence when the narrator meets “an old man who wouldn’t say his prayers” and accordingly takes “him by the left leg” and throws him “down the stairs.”
And for potentially life-threatening injuries, you can’t beat the hapless infant’s plunge from the treetop at the end of “Rock-a-Bye Baby.”
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In contrast, the piggies from the rhyme that dates back several hundred years, always seemed like a merry lot. Sure, one stayed home, and one, for some reason, did not eat roast beef. But the wee-wee-wee was a squeal of porcine delight at the prospect of returning to the sty, right?
Yet the fate of the biggest oinker was always there in plain sight. It didn’t go to market, it was taken to be marketed. It had no agency.
It was a product, not a customer.
Wee-wee-wee becomes the fearful yet ultimately fruitless cry of a creature that realizes it, too, was born to be sold and eaten.
This may be why some more sensitive souls have posted revisions that avoid the uncomfortable topic of butchery: “This little piggy ate blueberries/ This little piggy ate cheese ...” for example.
@AngelicGirlxD — her profile says she’s from Brooklyn — was not the first to post on this topic. I searched and found several piggy truther discussion threads over the years. But her tweet has gone viral and so far prompted more than 3,000 responses, many of them anguished:
“My whole childhood was a lie.” “I hate my newfound knowledge; ignorance was better.” “I don’t even know what’s real anymore.” “You've just made me very sad.” “He died?!?!! Noooooooooooo!” And so on.
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I posted click polls to Facebook and Twitter to try to measure reaction to this observation. On both platforms, only 18 percent of some 200 respondents claimed to have known that the first pig in the rhyme was not, in sad fact, off to pick up a few things at the store but instead was off to meet its maker.
In comments, some have blamed illustrators of children's books for perpetuating the happier interpretation.
The results mean that, although 100 percent of you will find this topic trivial in light of all that is going on in the world, more than 80 percent of you will nevertheless find it relevant. As for me, when I have grandchildren, that first little piggy is going to go to Aldi.
Twitter @EricZorn
What Is the Story Behind This Little Piggy?
(Last Updated On: September 13, 2022)
You may remember a nursery rhyme by the name of This Little Piggy from your childhood. Like many similar stories told to young children, this one also incorporated farm animals. This Little Piggy is originally an English nursery rhyme, but has been told in different languages around the world.
The beginning of what we know today as This Little Piggy was originally incorporated in a 1728 melody called “The Nurse’s Song.
” However, it was not until 1760 that the full version of This Little Piggy was published in “The Famous Tommy Thumb’s Little Story-Book”. Though the original author of the rhyme is unknown, it is usually attributed to fictional story-teller Mother Goose.
As is the case with any old nursery rhyme, there are bound to be alterations and different versions as time progresses. But this one has interestingly remained pretty much the same throughout its history, with typically only a word or two being changed.
The most common version of This Little Piggy goes like this:
Fingerplay and This Little PiggyThis little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried “wee, wee, wee” all the way home.
With the progression of time, one of the most popular activities to do when singing this nursery rhyme was incorporating each toe on a baby’s foot into the rhyme.
This is a great example of fingerplay (toeplay?). The most common actions associated with each line of the story is as follows.
- This little piggy went to market – Wiggle the child’s big toe.
- This little piggy stayed at home – Wiggle the child’s second toe.
- This little piggy had roast beef – Wiggle the child’s middle toe.
- This little piggy had none – Wiggle the child’s fourth toe.
- And this little piggy went “wee, wee, wee” all the way home – This is the part of the rhyme when you tickle the bottom of the child’s foot.
The early years of development for young babies are crucial to their understanding of coordination and dexterity. A very common way of increasing a child’s ability to memorize and form coherent story-telling skills is through the act of fingerplays. This is when actions are added to a rhyme or poem to help a child further learn the words. Fingerplays have been used to teach reading, colors, and counting.
The most common example is using the hand to count to ten.
Interested in learning about other nursery rhymes? Check out this quiz.
An Unexpected Interpretation?One of the things parents tend to leave out when telling nursery rhymes to their children is the potentially dark and dreary backstories behind them. In the case of This Little Piggy, it isn’t too hard to spot the darker interpretation.
Think about a “piggy going to the market”. Some have interpreted this to mean that the pig is going to market for slaughter. Working off this then, the “little piggy staying home” refers to a pig not yet ready to eat, and that must stay home to mature. The “little piggy having roast beef” is about fattening a pig up, while the fourth “piggy that gets none” is too small to go to the market. And perhaps most dark, that final little piggy is not singing “wee, wee, wee”, but crying it in fright.
What an incredibly dark scene to play out on a child’s toes!
So, the question remains: is This Little Piggy an innocent rhyme to teach children about their extremities, or an ominous poem about pigs to slaughter? Considering some of the most famous nursery rhymes have a “darker interpretation”, the answer is most likely both.
Curious about where other nursery rhymes came from? Check out these articles.
- What Is the Story Behind Hickory Dickory Dock?
- What Is the Story Behind Hey Diddle Diddle?
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This bad pig has seen better days.
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Children's: Fairy tale: THREE PIGS: read online
THE THREE PIGS
English fairy tale
Once upon a time there was an old mother pig.
And she had three little pigs. They lived very poorly, and they had nothing to buy even bread for food. And so the brothers decided to go around the world to get food and a warm home. They reached a fork in the high road and parted ways. Each went his own way. The smallest pig walked and walked and met a peasant with an armful of straw. He greeted him and politely asked:
- Could you give me some of your beautiful straw so that I can build myself a house?
The peasant gave straw to the pig, and by evening the thatched hut was ready. Soon a wolf came to his house. He knocked on the door and growled:
- Little piggy! Now open the door!
- No, - grunted the piglet, - I won't open it for anything.
- Well, hold on then! - the wolf got angry and began to blow with all his might: F-f-fu-y, f-f-fu-y!
Straw scattered in all directions, a ferocious wolf rushed at the piglet and swallowed it.
And the middle brother went his own way and met a peasant with a bundle of brushwood.
He asked the peasant for brushwood, and he gave it to him. The piglet drove small pegs into the ground, intertwined them with rods - and soon the house was ready. Before the pig had closed the door behind him, a terrible wolf appeared and began to knock.
- Who's there? asked the piglet.
- Open it now, - growled the wolf.
“No, no, I won’t let you in,” answered the pig, trembling with fear.
- Then I'll get to you now - and the wolf began to blow with all his might.
The walls of the house trembled, the bars cracked, and the terrible wolf blew and blew. And then the house tottered and fell apart. The wolf rushed to the piglet and ate it.
After parting with his brothers, the elder pig met a farmer on the road who was carrying a cart with bricks.
- Could you lend me some bricks? - asked the pig politely. - I would like to build myself a small house.
The peasant gave him bricks, and the piglet built a solid house, which was not afraid of either rain or snow.
As soon as he settled into the house and lit the fireplace, there was a knock on the door.
- Who's there? asked the piglet.
- Open it soon, - shouted an evil wolf standing outside the door. "Or I'll blow your house to pieces."
- I won't even think about it! - answered the fearless pig.
The wolf began to blow with all his might. But the house did not even move, it stood like a fortress. The frustrated wolf decided to go for a trick. In a gentle voice he asked:
- Little piggy! Do you want me to show you a place where a sweet, juicy turnip grows?
- Where is it? - interested piglet.
- It's over the hill, by the forge, - answered the wolf. - If you want, tomorrow morning I can take you there to eat turnips.
- I agree. At what time will you be expected?
- At six o'clock in the morning, the wolf answered, delighted that his plan had succeeded.
But he was very wrong. The smart pig did not wait for his arrival.
He got up early and, before the wolf came, ran behind the smithy and picked a sweet, juicy turnip.
At six o'clock a wolf appeared and, knocking on the door, asked:
- Little piggy, are you up yet? Let's go for the turnip!
- Why? - answered the piglet. - I was already there and got myself some turnips for breakfast.
The wolf is furious. But he tried not to show it and again affectionately asked:
- Piglet, if you want me to show you a place where big red apples grow.
- Yes, I heard about it. Let's go there together. When will you follow me?
- At five o'clock in the morning, and we will go for apples.
On that they decided.
But the clever pig did not wait for the cunning wolf. He got up early in the morning and went for apples. But this time he miscalculated. Before he had time to pick up apples and was just about to get down from the tree, when an angry wolf appeared and shouted:
- So you keep your word? I've been waiting for you for an hour already, and you're eating apples here?
- Don't be angry, - the piglet answered as politely as possible, - I will now give you a taste of the apple too.
And he threw the most beautiful red apple to the wolf, but he threw it so far that it rolled over the hill. The wolf ran to pick up an apple, and the pig got off the tree and ran home.
The next day the wolf as if nothing had happened again came to the piglet.
- Little tasty pig, - he said, - do you know that tomorrow there will be a big fair in the city?
– Yes, I would very much like to go there, - answered the pig. - Won't you keep me company?
- With pleasure!
- When can we expect you?
- At three o'clock in the morning, - the delighted wolf answered.
But the piglet left the house early again. He ran to the fair and bought a butter churn there. The piglet was already approaching the house, when he saw below, at the foot of the hill, a wolf walking towards him. The frightened piglet quickly climbed into the churn and, pushing off, rolled down the hill, straight at the wolf. Seeing a strange object rushing at him at great speed, the wolf rushed to run in horror, and the piglet safely reached the house.
The next day the wolf came to the pig and began to complain to him that yesterday he had been frightened by some kind of monster that was rushing down the hill. Piglet laughed merrily:
- Ha-ha-ha! So it was me, you stupid beast. I was at the fair and bought a butter churn there. Returning home, I saw you and, frightened, hid in it. And then he rolled down, straight to his house.
At this point, the wolf just got angry. He decided to teach a lesson to a smart pig. When it got dark, he climbed onto the roof of the house, and from the roof into the chimney and climbed down the chimney straight into the fireplace. But the smart pig was on the alert and, hearing a rustle, quickly made a fire and put a large cauldron of water on it. He didn't have to wait long. There was a crash, the wolf's paws appeared in the pipe, the pig removed the lid from the boiler - and the wolf flopped right into the boiling water. With all his might, he tried to jump out of the cauldron.
