Little Red Riding Hood

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Introductions

Children literature has been touted as one of the most fundamental aspects of childhood. This is especially considering that most of this literature is aimed at giving children a peak at the decisions that they should make. This key, crosscutting aspect of these stories is that they always have a moral lesson. Nevertheless, many are times when children stories are changed so as to depict varied ideas and meanings. This is the same case that has been done to the story Little Red Riding Hood. This story has been subjected to numerous changes with the different authors trying to push a certain idea. However, most of these changes have been pushing a feminist idea.

Little Red Riding Hood revolves around a young girl who went by the same name. The girl was walking via a forest while taking some food to her granny. On her way, she comes across a wolf who wants to eat her but is wary of eating her in public. In essence, the wolf approaches her, and she tells the wolf where she is heading. The wolf rushes to the grandmother’s house and eats her and lays in wait for the girl. On arrival, however, the girl notices the strange looks of her “grandmother”. Unfortunately, the wolf hastens to swallow her, as well. Luckily, a lumberjack saves the two as he comes with an axe, splits open the wolf’s tummy and frees the grandmother and Little Red Riding hood. The two then fill the wolf’s tummy with stones, which prevents him from rising up and ultimately leads to his death. While later versions of the story have not been fundamentally different, they have incorporated feminist undertones from the authors.

In Angela Carter’s version of Little Red Riding Hood in “The Company of Wolves”, the tradition idea that associates women as prey or victims is overturned. This twisted version outlines that the grandmother is eaten while the young Little Red Riding Hood tricks the wolf so as to escape from danger. Angela retells the famous story in a feminist lens that shows the completeness and inevitability of corruption, as well as the nontraditional idea pertaining to sexuality and the ability of women to protect themselves through characteristics such as confidence and slyness.

In the beginning, Little Red Riding Hood signifies innocence and purity with her young beauty and blond hair as she is showered with love from her grandmother and parents. The author mentions her impeding sexual maturity. The author states that the girl is “an unbroken egg” or “a sealed vessel” who “does not know how to shiver”. However, there is a marked difference between this girl and others in the town. As much as she is innocent and pure, she also comes across as unafraid, strong minded, as well as full of life. Carter states that the girl has known too much love to feel scared at all (Carter, 5). These qualities will enable Little Red to survive the encounter with the wolf.

The grandmother, unlike the Little Red Riding Hood, is depicted as an old, conventional woman who holds on to the typical qualities of pious servants of God. She is an example of a figure that conforms to the societal expectations. Once the wolf-man comes to the grandmother’s house, she is unable to protect herself using the Bible and apron. She is left vulnerable and unprotected after throwing them to him. Her last image of the wolf-man is that of a dirty, barbarous, and unkempt animal that Carter describes in an extremely sexually-arousing manner. The descriptions are a reflection of the fact that the grandmother had focused her attention to his appearance and sexuality, only to become another submissive victim to the lustful beast. Carter uses the grandmother, who is incapable of fending for herself thanks to her old age and deficiency of intelligence and wit, to show her contempt towards women who robotically follow the societal roles set out for them. Her old age is a symbol of the traditional beliefs that she holds.

Little Red, on the other hand, is depicted as cunning and witty, which is quite different from her grandmother and other typical women in her town. The original story indicates that Little Red questions the wolf about his mighty hands, enormous eyes, ears and coarse voice. This, however, is not the case in Carter’s version of the story as the girl does not cringe away even when the wolf-man reveals his plan to her. Instead, Little Red breaks into laughter and even gives herself to him in a “savage marriage ceremony” (Carter, 7). In essence, the girl relies on nothing, but her instincts, to survive, in which case she makes use of her sexual prowess to trick the lustful creature. This contrasts the grandmother’s reaction of turning to religion and other superstitious beliefs. Instead, the girl trusts her judgment and even sacrifices her virginity so as to save herself. She can even hear her grandmother’s bones making a terrible clattering sound, but she chooses to ignore them all in an effort to save her life. She strives to do everything she can even if she has to go against societal expectations pertaining to women (Carter, 7). Her refusal to be another hapless victim, while other women are unwilling to utilize their sexual powers in overcoming power men makes it possible for her to survive.

Girls and women in general are expected to keep their sexuality under wraps. However, Little Red chooses to let go of her sexuality, thereby reversing the contrasting images. It is worth noting that corruption in the male dominated society has consumed her purity and sexuality as she will never return to her innocence. The transformation that the girl undergoes is inevitable if she is to survive, which is a reflection of the importance of wit and intelligence in determining the manner and appropriate instances when an individual should use sexuality. It is noteworthy that, after the sexual act, there is a shift of power from the wolf to Little Red as she not only takes initiative, but also controls her actions’ direction, which is ultimately connected to her survival. Carter, in this text, is outlining to the readers that girls and women in general should not see their sexuality as an exclusively evil thing that has to remain under the covers, rather they should see it as something that they must value and use carefully in an effort to enhance the power of their femininity.

Ann Sexton, on the other hand, has another version of the same story. Nevertheless, she uses her version to outline the male dominance and capacity of women to define their own destiny. In her poem, “Red Riding Hood” derived from a book titled “Transformations”, Anne states that the women blame the wolf’s death on “its own weight”, which is a deviation from the original story where the wolf was killed by the weight of stones put by the two ladies. The key topic in the poem is that women, during her time, were expected to follow societal standards pertaining to propriety. Sexton uses Brothers Grimm version of the story to criticize the modern society’s repressiveness.

Sexton’s poem underlines the importance of the role of women for various reasons. She outlines that the obedience of the little girl sets her on a dangerous path to her death. She encounters a wolf, which is a male authority that she trusts. She obeys him and ends up being eaten by her. Rather than blame herself for killing the wolf with stones, she chooses to blame the wolf as she does not want to lose her decent and modest appearance. She simply wants to abide by the standards that the society has set for women. The Brothers Grimm version of the story underlines obedience to one’s mother, conformism, as well as submission to the existing male authority. Her use of this version is meant to criticize the patriarchal and male-dominated society.

Initially, Little Red Riding Hood appears stupid as she is deceived by accepting to take wine and cake to her grandmother (Sexton, 94). She aligns herself to the standards of the society pertaining to the behavior of women by listening and even trusting the wolf-man. On being saved from the stomach of the wolf, she feels reborn (Sexton 168) and becomes astute in exacting revenge on this wolf then blames the death on “his own weight’ (Sexton 162). Nevertheless, the fact that the women killed the wolf shows that they have broken societal rules pertaining to propriety. Sexton’s wolf, by being killed by “its own weight” alludes to the notion of women destroyed by lies and deceit told to them pertaining to propriety that exists only in fairy tales.

One of the things that most feminists did not like about the original version was the notion that a man (lumberjack) saved the two women from the wolf’s stomach. This is because the feminists felt that that notion showed or suggested that women require the help of won so that they can be saved. This is what pushed them to incorporate a minute twist to the story. Donna Leishman, in her version of the story, depicts Little Red as having a red sweater and baggy pant, as well as giving her mother dirty looks. These suggest that the girl is a rebellious, young woman. The girl also gets annoyed by the advances of the wolf but chooses to listen to him. Eventually she even has sex with him and gets pregnant, which is a depiction of the changing times where girls become pregnant at a relatively early age. Little red is depicted as a rebellious kid who does not mind talking to the strange wolf. Her becoming pregnant shows that she may have wanted to sleep with the wolf, especially considering that she did not refuse his advances. The fact that she eventually saves herself shows that Little Red (or women in general) are independent and can do things without any help from men.

The girl proves to have a different mindset than her grandmother when approached by the wolf. First of all, she is introduced to this carnivore incarnate not as a horrible beast, but as a dashing young man who makes a bet with her that he can reach grandmother’s house faster than her with his compass. His winning prize is a kiss from her, and the girl, secretly wanting him to win, takes her time. However, when the girl reaches the grandmother’s house, she immediately senses a difference in the atmosphere � the pillow is perfectly propped up without a hint of indention and the bible, unlike usual, is laying closed on the table. Her quickness allows her to realize that something is wrong, but she refuses to let her fear get the better of her. She is wiser than the wolf’s other victims in that she controls her fear and plays along with the wolf. It may seem to the readers at first that she is succumbing to the wolf by taking off her own clothes, but her boldness in approaching the wolf, taking off his clothing for him, and then giving him the kiss is rather surprising. By this point, her innocence and virginity is shining ever more brightly as stated, “her hair looked white as the snow outside,” in contrast to the wolf’s lustful and hungry presence (Carter 7). As stated in The Infernal Desires of Angela Carter, “This episode highlights Carter’s favourite rhetorical trope � the oxymoron, which involves the paradoxical twinning of opposites,” The Company of the Wolves presents many contrasting ideas: men vs. women, red vs. white, innocence vs. corruption (Bristow and Lynn). However, when the girl chooses to release her sexuality, she reverses all these contrasting images. Corruption consumes her innocent nature once and for all, for she will never be able to return back to her innocence. This complete transformation that the girl goes through was inevitable for her to survive, and this represents the importance of wisdom in discerning how and when to use powers such as sexuality. Furthermore, the power shifts from the wolf to the girl as she takes the first initiative and controls the direction of her actions, with which her goal is to survive. From this, Angela Carter conveys to the readers that women should not view sexuality as an entirely evil thing that should be hidden under the covers, but something that women should value and use carefully to empower their femininity. Few years after this story was published, Carter stated in an interview with Rosemary Carroll, “Women have not had a voice until so recently and even now this issue is not one with which the women’s movement seems concerned” (Carroll). Through this story, readers can see Carter’s strong belief in women voicing their desires and beliefs by taking action. The fact that Carter states in the end that “It is Christmas Day, the werewolves’ birthday” reveals her view that women should accept the fact that in every man and woman, a beast lives, just as Little Red had revealed her inner beast, by connecting the werewolf’s beginning with Christmas Day, the day of Jesus’ birth. Through this story, Carter conveys that in order to fight the evilness in the world, women must learn to use the powers given to them even if it means succumbing to corruption, because corruption in this world is inevitable.