Pig Tale is a poetic children's story by Helen Oxenbury. It centres on Bertha and Briggs, two pigs bored of farm life, who discover a chest of jewels in their wallow and thus strike it rich. Soon they have the nice clothes, house and the car they want- until they discover a life of luxury is not all it's cracked up to be, so return to their old life on the farm.
Pig Tale provides examples of
- Cool Car: Briggs absolutely adores his brand-new car- at least until it breaks down.
- Domestic Appliance Disaster: Bertha suffers from this to the point where she's in tears while covered in mashed up fruit from the mixer. Her and Briggs struggling with appliances is mostly likely due to them being, well, pigs.
- Doomed New Clothes: The outfits the pigs bought for themselves end up covered in either oil or mashed fruit- and then end up discarded entirely when the pigs decide life on the farm is a lot less stressful.
- Foreshadowing: There are a couple of hints that the human life is not really suited for the pigs.
- The house Bertha chooses is one she's seen from the gate of the farm. That sure is convenient for when the pigs change their mind about living in luxury.
- Briggs barely sleeps the first night because he finds the heat too uncomfortable. Later on, he has to give up fixing his car because he gets too hot.
- Grail in the Garbage: The pigs become wealthy when they find a box of expensive jewelry in their mud wallow, and have the bank exchange the jewelry for cash.
- Idle Rich: How Bertha and Briggs intend to live when they become rich. Things don't turn out as they planned.
- My Car Hates Me: Briggs's new car breaks down in the middle of a country lane. When he cannot fix it, he's forced to undergo a long walk back home.
- Plot Hole: Don't ask how Briggs pushes his car into the pond at the end of the story when he abandoned it at the roadside and walked home.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Nobody seems to bother that much when they see two pigs wandering around town. Averted with the bank manager who orders them to leave (until he sees the box they are carrying).
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: It takes a total of two days for the pigs to realise the life of luxury they envisioned is not what they hoped for. At the very end they are perfectly happy to throw off their new clothes and abandon the new house and car for the farm.
