1. Home
  2. Topic
  3. Literature
  4. Little Red Riding Hood
  5. Red Riding Hood and Little Essay

Red Riding Hood and Little Essay

  • Length: 3 pages
  • Sources: 1
  • Subject: Sports - Women
  • Type: Essay
  • Paper: #74130648
  • Related Topics: Fairy Tales
Download This Paper Download this Essay in word format (.docx)

Excerpt from Essay :



The most glaringly obvious difference between the tales of Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Cap is the ending. The Perrault version ends swiftly and gruesomely with no chance of redemption, no moral being taught and no real purpose to the story other than to tell a frightening and entertaining story. The moment the wolf devours Little Red Riding Hood, that is the end. In the Grimm version however, the story continues to evolve long after the wolf swallows the girl. A hunter actually comes along and cuts the wolf's stomach open, gets the grandmother and the little girl out, alive, then kills the wolf by filling his stomach with stones. This is far less sadistic for the humans, but far more sadistic for the wolf. In addition, the vicious wolf-killing doesn't stop there, but continues on after everyone is safe and happy again. The second killing occurs when another wolf starts lurking around the grandmother's house, hoping for a two-for-one value meal. This wolf is also the victim of a devious plot, but this time it is Little Red Cap and her grandmother who pull off the cunning task, without the help of a male hunter.

The grandmother instructs Little Red Cap to take a boiling trough of sausage outside, causing the wolf to slide off of the roof when he catches the odor, thus falling into the
Parts of this Document are Hidden
Click Here to View Entire Document
trough and drowning. After that, everyone lived happily ever after, with Little Red Cap having learned a valuable lesson about always minding your mother and never allowing yourself to be duped by someone with less than honorable intentions. and, of course, she also learned how to pull off some pretty creative killings. The emergence of her darker side is not surprising, however, considering the trauma she went through inside the wolf's stomach before she was rescued. The same can be said for grandma, who likely went through a metamorphosis of her own after enduring such a harrowing experience.

Of course, the girl and the grandmother in Perrault's story never got a chance to learn any lessons or have any epiphanies because their story ended the moment the wolf devoured them. The abruptness of the ending in Little Red Riding Hood is far more jolting than the ending of Little Red Cap, but then again, it refrains from being preachy and moralistic and just tells a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Grimm's story of course has a beginning, a middle and an end as well, but there is also an epilogue tacked onto the end that takes it in an entirely different direction -- not only in terms of plot, but also in terms…
Read Full Essay

Cite This Essay:

"Red Riding Hood And Little" (2010, May 25) Retrieved January 26, 2021, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/red-riding-hood-and-little-10770

"Red Riding Hood And Little" 25 May 2010. Web.26 January. 2021. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/red-riding-hood-and-little-10770>

"Red Riding Hood And Little", 25 May 2010, Accessed.26 January. 2021,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/red-riding-hood-and-little-10770

Related Documents:

  • Intertextuality / Little Red Riding Hood Little

    • Words: 870
    • Length: 3 Pages

    Intertextuality / Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood, as in the traditional version of the fairy-tale familiar to present day English language audiences, has just been eaten by the Big Bad Wolf, then rescued from his stomach. This is what she has to say, in lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim for Into The Woods: And I know things now, many valuable things That I hadn't known before: Do not put your faith

  • Red Riding Hood and Its Variants Is

    • Words: 1946
    • Length: 5 Pages

    Red Riding Hood and its variants is one of the best known fairy tales, but the different versions of a little girl's experiences while going to visit her grandmother have textual differences which serve to change the tone, if not the overall arc, of the story. However, these differences can actually help one to understand the wide range and reception of fairy tales, because even though different versions of

  • Red Riding Hood Stories Have

    • Words: 1316
    • Length: 4 Pages

    In fact, he stresses that these stories should be read without any commentary about the possible unconscious content. "Fairy tales can and do serve children well, can even make an unbearable life seem worth living, as long as the child doesn't know what they mean to him psychologically" (Bettelheim 57). This destroys the story's enchantment. More recently, different authors have returned to the earlier usage of fairy tales, or conveying

  • Red Riding Hood Is an Interesting Folk

    • Words: 723
    • Length: 2 Pages

    Red Riding Hood is an interesting folk tale which has been very popular among children and adults alike. Several versions of the story are found but the most common elements remain the same whereby a young little girl is asked by her mother to visit her grandmother and give her some food. Upon her arrival however, she finds that a wolf has replaced her grandmother but just when he

  • Red Riding Hood in the Red Light

    • Words: 1248
    • Length: 3 Pages

    Red Riding Hood in the Red Light District by Manilo Argueta Reviewed through Ant's perspective So Alfonso, you are my wolf, are you not? That is what Manilo Argueta calls you in his book entitled Little Red Riding Hood in the Red Light District. He wrote this book during the 1970's, during the height of the oppression suffered by the El Salvadorian nation, and imposed upon us by the military regime

  • Remake of Little Red Riding Hood

    • Words: 885
    • Length: 2 Pages

    Remake of Little Red Riding Hood Once there was a boy who lived with his mother in a town called Alamo. The boy, named Red, was a kind son to his mother. Every time his mother tells him to do something, like watering the plants in the garden, or washing the dishes, Red always follows happily. One day, Red's mother called him while he was playing with his friends outside their

  • Grandmother Gave Me the Little

    • Words: 821
    • Length: 2 Pages

    A patch of flowers danced in the sunlight like happy little children at play. I couldn't resist. I set down my basket and ran over to pluck daisies, pansies, and whatever else I could get my hands on. I didn't notice that the wolf had vanished from sight. When I reached grandma's house, I proudly sauntered up the snakelike footpath to her front door. It was ajar, which didn't seem