Little Red Riding Hood

Introduction:
Little Red Riding Hood is a classic tale that was created for children. Most individuals know the story about the young girl, who tries to go to her grandmother’s house in the woods. But then she gets interrupted by a creature that is known as the Big Bad Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood have a conversation and she discusses about going to give food to her grandmother because she is ill. They soon stopped talking and both went their own ways. Later, Little Red Riding Hood arrives to her grandmother’s house but the Big Bad Wolf arrived there earlier than her, which he had already eaten the sickly grandmother. He was prepared to pretend to be the grandmother and eat Little Red Riding Hood. Later, when Little Red Riding Hood arrived to her grandmother’s house she knew that the grandmother (that is obviously the wolf) has changed in appearance. She goes on with saying “What great arms you have!” “What great ears you got!” “What great teeth you got!” This then escalated to the Big Bad Wolf eating Little Red Riding Hood up and ending the original version of the tale.
The Little Red Riding Hood has many different versions of the tale, which this leads towards the young girl not getting eaten, but sexually fantasized by the wolf, to the point where she marries him and starts having sexual relationship with the Big Bad Wolf.

Body
Little Red Riding Hood consists of many different versions that has different beginning, plot, and ending. The story that was mentioned in the beginning was by Charles Perrault, and this is perceived as the typical and original tale that most people know. The other versions are Little Red Cap by Brothers Grimm and The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter. Little Red Cap is slightly different than the original Little Red Riding Hood. Instead, the young girl is called, Little Red Cap but she has the same mission to go help her sick grandmother. Little Red Cap has the same plotline as Little Red Riding Hood, but the ending is different. Little Red Cap arrives at her grandmother’s house, and goes through the same exact thing. The Big Bad Wolf eats the grandmother, and tries to eat Little Red Cap. Little Red Cap finally knew something was wrong with the grandmother but immediately asks the same questions. “Grandmother what great arms you have!”, “What great ears you got!”, “What great teeth you got!”. Then the wolf immediately eats Little Red Cap, then he stays to lie in the bed. Later, a woodsman walks to check on the grandmother and notices that it is a wolf in disguise. It occurred to the woodsman that the wolf may have swallowed the grandmother, so then he cut the wolf stomach open while he was sleep. He starts to cut the stomach open, then notices Little Red-Cap reaching to exit the stomach, then immediately the grandmother leaves the stomach right after her. Both the grandmother and Little Red-Cap lives and enjoy the rest of their life, where the wolf does not have to make any trouble within everyone. The moral of the story for Little Red-Cap is to listen to her mother and to not wonder in the woods by herself.
The other Little Red Riding Hood version is by the author Angela Carter and the title of this story is The Company of Wolves. The Company of Wolves story version is more different than the other stories. To begin off, the young girl insisted that she wants to go to her grandmother’s house, she knew that her mother would deny it but the young girl went anyway. The girl talks to the wolf that is transformed as a charming hunter in the woods and they decided to make a bet. The bet was to see who would make it to the grandmother’s house first, and if the hunter made it to the house first, then the girl would have to owe the wolf a kiss. The young girl then later arrived to her grandmother’s house and soon notice that a wolf arrived to the house before her. They both had their eyes locked to each other and the eyes were unique just like the hunter she saw from before. The young girl saw white hair being burned in the fireplace and immediately knew that her grandmother died. When she asked the wolf “Where is my grandmother?” he replied with “There is no one here but us two darling”. The young girl soon took of her clothes and threw them in the fire, and soon became naked in front of the wolf. She takes off the wolf’s clothes and throws it in the fire as well and they end up laying in bed. What makes the story interesting is that the young girl and the wolf end up figuratively married and they stay together in the grandmother’s bed.
All three stories consist of a young girl (Little Red Riding Hood or Little Red-Cap) and the Big Bad Wolf. The young girl meets the wolf in the woods and then finds each other in the grandmother’s house. What makes each story different is the beginning and the ending. Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red-Cap both have the mother enforcing the young girl to go to her grandmother’s house to give her food in a basket. However, in Little Red-Cap the mother gave her specific directions on where to go, such as telling her to not go through the woods and not to speak to anyone on her journey to the house, obviously she did not obey her orders. Little Red Riding Hood/Little Red Cap is a young a girl, so why would the mother insist a young girl to go out by herself? The mother could have went out with the young girl or took the journey to the grandmother’s house by herself because she is old enough to make the responsibilities. However, in Company of Wolves, the young girl insisted to go to her grandmother’s house by herself and the mother forbid it at first. This is the young girl’s decision that she chose to make because she had a knife in her basket and was not afraid of anything. The ending of the stories are remarkably different as well. In Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Cap, the wolf ate the grandmother and the young girl. However in Little Red Cap, the grandmother and the young girl were saved when a woodsman cut open the stomach of the wolf after the wolf ate them. In both of the stories the young girl (Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Cap) both had went through trauma, either being eaten by the wolf and later dying, or being eaten and then having to go live the rest of her life. For one, Little Red Riding has died and her mother may be looking for her, and she can not live the rest of her life. After being saved from the wolf’s body, Little Red Cap would have to live her life traumatized because she can not to go her grandmother’s house without getting hurt. Whereas in Company of Wolves, the young girl does not get eaten but she gets married to the wolf and have sexual relations with him, which is considered as rape. The young girl can not go home to her family and she is married to a wolf that ate her grandmother. This is most traumatizing out of all stories. What I mostly question about Company of Wolves is, why did the mother not look for her child? Also, if anyone notice the grandmother or the young child missing? The mother let her young child that is a girl, roam around the woods and in dangerous areas and then does not try to look for her or notice if she is gone. Why would the mother insist for her daughter that is about 10 years old go to her grandmother’s house alone? An average person would not do this, so why did she?
In the stories Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Cap, the young girl (Little Red Riding Hood/Little Red Cap) did not notice the wolf was disguised as her grandmother. She notice it the “grandmother” had big arms, pointy ears, and big teeth, and she only knows her grandmother by the body parts. The wolf is in disguise as her grandmother, and she saw the wolf right before she came to the house. I believe the girl may have not see her grandmother in person or she has trouble remembering other people. Overall, the stories show Little Red Riding Hood as being clueless and unaware throughout all situations and she is also young. Moreover, they are portraying that women are not intelligent enough and saying that they can not make their own decisions. The moral of the stories is saying that young girls are very gentle and do the wrong thing when talking to strangers. In all stories, the girl makes mistakes that makes her end up with the wolf, which also symbolizes as a pedophile. The moral is saying to stay away from all wolves because wolves is symbolizing pedophiles as creatures or beasts. Also, the authors of this tale may have made Little Red Riding Hood as a sexual figure in the tale. She could be seen as sexual maturity to the wolf. The red cloak she wears is a symbolization of the blood of menstruation of the womanhood or it could also symbolize as the hymen. This could mean that the wolf threatens and abuses the girl’s virginity, which was a call out to the wolf. The wolf symbolizes a man who could be a seducer or a sexual predator.
In all the stories I have discussed, I noticed the Big Bad Wolf was deceiving and always cheated his way through to get what he wants. This reminds me as the Trickster. The trickster is always in trouble by disobeying the rules to get what it wants. In all cultures of the Trickster, it is usually a creature that steals possession of one person such as food or extravagant things or causes mischief. The Big Bad Wolf tricks Little Red Riding Hood (Little Red-Cap) by talking to her and getting information to the location of the grandmother’s house. Later, he pretends to be the grandmother in front of the young girl. The wolf is committing fraud and trespassing into one’s house, and he did this to eat the grandmother and the young girl. In Company of Wolves, the wolf transformed into a charming huntsman and tricked the young girl by making a bet with her, and offered a kiss if he won. Later, he won the bet while he transformed back into a wolf and tricked the young girl to make sexual relations with him. In Norse Mythology, a trickster named Loki, was a shapeshifter that changed into different creatures to get what he wants and tricks different people. This relates with this story because the wolf changed to a handsome man to get the location of the grandmother’s house, but later turns into the wolf and took advantage of the girl.
The Big Bad Wolf tricks the young girl and traumatizes her by being sexual to the girl that is 10 years old. The wolf ate the grandmother, takes hostage of the girl, and then later share the same bed with the girl. The girl does not hesitate to follow his orders and gives in to the situation. The girl developed the Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome is a condition that causes the hostages to have a psychological alliance with their captors. The feelings of the person being hostaged will create a bond with the captor, and they “have strong emotional ties” between each other where one harasses or abuses the other person. This relates with the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf trespasses into the grandmother’s house, eats the grandmother, and then take hostage of the girl. Then he later tells her to take off her clothes, sexually abuses her, and then the girl becomes emotionally and psychologically tied with the wolf to the point where they get married. The wolf used secret knowledge to trick the girl in all three stories to get what he wanted, which was food or a relationship.
There are also films that gets the idea from the tale such as Hard Candy. In the movie Hard Candy, there is a 14 year old girl named Hayley Stark who is having a sexual online chat with a 32 year old man named Jeff Kohlver. Hayley and Jeff soon meet at a coffee house, and then he takes her back to his house. Later, Jeff becomes very dizzy where he falls unconsciousness on the floor. The whole movie is focusing on Hayley trapping and taking hostage of Jeff because she suspects him as a sexual predator. The ending of Hard Candy is Hayley ordering Jeff to commit suicide because there is proof that Jeff is a sexual predator. He commits suicide, then Hayley hurries and grabs her belongings and the film ends with Hayley walking down the street wearing a red hoodie. Hard Candy relates with Little Red Riding Hood shockingly in many different ways. To begin, Hayley symbolizes as modern day Little Red Riding Hood and Jeff symbolizes as the Big Bad Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf sexually harassed Little Red Riding Hood and kept her hostaged, and in the movie Jeff is considered that wolf. Jeff is known as a pedophile, rapist, and murder similar to the wolf in the folktale. Moreover, Hayley wanted to take control of Jeff and make his crimes out in the open. Also, Hayley was wearing a red hoodie at the end of the film, and this symbolizes Little Red Riding Hood red cloak but instead they used the hood. This portrayed that a pre-teen can gain empowerment and control over a man who is especially considered a pedophile. Hayley could be the modern day Perrault’s Red, because she is “a very ambiguous girl” and she acts mature for her age. Her actions such as gaining control over an older man shows maturity beyond the age on a pre-teen and more like strong minded adult. In Hard Candy, the film shows Hayley as Little Red Riding Hood and as the aggressor, overpowering and manipulating Jeff who is the Wolf and a pedophile in the film. This brings thought into society because a young teenage girl is able to have control over a man who abuses other women, which is different compared to the versions of the tale.
In conclusion, Little Red Riding Hood and the other versions of the story discuss about child hostaging, sexual abuse, and young women/women being abused. This still relates today in the world. Many women in the world are sexually abused by predators, for in fact; every 98 seconds a person in America is sexually assaulted and every 8 minutes the victim could be a child. In the story it portrayed Little Red Riding Hood always making mistakes and how she seems very clueless by not following her mother’s orders, telling the location of the grandmother’s house to the wolf, and not noticing the wolf is disguised as her grandmother. Also the stories gives a reason that women are not able to take care of themselves and it relays to problems when women are alone. In each of the stories, Little Red Riding Hood walks alone to her grandmother’s house and in the ending she is either murdered, abused, or sexual harassed/ hostaged. In modern day, it is still a problem when women walk alone in any area and women will always have to watch the back in the different areas. There are many incidents where women are abused in any way and it relays back to them being alone. In today’s society, it should not be a problem for women traveling or walking alone, but sadly it is. The moral of the stories, especially in Perrault, is to do not talk to strangers and to beware of all wolves around you. The wolves signify sexual harassers and pedophiles in today’s world, because in the stories they show them as beast and animals with no human abilities. In the film Hard Candy, it shows a female portraying as Little Red Riding Hood as the aggressor in the film, and she is strong and independent and pushes for what she wants. In today’s world, females should be viewed as strong and independent without worrying about abusers attacking them on a daily basis.