Pages 27-40 Folk & FairyTales

The different versions of the Little Red Riding Hood were shocking to me that they were considered fairy tales.  I always grew up learning about the sweet and lesson-teaching stories that Disney made so enjoyable for children to watch.  I also never remember reading about any stories with violence.  The wolf in all of the Little Red Riding Hood stories seems even more evil than the version of that fairy tale that I can remember.  His character seems to be more representative of the kinds of evil people who want to harm others (especially children) that we see on today's news stations.

Especially in The Story of Grandmother, the wolf is a sketchy perverted character called the Bzou that is representative of someone desperate and evil.  Paul Delarue wrote the fairy tale in the early 1900's yet problems with sexually based crimes, particularly sex offenders still happen now.  The way the wolf asks Little Red Riding Hood to take off her clothes and come into bed, is trying to show how naive and clueless little girls were.  This is displayed in Charles Perrault's story of Little Red Riding Hood also.  In the present, we are much more educated at an early age about talking to strangers and what is appropriate in today's society.


I noticed in the first couple of versions of this fairy tale that the little girl in the red hood is always taken advantage of.  I feel like this sometimes happens in life today and adults think that children are less knowledgeable.  For example, I sometimes feel neglected at restaurants when waiters are more attentive to their adult customers and tend to ignore teenagers or do not pay attention to the requests of young adults.  I like how the Chinese version called the Chinese Red Riding Hoods, the girls are witty and smart enough to come up with a plan to get rid of the wolf right on the spot.  It shows that young girls should not be taken advantage of.  The wolf should not have assumed that the girls were not smart to figure out that he was really in their bed.

This shows Little Red Riding Hood being clueless that she is not in bed with her grandmother.



As a young lady reading these fairy tales, it makes me realize how women were perceived and how we are given more of a chance.  It seems like women are not as under estimated and should gain more credit for being strong and aware.