Every so often, there comes a story so popular that it survives many decades and is common in many cultures. Growing up here in America, I was always told the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Because of the way American structure is set up, the story in this culture teaches the people told the story a lesson as well as has a happy ending. The American story of “Little Red Riding Hood” isn’t the only version of this story. As previously mentioned, there are stories that survive many decades and last through many cultures; this is one of them. However, they all have different names. There are also: Little Red Cap, Little Red Hood, The Grandmother, The True History of Little Golden Hood, Grandmother’s Nose, and Little Red Hat. These stories come from many different areas such as Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, and France, and they have many different authors. There are two things that do stay the same throughout every retelling of this story, the characters and idea. There is always a little girl, her grandmother, her mother, and the wolf. Additionally, in every retelling, it involves the little girl having to go to her grandmother’s house to deliver something to her. However, the actions taken by the characters and their personalities change in every telling of the story. Although every version of Little Red Riding Hood has a similar idea, the characterization and moral of the story alters based upon what time period and location it was written in because of the influences of the country of origin’s stereotypes, ideals, and…
In the beginning, a “sweet little girl” is given a red hood by her grandmother. The hood, covering her head, symbolizes her youth. However the bold red color implies that this young girl is soon to transition through adolescence, as the color red also symbolizes seduction or maybe even menstruation-- which is a significant factor of becoming a woman. As the girl goes to visit her grandmother, she delivers a cake and a bottle of wine. A bottle of wine can be viewed as a phallic symbol, which plays a role later when she gives the bottle of wine to the wolf, who is disguised as her grandmother. Secondly, the setting of the story, the woods/forest is another major symbol of danger and female purity. Little Red Riding Hood is traveling through the woods which symbolizes two things: danger and female purity. The wolf represents the danger because he is a threat to the girl and to her grandmother. Female purity is…
1). Throughout Cooper’s entire paragraph are numerous examples of the kind of misogyny that Child spoke out against. In the end, a perceptive reading will have no trouble realizing that Cooper’s paragraph perfectly embodies the masculine portrayal of women in literature that Child so greatly despises: women are worth anything only so long as they are pleasing to…
In the adaption of the classic fairy tale, Snow White, as told by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm the authors portray the feminist topics of the obsession with beauty and gender roles. In the story, a young girl named Snow White is target by her evil stepmother, the Queen, due to her beauty. In the story Snow White is deemed helpless and needs the protection of men. Both the treatment and actions of Snow White symbolises the gender roles and stereotypes of society.…
The Grimm Brothers even included and alternate happy ending in which the grandmother devises a plan to trick and kill the wolf. EXPOUND ON GRIMMS VERSION COMPARTIVLY. Alternatively, in Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, she is gobbled up by the wolf and never to be heard from again. Perrault’s version of the tale is the one that seems most pervasive throughout the centuries, and although the general moral of the story may seem simple, the complex and sometime convoluted symbolism of Perrault’s “original” version cannot be ignored. As noted by Heidi Anne Heiner in her notes in “Annotations For Little Red Riding Hood”, the color red “is a sexually vibrant and suggestive color…Perrault introduced the color red to the tale when he first wrote it.” Heiner also notes that Little Red Riding Hood’s hood is considered to “symbolize menstruation and the approaching puberty of the young character who wears it.” Heiner notes that the other major character in the tale, the Wolf, “is often a metaphor for a sexually predatory…
Atwood’s clever use of language drives her argument on the progression on gender equality in literature; challenging the literary gender stereotypes, ‘Angel/Whore split’. A dichotomy is implemented as an attempt to acknowledge and deconstruct the one-sidedness of female identity and representation within literature and society. The opposing views among women is furthered through Atwood’s Historical & literary references, when cumulatively stating fictitious literary characters, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Lady Macbeth. Thusly, Atwood further delves into the idea that the role of women in society does not have to be restrained to a particular trait, predominantly, good, but instead have the fair and equal opportunity like men to be portrayed in a negative light. Henceforth, Atwood highlights the significance of language and learning as a mean to advocate social change, that being to accept the multi-dimensionality of women in society and…
In 1995, the sociologist, S.B. Ernst, analyzed the titles of numerous children's books and found that male names were written nearly twice as often as female names (Ernst). In addition, she also concluded that book titles with feminine or gender-neutral names, often revolve around male characters (Ernst). Furthermore, these unbalanced and exaggerated gender role stereotypes can easily be seen in mainstream children's literature. Such examples include: Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, The Berenstain Bears, and Rapunzel. Children's literature frequently portrays female characters as being acted upon rather than being active (Fox). In the classic story, Little Red Riding Hood, a male character, the wood cutter, protects Little Red Riding Hood from the Big-Bad Wolf with his axe, which alone is a symbol of strength and authority. Therefore, male characters…
Little red riding hood on the other hand, teaches a good moral to all young children that is children should listen to elders and should never talk to strangers. If they should talk to strangers (in this case wolf), they might get themselves in trouble. There are various kinds of wolves in our society. There are also those who are quiet, polite, and sweet, who follow/hunt young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all. One of the gender issue mentioned in this story is that men are stronger and it is their duty to save women from any harm. For example, it is the hunter who shot the wolf and saved the girl and her grandma. This shows that women are soft and they can't defend themselves from evil. In other words, this depicts an exact opposite image of women compare to the paper bag princess. I would strongly recommend the paper bag princess because, it proves that women can also stand on their own and do the things those men can do. This book is different from other fairy tales because it puts a female character (princess) as the main character and it is her who actually saves the prince…
Little Red Riding Hood has set out on a journey to check on her ill grandmother and deliver some food that her mother has made. Her innocence causes her to be carefree and unattentive to the dangers that are around her. She is carefree and distracted by the beauty of the scenery around her.…
The doubtful of Little Red Riding Hood because her mother and her grandma advice became the opponent actant for Little Red Riding Hood efforts on helping Baker and Jack to beat the Giant.…
Who on earth would eat a grandmother? There’s only one fictional character who would do such a thing: The Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. Next, who would invade people’s homes, eat their porridge, and fall asleep in their beds? The only person who could have done this is Goldilocks herself. The story of Little Red Riding Hood is about a young, naive girl that visits her grandmother to find a big bad wolf in her place. Goldilocks and The Three Bears are about a young, stupid girl who wanders into the bears’ home, and lets her impoliteness overcome her even though these characters and their decisions are different. They have many similarities too.…
On April 22, 2017, Clayton State University’s very own musical drama put on an outstanding performance of, Little Red Riding Hood, with a twist. Little Red Riding Hood music and text was all written by the late Seymour Barab (1921-2014). The outstanding cast, background, stage lighting, and orchestra all included Clayton State University’s students. The “Wolf” was played by Brian Adams, “Little Red Riding Hood” was played by Olivia Bradley, and the “Mother and Grandmother” was performed by Keanna Houston. Before this amazing play, Clayton State University’s Music Drama Workshop gave the audience a snippet of an upcoming play called, Two “Once Upon a Time” Stories, directed and produced by Kurt-Alexander Zeller. The text…
People often ask me about the large grey wolf hide I keep hanging above the fireplace. I will admit it does seem rather odd for a young girl to have such a thing, and I assure you that the story behind it is even stranger. A story I have told many times to guests and passers by, and I always get the same look of disbelief, but I assure that this story is as true as they come. Walking to my Grandmother’s house was not a strange occurrence for me I had done many times, only this time would be far different. I had no idea of the events that were to unfold as I opened the door and entered Grandmother’s cabin.…
Little Red Riding Hood is a short story told to children around the world to be careful about everything you do. She really didn’t make too many decisions throughout the story, but the few that she did make were quite different from Goldilock’s.…
Carter as a feminist was interested in fairy-tales because of hoe gender roles are presented in them. For example, women. Women are normally the lead characters of a fairy-tale. However, there are several different types of women that exist in fairy-tales and the reader is often able to figure out a characters role in a fairy-tale based on their physical appearance. If the woman is attractive, it is often a sign to show a future of happiness and that she is a ‘damsel in distress’ in need of her prince charming to come and rescue her. On the other hand, women that are less attractive are automatically classed as a source of suspicion. The ‘evils stepsisters’ from Cinderella are a prime example of this. Carter, as a feminist writer, can unpick and stripe the myths that compose and uphold western social and sexual relationships. In her opinion, male desire dominated the popular imagination and as a result of this, female desire became squeezed, denied and twisted. In ‘The Bloody Chamber’, Carter does not do ‘versions’ of the common fairy-tales we all know but rather extracts the hidden content from them. One of the fairy-tales that Carter subverts is ‘Little Snow White’ written by the Grimm brothers.…