"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?": A Comparison in American Culture

This lesson analyzes how contemporary values and attitudes are reflected in literature.

Weblink address (URL):

Learning objectives:

Students analyze an early 20th century version of the Three Little Pigs to determine how contemporary culture and values affect a story.

Essential and guiding questions:

What does a book tell us about the people who wrote it and the people who read it?

Blooms taxonomy level:

Applying

Extension suggestions:

Give each group a copy of a contemporary version of The Three Little Pigs. Ask them to compare and contrast the values portrayed with those in L. Leslie Brooke’s version.
Show students The Children’s Object Book, published in the 1880s, available at http://read.gov/books/object-book.html. Discuss the changes in technology that have occurred in the past 130 years. Assign each student a page and challenge them to create a similar illustration for the objects of today.

Materials Used:
Library of Congress primary sources:

The Three Little Pigs, L. Leslie Brooke, illustrator (see image at right) https://www.loc.gov/item/84181093/
Progressive Era to New Era 1900-1929 overview http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivitie...
Assassination of President McKinley https://www.loc.gov/item/96521677/The Titanic http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001704326/
President Roosevelt speaking from his train at Colorado Springs, Col. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010649009/
Typical Night Scene in an Indiana Glass Works https://www.loc.gov/item/2018673719/
Great Falls of the Yellowstone River https://www.loc.gov/item/95514172/
Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, California, in 1903. https://www.loc.gov/item/93503130/
USS Maine, Havana https://www.loc.gov/item/2014689652/
This little girl like many others… (see below right) https://www.loc.gov/item/2018676167/
Gutter toy merchant, New York City, A. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016798927/
Italian bread peddlers, Mulberry St., New York. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016800317/
Family in an attic home with drying laundry https://www.loc.gov/item/2016816402/
Suffragists Mrs. Stanley McCormick and Mrs. Charles Parker, April 22, 1913. https://www.loc.gov/item/93510737/
Landing at Ellis Island https://www.loc.gov/item/97501086/