Before reading the various versions of Little Red Riding
Hood, I think back to my childhood where I was always a bit intimidated by the
whole notion of the big bad wolf. The fairytale we were all told as a child was
a little spooky in my opinion, I know children need to be taught to be cautious
but I don’t think being eaten by a wolf is such a great teaching method for
young children. Little Red Riding Hood was never one of my favorites due to its
dark and violent nature, even though it is a fairy tale that is there to teach
a lesson to children, there are so many more non-violent ways to convey a
lesson to children.
In
Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, I felt that the topic of
cannibalism was predominate in the story line because first he eats the grandma
then gobbles up Little Red Riding Hood. Although it being a dark fairytale when
I was a child, I don’t remember ever reading a version that was focused on the
wolf’s eating habits as this one was. The wolf was friendly to Little Red
Riding Hood but in such a way that he was being facetious knowing that he was
going to eventually gobble her up right after he ate her grandmother. Excuse me
for the silly reference, but the wolf reminds me of a sour patch kid, just a
little backwards; he was sweet to Little Red Riding Hood then turned sour and
ate her right up! I never even imagines that the story could be about rape, but
in this version, the wolf asks Little Red Riding Hood to take her clothes off
and climb into bed with him, even if the wolf would have been her grandmother,
why was Little Red Riding Hood taking off her clothes to begin with? That was a
strange part of the fairytale in my opinion, still not too sure what to think
of that.
Thurber
did a quick and sloppy job of retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I’m
assuming Thurber made the assumption that the reader already knew the original
story of Little Red Riding Hood because without knowing the background
information, this story is not very informational. I don’t think the theme of
girls being educated was the most predominate theme from this story, I feel that
it was more of a modern adaptation written quickly to show how girls have
evolved but not necessarily how educated they are. Girls have become more aware
of their surroundings but that has nothing to do with their level of education
as implied by Thurber. I liked reading this version as a comparison to other
versions of Little Red Riding Hood, but this is one version of the fairy tale
that in my opinion should not stand alone.
After reading the ‘test case’ by Shavit, and
reading all his audience differences based in Little Red Riding Hood as told by
Perrault and Brother’s Grim, I can most certainly say that this was for an
adult audience. The Werewolf by Angela Carter is nothing short of being dark
and gruesome; definitely not suited for a child audience. The details of how
Little Red Riding Hood comes to fight off the wolf and turning into her
grandmother are not something that a child should read about due to its graphic
nature. Carter does not miss a beat when depicting Little Red Riding hood as
being written for an adult literary crowd. The scenery used to set the stage of
the fairytale was even quite dark and not suitable for children. I feel that
Carter definitely took after Perrault when writing this story because it was shocking.
LRRH used a knife and cut the wolf’s paw off! Since when did LRRH become so
savage of a person? On the other hand, I feel that Carter ended the story with
a happy ending and that’s a trade mark of a Grimms Brother stylistic tone
therefore that could be a basis of argument that Angela Carter wrote for a
children’s audience. I will, however, stick to my theory that Angela Carter
writes for an adult literary audience, not children.
I enjoyed reading all the adaptations of
Little Red Riding Hood and although not one of my favorite fairy tales, I do
appreciate the thought and knowledge shown through the different versions of
the story. I have a newfound understanding of the Little Red Riding Hood story.
