Little Red Riding Hood

The classic fairytale of the Little Red Riding Hood is known for its moral indented for children to not listen to strangers. Different versions from authors put their own taste of how the story develops along with its ending. Charles Perrault wrote “Little Red Riding Hood” and it is mostly resembled to the classic fairytale because it’s an innocent girl that falls for the wolf and thus her and her grandmother die. His moral is that unfortunately innocent people wrongfully and easily trust people and thus the outcome is that the person gets hurt. Italo Calvino wrote “The False Grandmother”, where Little Red Riding Hood encounter an adventure where characters are fantasy and because Riding Hood was kind to them through her path, in return when she escaped from the wolf, they helped her get away. The theme that Calvino is demonstrating is that when people are kind to others, when the time of trouble comes, those people will be there for them to help them out. Lastly, Roald Dahl’s story of “The Three Little Pigs” is different because there is a combination of the tale of the three little pigs and to rescue them is Red Riding Hood. The irony was that instead of helping them, she ended up killing both the pig and the wolf, which concludes that people shouldn’t trust anyone even if they are seen as people who are willing to help.

In Charles Perrault, “Little Red Riding Hood”, the tale is fairly similar to the classic stereotypical tale that is most know with a predictable ending. Even with the way that the tale begins makes the readers feel like they are about to read a classic story, “Once upon a time there was a village girl, the prettiest you can imagine. Her mother adored her. Her grandmother adored her even more and made a little red hood for her”(11). The description of Little Red Riding Hood makes her seem like a princess of her tale, very innocent and vulnerable. The fact that it is described that she is loved gives a sense that the tragedy of her death is a great loss because she is kindly loved. The readers by the end of reading the tale should feel sad and feel sorry for the poor girl for being so gullible. There is constant dialogue between the characters, which makes it more of a story when reading it out loud. The story in the end includes the moral which claims is that “children… are wrong to listen to just anyone” (13), which is basically the lesson that Little Red Riding Hood portrays. Within the moral, “wolfs” are described as dangers that come in different forms, that is true in real life when there are men who take advantage of women, men who can look in any form of way but their malicious intentions are to harm women. Perrault articulated the story as a classic happy fairytale story but trying to show that there is not always a happy ending. The main message of Perrault’s tale is to not trust people so easily because malicious intentions can cause a devastating tragedy.

            With Italo Calvino and his tale “The False Grandmother” the classic tale takes a different spin again starting with the introduction because it is focused at first on the mother and her need for sifter. The change of reason to why Little Red Riding Hood goes to visit her grandma immediately makes the reader feel like it’s going to be a different story. The author gives life to the Jordan River and the Rake Gate, which make it more fantasy with the characters. Having the wolf be called, “ogress” gives the reader a different feel for the villain more powerful. Little Red Riding hood is characterized as smart, sweet, and creative due to her ability to escape. In the end where she is released she is said to be smiling through the waters as she successfully escapes which is a powerful line because it shows that women are tough and can manage to get through a bad situation, “From the bank the little girl made faces at her” (19). The primay message that helping others is crucial for future needs and gives the readers hope that women are strong and can overcome any bad people in the world as long as the behavior of the person is kind always to oneself and others.

            Lastly, Roald Dahl has a completely different twist in his tale “The Three Little Pigs” because of the combination of two different tales. From the beginning the reader wonders how the Little Red Riding Hood fits into play with the Three Little Pigs, which makes it more interesting to read. The beginning is written in the wolf’s point of view, a different scenario for the villain to start so readers can see his intentions to eat the pigs. There is a switch to first person point of view that fits more to the fairytale style of stories. When the third pig calls Little Red Riding hood for help, she is introduced as a sweet girl of the story that will save the day, the hero. In reality she turns out to be the villain herself as well. The reader gets a sense that Little Red Riding Hood is different with her dialogue like when she is asked for help she says, “That’s something really up my street” and “I’ve just begun to wash my hair. Bit when its dry, I’ll be right there.” (24). Her language is more casual and like she has had experience in going to help kill wolfs which is why she is calm when she said she would arrive. Her killings left the reader surprised and wonder why her persona is different from the classic Little Red Riding Hood. The author may be trying to show that when people go through devastating experiences, they change who they are and become tough in order to not get hurt again.