The Figure Of The Wolf In Children’s Stories

Do you want to know why the wolf has always had a great role in children’s stories? We tell you everything about this peculiar character and his role in them.

It’s usually the bad guy, but there are exceptions. The figure of the wolf in children’s stories has had an indisputable role throughout history. This villain is part of the narrative tradition of different countries. Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats,  The Three Little Pigs or Pedro and the Wolf  are examples of stories that have him as the bad guy in the story, the one who always receives a lesson.

Not only in books, as many of them have been taken to the movies, where the figure of the wolf is still present. Cartoons like the Road Runner  show off the evil of a character who ends up taking over an important part of the plot.

The figure of the wolf in children’s stories: the antagonist

The figure of the wolf in children’s stories is associated with the attack on lambs and sheep, but also on man. His presence instills a fear inspired by oral tradition that relates him to danger, evil, betrayal and mistrust.

Small-town peasants, who had the wolf as the main threat to their herds, created stories. In their long hours of herding they had accumulated fears. The fear of venturing into forests and being eaten by packs of hungry wolves is one of them.

Making the wolf the bad guy in the story was therefore not complicated. At the same time, the stories made it possible to warn about the dangers of the field and the need to respect the rules. Children’s stories come from that long oral tradition. They stimulate the child’s imagination and convey important messages, such as not interacting with strangers. Short and entertaining Aesop’s fables give lessons on honesty and solidarity.

The bad guy always loses, like the wolf in children’s stories

In The Three Little Pigs , the wolf attacks each of the houses that the little pigs built to protect themselves from their evil. He manages to destroy the straw and the wooden one, with puffs and snorts, but not the brick one. When he tries to enter through the chimney he is greeted with a container of boiling water. The wolf flees without eating any of the three protagonists.

• In Little Red Riding Hood , the wolf eats the granny and tries to do the same with the girl. A hunter stops him and makes him end up with a belly full of stones at the bottom of a river.
• In The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats , the villain tricks seven little goats who were alone in his house. He managed to eat six of them, but the last one runs away and tells his mother what happened. Immediately, the mother went to look for him in the forest, where she found him asleep. He opens his belly, takes out his six daughters and fills his stomach with stones. When the wolf wakes up to a river to drink water, he falls into it due to the weight of the rocks and drowns.

• In Pedro y el lobo , a little shepherd made fun of the people who came to help him when he shouted “the wolf is coming!” He did it so much that when the real animal arrived, no one believed him.

The story of the good wolf 

Some modern stories have changed the role of the wolf from bad to good. These characters are already part of the children’s culture. In  Jon Scieszka’s The Three Little Pigs story , the wolf wanted to bake a birthday cake for his grandmother. Looking for the cup of sugar that was missing, he came to the straw house and the wooden one, which fell off by themselves.

The two occupants of the house died, and before this the wolf ate them so as not to let the food get lost. When he got to the brick one, he was upset because the little pig insulted his grandmother. Thus, he tried to get into the house, but at that moment the police arrived and arrested him.

Another great success: The Jungle Book

Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book , gave another image of the figure of the wolf in children’s stories. Mowgli, the protagonist, is taken in by a pack of wolves after being abandoned in the jungle. He was sheltered by a fiercely protective mother and the alpha male of the group.

They made the child able to face the dangers of the jungle on his own. The figure of the wolf in children’s stories has had a privileged place. Good or bad, this character has made it possible to transmit messages that teach children interesting lessons.