Little Red Riding Hood Analysis Essay -- Fairytale Literary Analysis

Little Red Riding Hood can no longer be considered a frail child without any control over what becomes of herself. Instead, Angela Carter makes the moral of this traditional fairytale into a modern day lesson: you can do anything. With great detail does Carter present her setting, which adds to the fearfulness the reader feels for Red as she encounters the wolf. As a result, we begin to fear the wolves as well, because in this small village wolves are more than mere beasts, they are were-wolves. Carter sets the scene for our pre-adult heroine who is afraid of nothing even though the whole town is ripe with fear. Women and children are taught to stay indoors at night while the men fear for their own humanity. Despite all of this Little Red Riding Hood has no qualms about setting off into the woods to get to grandma’s house. Why does she not fear what all girls do? Based off the feministic elements, the act of sacrifice and applying our own abilities to a situation we understand much more about Red than before. â€Å"It is a tale of girl becoming . . . more than just meat or nourishment for the quest.† states Wendy Swyt about Carters version of Little Red. The idea that Little Red knew what she was giving up in order to gain her life gives a chilling realism to difficult decisions we must face in our own lives. Swyt gives the understanding that Little Red has something to teach us yes, but maybe for Carter that lesson surely is not ‘don’t talk to strangers’. In fact, I argue Carter wants us to, because only in this way can we prove ourselves. In Girard’s â€Å"Violence and the Sacred†, violence and the act of sacrifice is a way for society to be kept in balance. Not only is Little Red a victim, so are the were-wolves in this story. Specifi... ...d the ability to manipulate, the situation one can turn a bad situation into one that need not be feared. Works Cited Carter, Angela. â€Å"The Company of Wolves.† The Bloody Chamber. Penguin Books. New York: 1979. Pages 110 – 118 Girard Rene. Violence and the Sacred. Excerpt from Chapter One: â€Å"Sacrifice†. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore Maryland 1977. Pages 2-16 Swyt, Wendy. "'Wolfings': Angela Carter's becoming-narrative." Studies in Short Fiction 33.3 (1996): 315+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. Zipes, Jack. "The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood." The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood. Routledge, 1993. 17-88. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 56. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 NOV. 2010.