...Short Story 1 Little Red Riding Hood Brandon Picone Ashford University Introduction to Literature Loretta Crosson April 8, 2013 Short Story 2 Because she dares to defy societal norms of acceptable female behavior, Little Red Riding Hood faces death at the hands of the Big Bad Wolf, who embodies patriarchy. Every short story has an overall theme which is the identified representation of the idea behind the story. In the story “Little Red Riding Hood” documented by Catherine Orenstein, the long cherished theme of not talking to strangers carries a different lesson in the original version of the story. The main characters and plot remained the same however it is not only talking to strangers that Red Riding Hood should have avoided. The two literary elements of plot and symbolism, contribute to the overall theme of not losing your virginity. The plot begins when Little Red Riding Hood’s mother tells her to take some food to her Granny who is sick. Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf and she tells him where she is going. Along the way she runs into the “wolf” and breaks one of the cardinal rules we teach our children today,” Don’t talk to strangers”. During their conversation she ignorantly gives him the location of her grandmother’s house and various other details that open the door for the wolf to play his tricks. The wolf ran as fast as he could, taking the shortest path, and the little girl took a roundabout way, entertaining herself by...
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...Numerous short stories have been written throughout time, some are just for our imagination and entertainment; however, some of them are for teaching life lessons. The story Little Red Riding Hood was written partly to teach a lesson. In the French version, a young girl loses her virginity and is said to have “seen a wolf” that is what this story is based on. Little Red Riding Hood is about an innocent little girl who runs in to a wolf in the forest while she is on her way to her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother being ill, her mother had baked a cake and a pot of butter hoping that it would make her feel better; however, while Little Red Riding Hood was taking her the food to her grandmother is when she met the wolf in the forest and the wolf was thinking about attacking and devouring her but there were woodcutters working in the area and didn’t want to bring any attention on himself. However, the wolf being nice started to ask her questions and gained the trust of Little Red Riding Hood in a short time and he learned where the grandmother lived. Little Red Riding Hood being naïve she had informed him the location of her grandmother’s house to the wolf. The end result of her providing the information to the wolf was the death of her grandmother and the little Red Riding Hood because the wolf ate both of them. According to our reading, “In fiction is associated with something abstract, something broad: The theme in a story is associated with an idea that lies behind the...
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...In the Woods with Red, the Wolf, and Perrault Over time, the story of Little Red Riding Hood has seen hundreds of different interpretations, versions, and changes. Charles Perrault, a 17th century author, wrote the first publication of this story to reflect that young children, particularly young girls, are wrong to listen to strangers, in this case wolves, and that in doing so, said strangers will undoubtedly get their delicious meal in the end. In Perrault’s version, the male and female are depicted in a very particular way, which is ultimately a reflection of the culture and society of the time. Given this society, and the status of women, it is clear that Perrault is criticizing the gender representation through. While Little Red Riding Hood is a classic tale, it holds a more valuable meaning than society realizes. The story of Little Red Riding Hood has a particular depiction of both men and women. In the story, men are depicted as a “metaphor, a stand-in for male seducers who lure young women into their beds.” (Tater 5). This depiction, while true, is not complete. The wolf is in fact luring Red into the bed with him, after she has taken her clothes off, and although it is not explicitly stated, the action of a girl removing her clothing and climbing into bed with a man implies a sense of sexuality. Additionally, though, the male is depicted as duplicitous and dominant. In several instances throughout the story, the wolf clearly tricks Red and her grandmother into believing...
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...when the parent is not around. You hear so many cases of children being abducted or assaulted all because they were too trusting of a stranger. The short story, “Little Red Riding Hood”, is a story that a parent would find hard to read. As stated in the lesson the theme of a story is a representation of the idea behind the story. The overall theme of this short story in my opinion is trusting strangers. (Clugston, 2010). Little Red Riding Hood was a little too trusting of the wolf and she found herself paying for a mistake that most children make. You send your child off to a relative’s house not thinking that may be your last time seeing them. I can recall growing up in the early eighties and some of the things we worry about now, we did not have to worry about then. As children we could go to the park, movies and different neighborhoods and not have to worry about something happening to us. By no means am I suggesting that we did not have anything to worry about, however, it seems as if we did not have the same trust issues as children do now. I am too afraid to let my daughter go outside by herself in fearing that she would hurt herself or someone else hurting her. I believe it all comes down to trusting what you have taught your child and that they would follow through on what they are taught. Reading this story as a child we were taught that talking to strangers was dangerous and it had great...
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...To most people, the tale of Little Red Riding Hood is a familiar one and Charles Perrault’s version is the most familiar. A moral tale against idleness and disobedience, this classic has stood the test of time. Less familiar to readers is Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves.” A dark retelling, Carter’s version is more an exploration of coming-of-age sexuality and a young woman discovering her own wildness than a cautionary tale against strangers and “gentle wolves” (Perrault 1576). While in Perrault’s story, Red and her granny are eaten by the beast due to Red’s idlness and in Carter’s story, we see Red’s willing surrender to the wolf, both tales deal with the burgeoning sexuality of a young girl. Charles Perrault begins his tale of Red Riding Hood with a glowing description of the young woman as “the prettiest creature who was ever seen” (1574), and the little red riding cape her grandmother made for her. The imagery evoked by the red cape for most readers is one of familiarity. As children, many watched as that little red cape traipsed across Saturday morning cartoons with carefree bliss. Conversely, that red cape serves as a beacon in the forest, a brilliant splash of primary color in a neutral world, almost guaranteeing the notice of the predator that awaits her. The wolf has no chance to miss his target, as she blazes with color through his domain. Upon their first encounter in the woods, Red has no fear of the wolf. Perrault states she “did not know it was dangerous...
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...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...
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...THEME AND NARRATIVE ELEMENTS IN THE SHORT STORY BY __________________________ COURSE NAME/# PROFESSOR NAME DATE DUE, 2012 This analysis is a response to my exploration of the short story Little Red Riding Hood as featured in Journey Into Literature by R.W. Clugston, (2010, Ch. 4.1). The story is actually an ancient fable told in the oral tradition (basically French folk lore) that was written nearly 315 years ago by a writer named Charles Perrault in Paris. The identity of the original author is unknown, although it has been re-written and re-interpreted many, many times by others all over the world. The most popular version of the piece appeared in Perrault’s collection of fairy tales penned under the pseudonym, Mother Goose. Later in the mid-twentieth century, Walt Disney created an American re-telling of the famous Mother Goose story, but reworked it by adding the character of the Huntsman who intervenes and kills the wolf, saving the girl from the grip of Death. The reason for its success and worldwide popularity, I believe, lies in the story’s universal themes: a uniquely human expression of the dangerous interaction between good and evil. Culturally, this theme is extremely adaptable, and malleable to suit many peoples’ values. The story’s narration is done by an omniscient third-person whose voice and tone, in my opinion, reflect a sort of cool distance: a disinterested teller of cautionary tales. For example, the matter-of-fact way the murders are introduced...
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...Connie’s Exploration Inward in Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” that, “The society depicted in ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ has failed to make available to children like Connie maps of the unconscious such as fairy tales provide, because it has failed to recognize that in the unconscious, past and future coalesce, and that, psychologically, where the child is going is where he or she has already been” (1453). The point Schulz and Rockwood are making is that Connie’s generation and many following it, are neglecting to read fairy tales as bedtime stories and are consequently inhibiting the child’s ability to experience and work through problems he will encounter in adolescence. Whether we are aware of it or not, these stories have lessons that engrain themselves deeper than that on the superficial layer of a hero will save the day. For my short story analysis I will exemplify Oates’ fairy tale references and assert my compliance with the theory that fairy tales provide us, upon hearing them as children, with a subconscious ability to handle...
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...cleaning etc. They wanted to do more with their life than just cook and clean, so they also wanted to have a job and make their own money. In the 60’s women began the feminism. They wanted a life for themselves. As we see in the short story, The yellow wallpaper, the woman is ‘fighting’ for her own freedom. She is dominated by her husband, but she is breaking free of it. Women had by then for many years been the weak sex and they wanted to show men that they could do so much more than just to stay home. Many women such as Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer helped founding organizations for women who wanted to come out of the hole dominating man relationships. In Little Red Cap and Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf are there two very clear examples on how the feminism has impacted the modern woman. Little Red Cap is the more traditional fairytale of those two. Little Red Cap goes to her grandmother with food from her mother, she goes through the woods and meats the wolf, and in the end grandmother and Little Red Cap got eaten, and the hero is the huntsman. It shows us that women cannot take care of themselves; they need a man to do it for them. In contrast to that fairytale there is Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf where Little Red Riding Hood conquers the wolf by herself which makes her the hero. Nowadays women have to be a career woman. It, of course, does not have to be one of the most demanding hardworking jobs, but she has to earn enough to could be an independent woman...
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...people in this country are poor and live short, hard lives. They are superstitious to the point of conducting witch-hunts and stoning any witches found (identified by a telltale third nipple) to death. We focus in on a young girl. Her mother sends her into the forest to bring food to her ill grandmother, arming her with a knife and warning her against the dangers of the woods. The girl sets off on her journey unafraid because she knows the forest well. As she is walking, the girl hears a wolf's cry. She turns with her knife drawn to face the beast, and when it lunges, she cuts off its paw. It retreats back into the forest. She wraps the wolf's paw in cloth and continues on her way. When the girl reaches her grandmother's house, the snow is so thick that no tracks can be seen in it. She finds her grandmother in bed with a terrible fever, and when shakes out the cloth to make a hot compress, the wolf's paw falls on the floor. It has changed into a hand, which she recognizes as her grandmother's because of a single wart on it. Expanding... The girl uses all her strength to pull back her grandmother's covers and beneath them discovers the cause of her fever. Her grandmother's severed arm is already rotting. Hearing the girl's cries, the neighbors rush in. They examine the hand and declare the wart on it to be "a witch's nipple." They force the grandmother out of bed and to the edge of the forest, where they stone her to death. The story ends with the summary, "Now the child lived...
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...1010 November 16, 2009 Women’s Position in Stories A folk tale is a short story that comes from the oral tradition. Folk tales often have to do with everyday life and frequently tell an inspiring tale of the lower class (peasants) triumphing over the higher class (nobles). In their original versions, most folk tales are not children's stories because of the violent nature of the story. Most folk tales come from true stories with tragic endings or violent and horrific events. For example, the “humpty dumpty” story was about a man who tried to commit suicide several times and succeed at the end. Also the “little red riding hood” story masked the ending of little red riding hood falling victim to a rapist. Unlike a folk tale which has cultural background, a fairy tale involves magic and fantasy. Examples of fairy tales are, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, “Beauty and the beast”, and Disney’s “Cinderella”. Usually fairy tales include fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, gnomes, and talking animals. Since folktales usually mirror the values and culture of the society from which they originated, a fairy tale can be a folk tale. In essence a fairy tale can also be a subgenre or genre of a folktale. Up until 1450 folktales were passed on orally, so not all folktales were the same. Because Folktales have been told by so many different people there were many different versions. In 1450 the printing press was invented and the folk stories were written in books. People around the world...
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...Adventures with Princess Red “Can I take a selfie with you”? The wolf howled and nodded. And throughout the entire night before entering the haunted house, Princess Red took selfies with almost every creature there was. But as she was taking her last selfie, they realized it was there turn to go inside. “LET THE FUN BEGIN,” said the man who was leading the groups through the houses. Walking through every single house, Princess Red and her group of friends were spooked by everything and everyone they passed, including the lady in white. But what they didn’t notice that was scarier was the wolf following there every move. After going through all six of the houses, the last stop was the maze. Everyone knows that when it comes to the maze you and your group of friends are on your own. So they each got a map and tried to find their own way out, while still not noticing that the wolf was behind them. Scared as they already were, the wolf tried to snatch Red, but failed when her friend tugged on her arm to tell her, “RED, Hurry up! Let’s get outta here!” “Okay, I’m coming,” Red replied. A couple minutes went by and the group still couldn’t find a way out. But the wolf used that to his advantage. He put up a barrier so that the group couldn’t leave and so he could catch Princess Red one last time. Falling into the wolf’s trap, they were stuck in somewhat of a closed area with only one way out. As they turned around, the wolf was standing at the entrance. Princess Red and the group were...
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...Essay - Red from green – The physical changes, the insecurity, the desire of being independent and the need of confirmation are all a part of the transformation of becoming adult. Everybody has to go through the stages, where everything seems new and different – even yourself. This transformation has been described in the most famous stories, such as “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and is also being described in the short story by Maile Meloy; “Red from green”, where the young girl Sam is experiencing the changes from childhood to adulthood very abruptly. When reading the short story you are not in any doubt of the main theme, which is the above-mentioned “the change from child to adult”. This is seen throughout the whole story, from even the small reactions running through her body, such as her insecurity and blushing when being complimented (l. 44; p. 2)) , to her very first experience with her sexuality in the form of physical contact with the grown up man: Layton (ll. 145-157; pp. 2-3). Beside that, the act of distancing from her father is also a part of growing old, and this is a very essential point of the story, since she decides to leave him, when accepting the scholarship from the boarding school. The shape of Sam’s state of mind is additionally confirming this changing. Sam is a very representative teenager in the middle of the puberty. She is really going through a development through the story; starting from a point, where the adultness has...
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...formed: by starting out with an idea, thesis, antithesis and finally sublation. The resolution is an epiphany of sorts that, like a quest, comes only at the end, after having undergone various trials. I would like to think that this piece of writing exhibits the point I wish to instill: the necessity of imaginative freedom in myth. Let Absurdity Reign Erich Fromm interprets the story of Little Red Riding Hood as the “expression of a deep antagonism against men and sex” (TFL 241). Men (who are represented by the wolf) are seen as “ruthless and cunning animals, who turn the sexual act into a cannibalistic ritual” (CFT 7). A man is a heartless animal driven by the two most primary animal faculties: lust and hunger. Susan Brownmiller contrasts this position with her interpretation of the same tale as a “cultural story that holds the gender bottom line by perpetuating the notion that women are at once victims of male violence even as they must position themselves as beneficiaries of male protection”(CFT 8). Thus, according to Fromm, it is the wolf himself that symbolizes men, whilst for Brownmiller the story itself perpetuates a message of gender prejudice and stereotyping. On top of these two interpretations one could heap psychoanalytic interpretations of womb envy by the wolf (Anne Sexton), the succumbing of a young innocent youth through lies and trickery, thereby straying from the idealized Christian path, the loss of virginity and innocence as symbolized by that pivotal symbolic...
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...improve your paraphrasing skills. You'll also get practice at writing a compare-and-contrast interpretive paper, which will help you with the process used in KAMs and other course papers. Three interpretations of the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs appear here, along with a mini-research study about wolves and pigs. To help you improve your writing skills, you can approach these pages in two ways: First, read the assigned questions below. Then read through the four short interpretive texts. Next, take some time to write a brief paper in which you answer the questions posed at the beginning. Were you able to easily summarize using your own words? Were you able to write without having the original source open in front of you? Did you include proper in-text citations? Assigned Questions 1. In no more than four paragraphs, summarize the story of the three pigs. (Refer to either the Higley or Ashliman version for direct quotes.) 2. Compare and contrast these four interpretations of the story, using direct quotes and paraphrases as appropriate. Try not to be judgmental; use the author's evidence for support. 3. Offer a brief critical analysis of the interpretations. What were the strengths and weaknesses, if any, of each? Three Little Pigs: Four Interpretations Gomez (1999) Literature is rife with pigs as symbols, from the Three Little Pigs to Porky, from the pigs in Orwell's Animal Farm to Hollywood’s recent creation, Babe. These characters...
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