Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood in a Different Light “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perault and “The company of wolves” by Angela Carter is based on the same story but has stark contrasts displayed in them. Both these stories also present the same theme basically but in different versions and manners that reaches out to two different audiences. When the first story by Perault is child-like innocent, the other version by Angela Carter is comprehensible by adults only. The time periods both these stories have been written also contributes to the variations in the story line. The stories written by these two people give a completely different view on the fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood”. It is interesting to note how the story was modified from its original shape and form to fit the age and time that Carter’s “Company of Wolves” was written. In the first story by Charles Perault, Little Red Riding Hood (LRR) depicts the traditional little girl and moral, who was foolish and was deceived by a wolf. This is by far the most ancient version written of this story. LRR is presented as a pretty young girl, who was naïve and gullible. She was also shown as an obedient girl who loved the little things in life. In this version, the girl was supposed to be around six-eight years old, and was aimed to target the little girls of that age who read the story. In this version we also see that the, story is pretty direct. It puts forth the plot of the story directly to the audience and doesn’t need much explanation to better understand it. The story is also short and concise, with a direct moral provided at the very end of the story. Although the story is direct and understandable by young children, the moral gives an indirect approach to the issue of not talking to strangers by referring to them as “wolves”. For a child of age six to eight, I believe it’s hard for them to interpret that the wolves talked about in the moral are referring to older nice men who would take
Cited: Clifford, John, and John Schilb. Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. 4th. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2009. 1573-1576, 1580-1587. Print.