Biying Han

Writing 39B/RA Final Draft

Mr. Patel

Feb. 11 2017

Fairy Tales: The Record of the Society and Teaching to People

Fairy tales in modern days are stories for children. They serve to educate children with positive perspectives of the world, teach them moral concepts, and train them to learn polite behavior. Different plot and setting of characters will inspiration to children and help them learn something about the world through interesting stories. However, people often ignore the fact that fairy tales are not only imaginary stories, but deeply influenced by the society and history at the time those tales were created. They deliver different messages to various kind of people and serve in different meaning and usages, not only about education purpose. At the same time, the format, language, and word choices in the stories are totally different depend on their culture background and meaning. Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault and The Little Match Girl written by Hans Christian Andersen are two examples that indicate how fairy tales change through time and create based on the society. These two tales persuade distinct messages to diverse groups of people based on their differences in the social and political environment by using the different rhetorical methods such as metaphor, intimation, side description and conditional contrast. Little Red Riding Hood warn young ladies to be aware of gentle and nice-looking men since they good at using lies to take advantage of girls. Meanwhile, The Little Match Girl not only criticizes the capitalist society about how they judge and treat people by classes and wealth but also give hope to the poor and encourage them to maintain a yearning for good situations. Beside those varieties, these two tales from different periods of time show the unitive purpose of fairy tales: that is they are all created under good intention, criticize the bad and worship the good. They either educate and warn people to be aware of evil or leave people with hope and high moral character.

The story Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault is different than the version we heard today. The girl in Perrault’s tale is a nice-looking and well-bred young lady, who knows nothing about the darkness of the society and easy to trust anyone. She represents most of the girls in Perrault’s time, spoiled by their families and grows in relatively simple and occlusion environment. This setting of character creates a sense of substitution and indicates that the audiences for this tale are those pretty and physically mature young girls. At the end of the story, little red riding hood is eaten up by the wolf because of her naive thoughts and credulity. She obeys the wolf and does whatever he says. Following the moral description, the meaning and purpose of this tale become very clear: it means to warn girls to be careful of men, specifically the nice-looking, charming, and polite one. They are real wolfs that covered with lies and sweet talk, and ladies should always keep in mind of their evil intentions and know how to protect themselves. Unlike Little Red Riding Hood, the tale The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen delivers distinct messages to other groups of people, based on their differences in time and culture background. The main character from the tale is a piteous girl from a poor family, which she has to sell matches in a cold New Year’s Eve for money with thin clothes and no shoes on. While the wealthy families celebrating with their relatives and friends in the cozy warm home with delicious roast goose, the little girl freezes to death alone in the corner, lost herself in her illusion and leaves this world that causes her pain and hunger. This little girl represents thousands of poor that suffer under the capitalist government. They have no money, no social status, even no pride, and respect. This tale criticizes the capitalist society about their snobbish behavior and how they treat people differently by their wealth and social ranking. On the other hand, the ending of the girl leaves with her grandmother and stay with the God happily ever after gives hope to the poor and teach them the code of ethics. It encourages them to have faith toward life and believe their kindness and hard work will bring them good results, no matter in real life or after. God will be with them and see their effort.

Little red riding hood’s image in literature is often understood as innocent and naive. The moderate version educates children should follow their parents' teachings to prevent the wolf from taking advantage of them. However, it is not difficult to find that there is a strong sexual implied and express the male’s requirements of chastity for women in Perrault’s version. Perrault wrote this story with specific plot and word choices to emphasize implied messages and intimation. It’s ironic tone also underlines the serious consequences if ladies do not know how to protect themselves from men. In the setting of the story, little red riding hood herself is the most wanted girl for men. At the beginning of the tale, the author states that: “Once upon a time there was a village girl, the prettiest you can imagine” (Perrault, 11). From this description, little red riding hood is the ideal goal for sexual attraction and deception in men’s mind. She is too innocent and naive which make her easy to take advantage of. When her mother sends little red riding hood to her grandmother’s house, she needs to go through the wood in order to take her grandmother some cakes and butter. “As she was walking through the woods she met old Neighbor Wolf, who wanted to eat her right there on the spot” (Perrault, 12). The word “woods” can certainly be understood as forest, but, from a sexual point of view, woods is a symbol of sexual and implicit desire. Walking through the forest may refer to sexual consciousness, desire to be aroused, or the face of the temptation. At the same time, the word “eat” can be understood as eaten, but also lead to sexual possession. After she arrives at the house, the wolf ask little red riding hood climbs into bed with him, and she “took off her clothes and climbed into the bed” (Perrault, 13). In fact, this description obscurely implies the process of a woman being deceived to lure and make a corresponding sexual behavior. In the moral section after the tale, Perrault states that: “And it’s not at all strange, If a wolf ends up eating them” (Perrault, 13). These lines emphasize the victim blaming culture in Perrault’s time. Although women are the casualty, they are the one that responsible for their lost and profligacy. Women in the society should fully understand that they can not expect men to behave gently and morally. On the other hand, it demonstrates that the female's body and chastity exist as a form of distribution of private property owned by a man. In Carole Hanks and D.T. Hanks’ article Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood’: Victim of the Revisers, they state that: “Perrault's tale, on the other hand, points out that leaving home, becoming independent of the parent, is a risky undertaking. It may result in disaster, not through the child's fault but because that's the way the world is” (Hanks). Women’s roles in the society are weak and vulnerable. They have much lower social status and fully depended on men. Their virginity and appearance are treated as chips in marriage and deals. However, no one sees this situation as wrong or immoral, because this is how the society operate and based on. Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood directly point out the injustice between men and women. It is not hard to see that this story was created based on the social environment and customs during that time.

Unlike Little Red Riding Hood, the story The Little Match Girl focus on the political conflicts in capitalist society and how people are divided and being treated differently based on their classes and social ranking. It emphasizes the suffer and injustice toward the poor by using side description and conditional contrasts between the wealthy and the poor. In the beginning of the tale, Andersen states: “It was terribly cold. Snow was falling and soon it would be quite dark; for it was the last day in the year--New Year’s Eve” (Andersen, 233). It should be a night to spend with loved one and enjoy the family affection. However, this little girl walks alone on the street with bare feet and suffer for coldness. The time and the atmosphere at this specific moment create vivid contrast with the girl’s age, action, and situation. It extrudes the darkness of capitalist society and the miserable destiny of the girl. In the tale, the author uses environmental contrast to create differences between poor and rich. While other “Lights were shining in every window, and out into the street came the lovely smell of roast goose” (Andersen, 233), the girl’s whole family almost freeze to death: “They had only the bare roof over their heads and the wind whistled through that although the worst cracks had been stopped up with rags and straw” (Andersen, 233). They are all citizens of the same country and live under and same government, but their experiences and living style are so distinct from each other. Just like they are living in two different worlds: one is warm and happy, the other is cold and cruel. At the same time, in a society which the rich and the poor are disparate, the happiness of the rich are based on the suffering of the poor, just like the boy from wealthy family who takes the little girl’s slipper “ran off with the other, saying it would do for a cradle one day when he had children of his own” (Andersen, 233). In such community, no one cares about the poor and leave them with limited resources. The double contrast of the natural and social environment also emphasizes the gap between wealthy and poor. The first time the girl lights up a match, she sees a big iron stove with fire. Her experience of cold wind and snow makes up this illusion for her to seek for warm temperature. The second time she sees a roast goose with knives and forks walking toward her. This imagination feeds her hunger and saves her from starvation. The third time she sees a Christmas gift since she never receives such beautiful gift in her life. And the fourth and fifth time, she sees her granny, the only person in the world who loves and kind to her. Her dreams and wishes can only be achieved in nonexistent hallucinations. In her imagination, there is another world with no harm, no hunger, and no pain. She has nothing in reality and her good wishes and happiness are pinned upon her illusion. At the end of the story, the author states: “But in the cold early morning huddled between the two houses, sat the little girl with rosy cheeks and a smile on her lips, frozen to death on the last night of the old year” (Andersen, 234). Andersen does not write the little girl’s death in pain and tear but happy in a beautiful illusion. This is the originality of the author's idea. With this approach can cause readers to think deeply and savor the bitter taste contained in this desolate story.

Besides those differences in time, culture, social problems and political conflicts, there is one thing that these two tales share in common: they both created under good intention, either teach and warn girls to protect themselves from men or gives the poor hope and faith toward life. Their format and writing style play a big role in these two tales to persuade their audiences in different ways and methods. From Little Red Riding Hood, Perrault used many intimations and profound meaning words to create a scary tone and designed the bad ending in the meaning of leave strong impression to his audience. The whole story does not include many detail description and background setting about the characters but goes right into the plot with much straight forward language. Also, the tale does not include any environmental description but mainly focus on action and conversation of little red riding hood and the wolf.  “Perrault worked hard to craft a tale that excised the ribald grotesqueries from the original peasant tale and rescripted the events in such a way as to accommodate a rational discursive mode and moral economy” (Tatar, 4). As Tatar stated, Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood had been specially designed to reflect the moral attitude during his time. Perrault adapted the older format of fairy tales and wrote in plain language with no ups and downs. By doing so, the metaphors in the story sound more cruel and fearful. And his audience, specifically those young, well-breaded girls, will be shocked by the serious consequences and keep in mind to be aware of men. At the same time, his audiences learn how to protect themselves and do not give their heart and chastity away easily, no matter how good the men seem to be. Similar to this tale, Hans Christian Andersen gives comfort and hope to the poor by the special ending of the tale The Little Match Girl. The story criticizes the government and the society about how they treat people differently according to classes and wealth. With an intention to show the world the wealthy’s cruel behavior and how pity the poor are, Andersen wrote this tale with more gentle and passionate tone accompanied with detail description to describe the background setting and situation. Different than Perrault, Andersen inserted many details such as the comparison of living environment between the poor and the rich. Those descriptions are more like fairy tales that people usually read today, with side descriptions that bring the audience into the story. The scenes are more vivid and touchable. The implication and affection let the audience feel the girl's suffering and leave sympathy in their mind. “Punctuated with increasingly urgent reports of the dropping temperature, Andersen’s narrative builds to a climactic finale in which the little match girl is embraced by her dead grandmother” (Tatar, 213). The analysis by Maria Tatar also points out Andersen’s unique writing style and how he persuade his audience to understand the pitiful situation of the poor. As readers reread and rethink about Andersen’s implication, they will feel the despair of the poor and leave a strong impression on their mind. On the other hand, his tale let the audience see the atrocity of the wealthy and reflect on their own behavior. Beside leave hope and courage to the poor to fight against injustice, the story warns the wealthy to change their inhuman behavior and bring back their humanity.

Although Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Match Girl are written in different periods of time by different authors in different environments, they both reflect the conflicts and custom in society and persuade audiences to behave well and stay away from evil. Both tales are deeply influenced and shaped by the society and reflect the main problems and conflicts in that time. Not only about the content and plot, but also the differences in format and writing styles are various between two these two tales. On the other hand, those tales are not only stories for children or adults, but also the record of history and it’s transformation. Through reading those tales, we can take a look at the change and improvement and spite the truth of history. However, no matter how much they change in purposes, audience, format, and writing styles, all fairy tales contain good meanings in making the world a better place. Either teaching, warning, or helping, fairy tales provide inspiration and education to people by showing them the reality and conflicts.  It encourages people and the society to change and improve over time, seek for a better life and environment.

Work Cited

Perrault, Charles.  “Little Red Riding Hood.”  Trans. Maria Tatar.  The Classic Fairy Tales:

Texts, Criticism.  Ed. Maria Tatar.  New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.  11-13.  Print.

Andersen, Hans Christian.  “The Little Match Girl.”  Trans. Maria Tatar.  The Classic Fairy

Tales: Texts, Criticism.  Ed. Maria Tatar.  New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.  233-234.  

Print.

Tatar, Maria.  “Introduction: Little Red Riding Hood.”  The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts,

Criticism.  Ed. Maria Tatar.  New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.  4.  Print.

Tatar, Maria.  “Introduction: Hans Christian Andersen.”  The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts,

Criticism.  Ed. Maria Tatar.  New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.  213.  Print.

Hanks, Carole, and D. T. Hanks, Jr.  “Perrault’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’: Victim of the

Revisers.” Children’s Literature 7 (1978).

RA Annotation

The rhetorical analysis paper is the first paper I wrote in writing the 39B class. Focus on analyzing the rhetorical methods that authors use in their tale, the paper shows the different messages and audience of Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Match Girl as well as the social and political influence in the tales. Despite those differences in time, messages, and audience, these two tales represent the most important significance of fairy tales: they are all created under good intention and purposes. Either educate, warn or help people to be aware of the danger and maintain a better life. By talking about their difference in writing styles and formats, the purpose of the tale become more obvious and clear.

The Little Match Girl and Little Red Riding Hood are two of my most familiar stories in the book. But Charles Perrault’s version is totally different than the one I heard when I was little. As I read through the story over and over, I noticed that a lot of words Perrault used are very interesting and worth to scrutinize. In my paper, I focus on defining the multiple meanings of those words while connecting his word choices with latent gender inequality issues during his time. This social influence plays a big role in the story and informs people what will happen to women during that time. Same as Little Red Riding Hood, I focus on the foreshadowing, side descriptions, and conditional contrast in The Little Match Girl to show the conflicts between working class and ruling class as well as the value and social view behind the story. The usage of rhetorical methods in the story leave a strong impression on the audience and embodies the darkness of capitalism vividly and shockingly. However, those analyses require me to read the tale over and over again and sensitive enough to capture those words and sentences. Besides, I read couple secondary resources I found online to have a better understand about the culture and background of each story. With knowledge about the society and politic, I can see the fairy tales in another way and notice something behind those words. It took me a lot of time to choose each word and sentence and accomplish the analysis. On the other hand, this process of reading and finding help me understand how to use rhetorical methods and produce the effect we want for our audience.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was finding the secondary sources about the writing format and style of each author. After having a conversation with my instructor, I chose the paragraph from the introduction of each section from the book by Maria Tatar to support my argument. The writing format, which can be considered as a rhetorical choice is highly related to the main purpose of fairy tales as a whole. Connect these two aspects together provide a better evidence and point out the importance of those two tales.