This is the story of the three little pigs. 1. What is the most important conflict in this story? How do you know?

2. The story is divided into acts and scenes.

a What is the difference between an act and a scene?

b Why has the writer chosen to finish Act 1 at the point where the wolf cannot

blow down the third little pig’s house? Would you change this point? Why or

why not?

c Should Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2 be combined into one? Why or why not?

3 Write down responses to the following ‘if ’ questions and discuss them with a group:

These questions highlight the need to have characters who are in conflict with each other. For example, a wolf who accepted defeat would have stopped the conflict. The story would have become uninteresting.

a If the mother pig was rich, would the story be different?

b If the first little pig had invited the wolf in for dinner, would the story be

different?

c If the third little pig had been a weak, scared character, would the story have been different?

d. If the wolf had accepted defeat by the third little pig, would the story have been different?

Going further

4 The story does not tell us what happened to the mother pig. Write a paragraph that fills in this gap in the story.