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Compare And Contrast The Company Of Wolves And Little Red Riding Hood

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Little Red Riding Hood is a popular fairy tale that has been around for centuries. It has become such a classic story that many authors have created their own versions and made it their own, and one of these authors is Angela Carter. Her story “The Company of Wolves” is written similarly to the original Little Red Riding Hood, however Carter has added a unique touch to the story with how she describes the wolf, the infamous villain from this classic tale. At its core, her story follows the same plot as the original fairytale, but how similar are the wolves when compared side by side? As similar as these characters and stories may be, they also have their differences. Little Red Riding Hood and “The Company of Wolves” not only have different …show more content…

In “The Company of Wolves,” Carter first describes the wolves, whereas Little Red Riding Hood describes Little Red Riding Hood and the setting of the story before coming to the wolf. Carter wastes no time in letting the reader know what type of character the wolf is, and that wolves have an evil nature. The very first line of her story says, “One beast and only one howls in the woods by night” (1400). She then describes the essence of what makes wolves as evil as they are. “The wolf is carnivore incarnate, and he's as cunning as he is ferocious; once he's had a taste of flesh then nothing else will do” (1400). In other words, wolves are meat eaters and they will settle for nothing less than flesh. Although Little Red Riding Hood also lets the reader know that wolves are evil creatures, the wolf is not introduced until the fourth line and the description is kept very brief. “The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Little Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him” (the Grimm Brothers). Similarly to the description of the wolf, the encounter between him and Little Red Riding Hood is also

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