Reading Diary B: English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales

The Three Little Pigs

This was one of my favorite stories when I was a little kid. I had not read it in so long that I forgot some parts of it, so it was fun to read the story again. I always that it was funny that the first two pigs built their homes out of straw and furze because in no way would that be stable. Also, if the wolf could blow it down, then how could the simple force of the wind not do the same? For some reason, I thought the two other pigs survived, ran away from the wolf, and hid in the third pigs house. The third pig is very clever in this story and continues to deceive the wolf, even though the wolf is trying to do the same to him. In the end, the pig outwits the wolf, boils him, and eats him for dinner.

The Master And His Pupil

Since I am a big fan of science fiction, I really liked this story. The notes before reading the story mention that Disney's Fantasia is another version of this folktale, so I was very interested in the story from the beginning. I remember seeing the movie many times as a child and even seeing the show at Disney World. Even more recently, there was another Sorcerer's Apprentice movie made with Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel. This is how I pictured each character while reading this story. Overall, the pupil is pretty stupid and the master apparently does not like to teach him things. For this reason, it feels more like the pupil is more of a servant or slave for the master. The pupil should have never began reading spells from the book if he could not understand any of them. This nearly killed him, as he summoned a demon without knowing what to do afterwards. Although the pupil should not have opened the book and read from it, the master could have actually taught him how to use it to prevent this from ever happening.

(Mickey Mouse in Fantasia)