Little Red Riding Hood: A Tale Of Death and Child Safety
By Jake Williams
The fairy tale is a tool used to teach children lessons in a way that they can understand. These tales can seem vastly dissimilar in that they seem to have different plots, but in many cases they are the same. The key to being able to see these similarities is to look for common themes. One tale that is a good example of this is “Little Red Riding Hood”. There is a German version written by the Grimms, a Slavic version written by A.H. Wratislaw, an Italian version written by Christian Schneller, and an American version, which originated in the Appalachian Mountains. These tales while in some ways different share the common theme of obey the rules and do not talk to strangers.
The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a morality tale. It reinforces the idea of being a morality by having bad things happen to the main character because of rule breaking. This is a very common idea used in many tales and it is very effective at teaching morals. The basic plot of this tale is as follows. Red’s mother gave the rule that she breaks, which was to stay on the road when going to her grandmother’s house. She is told by a wolf* to break that rule and it brings about dire consequences. While she is distracted the wolf goes and eats the grandmother and waits for Red to arrive. When she gets there she does not realize that the wolf is where her grandmother should be and after a conversation about how weird her grandmother’s features are, is eaten as well. They are both saved when a hunter comes by and investigates the loud snoring of the sleeping wolf. He cuts the wolf open and Red and her grandmother both come out alive. They put stones in the wolf’s stomach so he cannot run away and he dies. In the end Red realizes why she should follow the rules and decides to never go off the path again. While some of the details are changed among the versions, this theme of following the rules and not talking to strangers is prevalent throughout.
* On this hyperlink, scroll down to the picture of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf.
The German telling is probably the most well known version of this tale. The Grimm brothers wrote it and it was called “Little Red Cap”. With this tale being the most well known the differences end with the title. All of the events happen as told earlier. There is the distinct breaking of the rules laid out by the mother and this leads to Red Cap and her grandmother getting eaten. When they are rescued, it is revealed that the hunter had been searching for this wolf for some time, which shows that this wolf is truly malicious with a history of eating people. Once he gets them out they kill the wolf with the stones and Red Cap vows to always follow the rules. The Grimm Brothers included an epilogue at the end of their telling of this story to illustrate the fact that she keeps on her promise. The beginning of the epilogue shows the reader how vigilant she is now: “It is also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red-Cap, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way” (Grimm). In the epilogue Red Cap is once again taking food to her grandmother and is stopped by a wolf who tries to get her off the path, but Red Cap does not fall for it and goes straight for her grandmother’s house. Once there she tells her about the new wolf and they decide to sit and wait. The wolf comes to the house and tries to get in the same way as the last wolf but they stay quiet. The wolf then gets on the roof to wait for Red Cap to come out. Her grandmother tells her to take a bucket of sausage water to the trough and the wolf smells it and falls into the water and drowns. The Grimm brothers put this as a way to let the reader know that Red Cap learned her lesson and possibly to show that when one follows the rules one can outsmart a wolf and stay safe.
The Slavic version of this tale is the same as the German one because the Slavic region of Europe is very close to Germany. The biggest changes between the two are the lack of the epilogue and the name change to “Little Red Hood”. The lack of the epilogue does not change the meaning of the story at all but by not including it the reader looses the comfort of knowing that Red Hood truly learns her lesson. The name change only serves as a connection to how the story is known today. An interesting thing to look at here is that in this version and in most versions the title character is referred to as “little”. This classification could be seen as just a reference to her age or height. However, when examined it is most likely referencing the fact that she is naïve and has a view of the dangers of the world that is small. She is little in the sense that she does not know what the world has in store for her and does not expect bad things to happen to her. This naiveté is a recurring theme in tales, but it is especially so in this one. It has been said that Little Red Riding Hood lives in a fantasy world in her mind (Delaney). Her doing this is a product of her naiveté in that she will go out into the world while not truly paying attention to what is around her. This is the source of all the bad things that happen to her. The authors of stories like “Little Red Riding Hood” use the fact that she has a little view of the world, and use it as a framework to teach kids a lesson. The stories suggest that doing this will help kids to know how to act lest they get hurt by something bad in the world. They are not saying that being a kid or having an imagination is bad, but that without the knowledge of what can happen when one does not listen could prove disastrous.
The Italian version of this tale is called “Little Red Hat” but it is very different from the other European versions. This version starts the same with Little Red Hat taking food to her grandmother but her mom is not mentioned and no one warns her of any dangers that could be present on the way. As she goes on her walk, she runs into an ogre instead of a wolf. The ogre asks here where she is going, she tells him and he asks if she will go over the stones or the thorns. She says stones so the ogre will go over the thorns. While they walk on their respected paths Little Red Hat sees some flowers and gets distracted and this lets the ogre get to grandmother’s house first. He goes in, kills her and puts her intestine on the door and her blood, teeth, and jaws in jars in the cupboard. When Little Red Hat gets there she grabs the door handle and feels the intestine, she asks about it and the ogre tells her what it is but she cannot hear and comes in. Little Red Hat asks to get something to eat and drink and ends up eating her grandmother’s teeth and jaws and drinks her blood. After she eats and drinks she says that she is tired and takes off her clothes and gets in bed with the ogre. She notices how hairy he is, how long his legs, hands and ears are but he has the standard responses as in other versions. She finally says how big his mouth is and he says it is for eating children and he eats her. This is how the story ends. There is no hunter or any other hero to save her, she is just dead. This dark and abrupt ending is very different than the others, which ended happily. This line from the tale shows just how dark this tale is: “He went inside, killed the grandmother, ate her up, and climbed into her bed” (Ashliman). This quote shows how graphic the events in this tale are as a contrast to the danger in the others but with a possibility of survival for the characters. There are several interpretations for why this tale is the way it is. One of the most popular has Little Red Hat turning into a prostitute and killed for being a cannibal killer (Chase). That argument may be a well-known way to see this version but it could also be seen as reaching and a little ridiculous. The reason that I do not agree with that view of this tale is that it is taking the words from the tales and overanalyzing them to fit their argument. The authors of the piece are trying very hard to make the case for their ideas and it is easy to see that as a reader. A less dark view is that it is like the others, a cautionary tale. The sole message is do not talk to strangers. Talking to strangers is what got Little Red Hat killed. The reasoning for the dark ending is that when a stranger attacks there will most likely be no one around to come to the rescue. Whoever wrote this story obviously wanted their message to get across and to do that they took away a happy ending. This is the type of tale that would keep a kid up at night and afraid of what could happen to him. It seems that the writer could have heard the regular story and realized that it could be more effective and came up with a depressing version.
The final version is from America and it is called “The Gunny Wolf”. This tale abandons the visiting grandmother part of the story, and starts with a little girl being warned by her mom to stay out of the woods because of the Gunny Wolf. When her mom leaves the little girl sees some pretty flowers in the woods and ventures deep into the woods while singing a song. The Gunny Wolf hears this song and asks the girl to sing it. When she sings the wolf starts to sleep and she tries to get away. When she tries to get away the Gunny Wolf wakes up and stops her and tells her to sing again. This happens many times until the little girl sings for longer and is able to get away when she makes sure the Gunny Wolf is totally asleep. When she gets home, she vows to never go back into the woods. The author of this tale includes a reassuring statement at the end to let the reader know that she will not go back: “And she never went into the forest by herself again” (The Normal Storyteller). Having that at the end does the same thing as the epilogue of the Grimms; it lets the reader know that a lesson was learned. This is the cheeriest version of all these tales. It is a cautionary tale without any true consequences happening to the main character or her family. This tale being from America could have something to do with that. The creators were most likely living in an area where they knew what was happening for a considerable distance, and knew everyone living around them, which would eliminate the danger of strangers. This left the caution being about staying where it was safe away from wild animals. In other versions the wolf is a metaphor for a stranger, but in this tale the wolf is a wolf and kids should not go to the woods where the wolves are. This would have been a tale told to kids as a playful tale, but with a stern meaning for their safety. This tale would have been very effective when told to the kids of a small community in that everyone around would be keeping a watch on the kids. The kids would be afraid of the Gunny Wolf enough that they would always listen to their parents but they would also not be subjected to a tale with no happy ending. This is a trend indicative of American fairy tales where lessons are learned, but they are fun and not all about death. This is because the creators of the stories were about teaching kids, but they did not think that the scary European versions were effective in using death or other terrible consequences.
In conclusion fairy tales can be seen as different all over the world. However, when one looks at them closely it is possible to see similar themes. The point of these tales was to teach children messages with fun tales about talking animals or magical beings. One such tale is “Little Red Riding Hood”. Although it has gone by many names in many different places its themes are usually the same. In Germany, the Slavic region, Italy, and America the idea of staying away from strangers and listening to your parents remains in all versions. They may all seem different with their use of different creatures or, more disturbing endings the base message will always remain the same.
References
Ashliman, D. L. "Home | University Library System (ULS)." Home | University Library System (ULS). N.p., 1999. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Chase Jr., Richard, and David Teasley. "Little Red Riding Hood: Werewolf And Prostitute." Historian 57.4 (1995): 769. Humanities International Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Delaney, Bill. "Perrault's LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD." Explicator 64.2 (2006): 70-72. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. "SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations." SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations. N.p., 2007. Web. 10 June 2015.
""The Normal Storyteller" and Children's Author." The Storyteller Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Wratislaw, A. H. "SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations." SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations. N.p., 28 June 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
By Jake Williams
The fairy tale is a tool used to teach children lessons in a way that they can understand. These tales can seem vastly dissimilar in that they seem to have different plots, but in many cases they are the same. The key to being able to see these similarities is to look for common themes. One tale that is a good example of this is “Little Red Riding Hood”. There is a German version written by the Grimms, a Slavic version written by A.H. Wratislaw, an Italian version written by Christian Schneller, and an American version, which originated in the Appalachian Mountains. These tales while in some ways different share the common theme of obey the rules and do not talk to strangers.
The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a morality tale. It reinforces the idea of being a morality by having bad things happen to the main character because of rule breaking. This is a very common idea used in many tales and it is very effective at teaching morals. The basic plot of this tale is as follows. Red’s mother gave the rule that she breaks, which was to stay on the road when going to her grandmother’s house. She is told by a wolf* to break that rule and it brings about dire consequences. While she is distracted the wolf goes and eats the grandmother and waits for Red to arrive. When she gets there she does not realize that the wolf is where her grandmother should be and after a conversation about how weird her grandmother’s features are, is eaten as well. They are both saved when a hunter comes by and investigates the loud snoring of the sleeping wolf. He cuts the wolf open and Red and her grandmother both come out alive. They put stones in the wolf’s stomach so he cannot run away and he dies. In the end Red realizes why she should follow the rules and decides to never go off the path again. While some of the details are changed among the versions, this theme of following the rules and not talking to strangers is prevalent throughout.
* On this hyperlink, scroll down to the picture of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf.
The German telling is probably the most well known version of this tale. The Grimm brothers wrote it and it was called “Little Red Cap”. With this tale being the most well known the differences end with the title. All of the events happen as told earlier. There is the distinct breaking of the rules laid out by the mother and this leads to Red Cap and her grandmother getting eaten. When they are rescued, it is revealed that the hunter had been searching for this wolf for some time, which shows that this wolf is truly malicious with a history of eating people. Once he gets them out they kill the wolf with the stones and Red Cap vows to always follow the rules. The Grimm Brothers included an epilogue at the end of their telling of this story to illustrate the fact that she keeps on her promise. The beginning of the epilogue shows the reader how vigilant she is now: “It is also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red-Cap, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way” (Grimm). In the epilogue Red Cap is once again taking food to her grandmother and is stopped by a wolf who tries to get her off the path, but Red Cap does not fall for it and goes straight for her grandmother’s house. Once there she tells her about the new wolf and they decide to sit and wait. The wolf comes to the house and tries to get in the same way as the last wolf but they stay quiet. The wolf then gets on the roof to wait for Red Cap to come out. Her grandmother tells her to take a bucket of sausage water to the trough and the wolf smells it and falls into the water and drowns. The Grimm brothers put this as a way to let the reader know that Red Cap learned her lesson and possibly to show that when one follows the rules one can outsmart a wolf and stay safe.
The Slavic version of this tale is the same as the German one because the Slavic region of Europe is very close to Germany. The biggest changes between the two are the lack of the epilogue and the name change to “Little Red Hood”. The lack of the epilogue does not change the meaning of the story at all but by not including it the reader looses the comfort of knowing that Red Hood truly learns her lesson. The name change only serves as a connection to how the story is known today. An interesting thing to look at here is that in this version and in most versions the title character is referred to as “little”. This classification could be seen as just a reference to her age or height. However, when examined it is most likely referencing the fact that she is naïve and has a view of the dangers of the world that is small. She is little in the sense that she does not know what the world has in store for her and does not expect bad things to happen to her. This naiveté is a recurring theme in tales, but it is especially so in this one. It has been said that Little Red Riding Hood lives in a fantasy world in her mind (Delaney). Her doing this is a product of her naiveté in that she will go out into the world while not truly paying attention to what is around her. This is the source of all the bad things that happen to her. The authors of stories like “Little Red Riding Hood” use the fact that she has a little view of the world, and use it as a framework to teach kids a lesson. The stories suggest that doing this will help kids to know how to act lest they get hurt by something bad in the world. They are not saying that being a kid or having an imagination is bad, but that without the knowledge of what can happen when one does not listen could prove disastrous.
The Italian version of this tale is called “Little Red Hat” but it is very different from the other European versions. This version starts the same with Little Red Hat taking food to her grandmother but her mom is not mentioned and no one warns her of any dangers that could be present on the way. As she goes on her walk, she runs into an ogre instead of a wolf. The ogre asks here where she is going, she tells him and he asks if she will go over the stones or the thorns. She says stones so the ogre will go over the thorns. While they walk on their respected paths Little Red Hat sees some flowers and gets distracted and this lets the ogre get to grandmother’s house first. He goes in, kills her and puts her intestine on the door and her blood, teeth, and jaws in jars in the cupboard. When Little Red Hat gets there she grabs the door handle and feels the intestine, she asks about it and the ogre tells her what it is but she cannot hear and comes in. Little Red Hat asks to get something to eat and drink and ends up eating her grandmother’s teeth and jaws and drinks her blood. After she eats and drinks she says that she is tired and takes off her clothes and gets in bed with the ogre. She notices how hairy he is, how long his legs, hands and ears are but he has the standard responses as in other versions. She finally says how big his mouth is and he says it is for eating children and he eats her. This is how the story ends. There is no hunter or any other hero to save her, she is just dead. This dark and abrupt ending is very different than the others, which ended happily. This line from the tale shows just how dark this tale is: “He went inside, killed the grandmother, ate her up, and climbed into her bed” (Ashliman). This quote shows how graphic the events in this tale are as a contrast to the danger in the others but with a possibility of survival for the characters. There are several interpretations for why this tale is the way it is. One of the most popular has Little Red Hat turning into a prostitute and killed for being a cannibal killer (Chase). That argument may be a well-known way to see this version but it could also be seen as reaching and a little ridiculous. The reason that I do not agree with that view of this tale is that it is taking the words from the tales and overanalyzing them to fit their argument. The authors of the piece are trying very hard to make the case for their ideas and it is easy to see that as a reader. A less dark view is that it is like the others, a cautionary tale. The sole message is do not talk to strangers. Talking to strangers is what got Little Red Hat killed. The reasoning for the dark ending is that when a stranger attacks there will most likely be no one around to come to the rescue. Whoever wrote this story obviously wanted their message to get across and to do that they took away a happy ending. This is the type of tale that would keep a kid up at night and afraid of what could happen to him. It seems that the writer could have heard the regular story and realized that it could be more effective and came up with a depressing version.
The final version is from America and it is called “The Gunny Wolf”. This tale abandons the visiting grandmother part of the story, and starts with a little girl being warned by her mom to stay out of the woods because of the Gunny Wolf. When her mom leaves the little girl sees some pretty flowers in the woods and ventures deep into the woods while singing a song. The Gunny Wolf hears this song and asks the girl to sing it. When she sings the wolf starts to sleep and she tries to get away. When she tries to get away the Gunny Wolf wakes up and stops her and tells her to sing again. This happens many times until the little girl sings for longer and is able to get away when she makes sure the Gunny Wolf is totally asleep. When she gets home, she vows to never go back into the woods. The author of this tale includes a reassuring statement at the end to let the reader know that she will not go back: “And she never went into the forest by herself again” (The Normal Storyteller). Having that at the end does the same thing as the epilogue of the Grimms; it lets the reader know that a lesson was learned. This is the cheeriest version of all these tales. It is a cautionary tale without any true consequences happening to the main character or her family. This tale being from America could have something to do with that. The creators were most likely living in an area where they knew what was happening for a considerable distance, and knew everyone living around them, which would eliminate the danger of strangers. This left the caution being about staying where it was safe away from wild animals. In other versions the wolf is a metaphor for a stranger, but in this tale the wolf is a wolf and kids should not go to the woods where the wolves are. This would have been a tale told to kids as a playful tale, but with a stern meaning for their safety. This tale would have been very effective when told to the kids of a small community in that everyone around would be keeping a watch on the kids. The kids would be afraid of the Gunny Wolf enough that they would always listen to their parents but they would also not be subjected to a tale with no happy ending. This is a trend indicative of American fairy tales where lessons are learned, but they are fun and not all about death. This is because the creators of the stories were about teaching kids, but they did not think that the scary European versions were effective in using death or other terrible consequences.
In conclusion fairy tales can be seen as different all over the world. However, when one looks at them closely it is possible to see similar themes. The point of these tales was to teach children messages with fun tales about talking animals or magical beings. One such tale is “Little Red Riding Hood”. Although it has gone by many names in many different places its themes are usually the same. In Germany, the Slavic region, Italy, and America the idea of staying away from strangers and listening to your parents remains in all versions. They may all seem different with their use of different creatures or, more disturbing endings the base message will always remain the same.
References
Ashliman, D. L. "Home | University Library System (ULS)." Home | University Library System (ULS). N.p., 1999. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Chase Jr., Richard, and David Teasley. "Little Red Riding Hood: Werewolf And Prostitute." Historian 57.4 (1995): 769. Humanities International Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Delaney, Bill. "Perrault's LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD." Explicator 64.2 (2006): 70-72. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. "SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations." SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations. N.p., 2007. Web. 10 June 2015.
""The Normal Storyteller" and Children's Author." The Storyteller Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Wratislaw, A. H. "SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations." SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations. N.p., 28 June 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.