The Little Red Riding Hood By Jacob And Wilhelm Grimm

Prologues are often an author’s way of introducing important information or topics needed to understand the body of writing on a deeper level or as a way to direct the reader to a certain line of thought or specific interpretation of the writing. Anne Sexton writes a prologue for every single one of her poems in her compilation of fairytale poetry throughout Transformations. She gives the reader so many hints throughout her prologues on what the reader should pay attention to. In “Red Riding Hood”, Sexton draw immense attention to the issues of deception in real life though the importance she places on these issues in her poem. She calls out not only the frequency of deception in life but she calls attention specifically to the deception of a mother’s security.

A Comparison of Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault and Little Red Cap by the Brothers Grimm

Little red riding hood is about a girl on a trip to her sick grandmother’s house but she had met a wolf on her way there. There are many different versions of this story, the Perrault version and Grimm version. There was also a parody of Little Red Riding Hood called Hoodwinked!. In all of the stories they all start with a mother giving something to give to her daughter. For her daughter to travel into the forest to give her grandmother what her mother had made.

The folk tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” has numerous variations and interpretations depending on what recorded version is being read or analyzed. “Little Red Cap,” by the Grimm Brothers, and “The Grandmother,” as collected by Achille Millien, are different in numerous ways: the depth of the narrative structure, characters involved, length – yet, the moral lesson is largely unchanged between the two versions. One of the more glaring differences between the two versions is the way that the narrator and the actions of the characters are used to describe the young girl, female, and the wolf, male. Being either female or male are matters of biological makeup. The characteristics of femininity and masculinity that are associated with being

“I've told her and I've told her: daughter, you have to teach that child the facts of life before it's too late” (Hopkinson 1). These are the first three lines of Nalo Hopkinson's short story “Riding the Red”, a modern adaptation of Charles Perrault's “Little Red Riding Hood”. In his fairy tale Perrault prevents girls from men's nature. In Hopkinson's adaptation, the goal remains the same: through the grandmother biographic narration, the author elaborates a slightly revisited plot without altering the moral: young girls should beware of men; especially when they seem innocent.

Original fairy tales restrict the opportunities of female protagonists, allowing their fate to be controlled by male characters and society’s restrictive expectations of women. Authors such as Perrault of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ were quick to provide advice to their suggestible female readers in moral that girls should not try to drift from the path that society has laid out for them. Thus they became ‘parables of instruction’ (Carter) to indoctrinate the next generation in the values of a patriarchal society. Fairy tales of this time consistently remind us that those of the female sex will not prosper if they choose to ignore and defy the social constructs. Pre 1900s, the roles of women were entirely predetermined. A clear female dichotomy was established portraying them as either ‘the virgin’ or ‘the whore’. Stereotypical perceptions of women reduced them to biological functions and stated that they should acquire the role of wife and mother – objectified to such an extent where they were essentially their male counterpart’s possession. Both authors scorn the importance placed on domesticity and conformity, stressing the vital nature of being able to choose and uncover the consequences of societal ignorance. Carter highlights to her literary audience a passive generation of women who face the inability to vocalise their thoughts and opinions in the context of oppressive patriarchy. Within her work ‘The Company of Wolves’ “The

"Riding The Red"at first glance is a simple narrative with a grandmother telling a story about a wolf, but with further analyzation the two themes of first love and innocent become very clear. The author’s repetition of certain words like blood and dance directs your attention to a deeper meaning hinting and connections to the "Little Red Riding Hood" which reflects back to the underlining message of what happens when a girl grows up.

Of all the different versions of the Little Red Riding Hood, they have one common factor, which is the wolf. In the versions I have mentioned above, the wolf stays the same throughout the stories; he is very malicious and calculated. He waits for the little girl, or girls in the story of "The Chinese Red Riding Hoods," as there are three sisters whose mother left to go visit the grandmother. While the wolf was outside and overheard the mother asking for the oldest daughter to watch for her younger sisters. When it was dark, he disguised himself as an elderly woman and knocked at the door of the three girls' house (Chang 1). In the other two versions, the wolf comes upon Little Red Riding Hood as she enters the forest and asks her where she is traveling to. In the version of The Brothers Grimm, he comes right on out and asks her where her grandmother lives. On the way to the cottage, the wolf distracts the girl by asking her why she doesn't look

Perrault’s version warns against wandering away from the safety formed by civilized society. A scholar, Eric Fromm considers the red riding hood to be a “symbol for menstruation” (1), symbolizing that Little Red Riding Hood is entering puberty and therefore womanhood and in turn moving away from the guidance of her mother and grandmother. This is also understood when she forgets her mother’s warning to stay on the path, and goes off picking flowers and chasing butterflies with childlike innocence. The sexual undertones were obvious in a culture that would outcast a young woman who lost her virginity. Perrault’s story gained popularity in a time when high society parents were concerned with their children ruining their family names. This is illustrated in the end of the story where the wolf kills and eats the girl and her

Charles Perrault’s, Little Red Cap places emphasis on the contrasting character traits of the protagonist Little Red Riding Hood and the antagonist the Wolf.

Before telling the story of Red Riding Hood, Carter establishes the nature of wolves in a folk-lore or legend

Furthermore, in Red Riding Hood she was wearing red which is the colour of blood as she was a virgin she became the prey of the wolf. The colour red attracts unnecessary attention when she was going through the forest. This tells us how naïve young girls can be and not being aware of her surroundings. She was born in a village so comparing to the children in the cities she is more

In the story Hansel and Gretel by the Grimm Brothers, Gretel is not considered to be a strong person, in fact she is a person known mostly for her weakness and hopelessness. Towards the end, Gretel does something so heroic and shocking that the action evinces the characteristic of strength not known in her before. In the beginning, Gretel is characterized as a weak little girl in need of saving by her brother Hansel. After Gretel and Hansel, her brother, overhear their stepmother plotting to abandon them within the forest, Gretel starts to cry and is need to be comforted by her brother.

In the Grimms' version, both Red and her grandmother are eaten by the wolf, but miraculously saved by a huntsman who, instead of shooting the wolf, cuts open its belly, apparently while the wolf is still alive, in order to release first Little Red, and then her grandmother. Red then fills the wolf's belly with stones, and as a result, justice is served and the wolf dies. The moral of the Grimm's version also differs from that of Perrault. The Grimms emphasize obedience. Before she sets out, Red is given strict and fairly detailed instructions by her mother, not to stray from the path. The wolf tempts her from the path, she sins, and thus her being eaten by the wolf is often considered by critics as the punishment for her

Later on, we are introduced to the wolf, who represents men as a threat to women. The wolf symbolizes a man, who can be a lover, seducer or sexual predator. When Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf, he wants to eat her but is too afraid to do so in public, for sometimes there are woodcutters watching. He instead approaches the young girl with the intention of seducing her, and she “naively” tells him exactly where she’s going. He then suggests for her to pick some flowers, which she of course does. Not only does she stop to talk to the wolf, but she completely forgets about her sick grandmother as well as her promise to her mother, in order to satisfy her own desires. “Little Red Cap had run after flowers, and did not continue on her way to grandmother's until she had gathered all that she could carry” ( ). Little Red Riding Hood clearly demonstrates the behaviour of an Id driven personality. She is bound up