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Riding The Red Analysis

Decent Essays

The Big Bad Wolf Has Come to Collect: An Analysis of Riding in the Red
Nalo Hopkinson’s short story “Riding the Red” is a reinterpretation of the famous childhood folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood". With the use of literary devices, Hopkinson was able to write a story with two different messages. Reading the words on the page Hopkinson writes about a grandmother telling the story of big bad wolf. On the other hand, reading between the lines a whole new story emerges from the pages talking about love, innocence and growing up.

"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.

Hopkinson’s allusions to the old folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood" are evident throughout the entire story. Her use of symbolic settings, items and phrases integrate the connection between the two stories, forcing the readers to use prior knowledge of the old folk tale to understand her reinterpretation.“Riding the Red”(Hopkinson), “my cottage in the forest” (Hopkinson) and “red hood”(Hopkinson) are specific examples of allusive language Hopkinson uses to emphasize the connections between the two stories. By engaging the readers fundamental knowledge of the "Little Red Riding Hood" the author is able to strengthen the morals of her story and allow the reader to make connections with their childhood memories. These allusions incorporated throughout the short story ensuring the reader is more likely to understand her intended message the destruction of innocence when becoming a young woman.

The intention of repetition throughout a story is to signify a word and draw attention, among many others the word blood was repeated numerous times placing a great significance of the word. The context of the word varies from sentence to sentence, but always circles back to the original sense of sexual desire and virginity. “drunk on the smell of my own young blood

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