The book focuses on the right of the female character in a family, which is the mother. All the adjectives used to describe Mr. Piggott and the two boys are positive, such as nice, important. All the color used in their pictures is bright and warm. On the contrary, the sentences that say about Mrs. Piggott are mere plain statements telling what she does during the day. The color of the pictures with her is brownish yellow looks a little bit rotten. The color reminds me of old, sad, slow and sunset. It seems to be no hope when Mrs. Piggott appears. Moreover, she is always alone in the book, except one picture, and doing all the chores soundlessly. She does not engage in any conversation in the book either. What’s more, we do not even get to see her face until the last pages of the book. She is like an accessory of the house.
Suddenly, things start to change. It begins with some subtle transformation which the school badge on the boy’s coat, the pin on Mr. Piggott’s suit and the door knob all turn into PIGS. The painting above the fireplace foretells what is going to happen, the mistress in missing.
When the mother is not in the house, the whole world turn upside down. The yellow color that used to appear with Mrs. Piggott now fogs the three pigs in the kitchen. Not long after they all became pigs, the house was turned into a pigsty and it even draws the wolf to the door. If Mrs. Piggott did not show up to save them, they would probably be eaten like the three little pigs. That is the reason why she came home, she has to rescue them; they are families after all.
When she came home, the pigs realized they have done wrong. They learn to share the chores and mother is able to do what she really enjoys.
It is really fun to read the books by Anthony Browne. He is good at creating some surprises by making the details unify to the theme of the book. For instance, in Piggy Book he does not only make the three protagonists become pigs, but also everything possible that appears in the picture, such as the pattern on the wall paper, the flowerpot, the tiles, the painting etc. It is not only fun to make the details fit to the theme but it also creates a unity and emphasizes the topic.
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