Little Red Riding Hood

            Reading all these versions of Little Red Riding Hood really made me understand how much I don't know about fairy tales. I always knew the general part of the story, but didn't think there were this many different versions of one fairy tale. 

            One thing I noticed about all the different interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood was where all the different writers decided to leave and add parts. Most of the stories included the general plot of the story but each had their own version which led off to differences. I guess I never really knew that the ending had so many different alterations. Can you really say that the wolf killed Little Red Riding Hood since the audience is mostly children?

            All of the different versions of Little Red Riding Hood have some of the same bits and pieces in them. The basic storyline has Little Red Riding Hood taking some sort of food and beverage to her sick grandmother into the forest. She does not however notice a wolf is listening to her conversation and when she begins her journey the wolf runs ahead to her grandmother’s house. When Little Red Riding Hood has arrived the wolf has already eaten her grandmother. From this point on the story there is not definite way the story is supposed to end, but both Perrault and Brothers Grimm leave their mark to help distinguish their stories from all the others. 

            Perrault’s conclusion has a simplistic ending as the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood. However Perrault’s simplicity is used to his advantage to show the readers how gullible Little Red Riding Hood is.  Perrault inserts his usual moral section at the end to help reemphasize safety.  ). From Perrault’s point of view, you get what you deserve. He believes that women are too nice to strangers and need to be careful because you never know who someone really is until it’s too late. For Perrault’s story to really have the effect towards young women he needed to show what really happens in the real world, that nice people are taken advantage of. Even if his fairy tale was not good he was still going to make sure that the reader understood the message of story.

            The Brothers Grimm left their own mark on fairy tales by having unpredictable endings that no one had ever heard of. In their version of Little Red Riding Hood a hunter comes to the rescue and guts the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood and the grandmother fall from the wolf’s stomach. “He took a pair of scissors and started cutting the sleeping wolf’s belly open…he saw the little red cap, and after another few snips the little girl jumped out…then the grandmother came out”(Tales 37). I guess you can say The Brothers Grimm had great imaginations because this ending is completely different from other versions. They were able to embark on their own ideas and use those to distinguish their fairy tale from the rest.

For the new movie  Little Red Riding Hood  here are the reviews from recent viewers: click here

Charles Perrault

           Whenever I read a fairy tale I find myself asking the same question, “Who wrote this?” There is no definite answer to that question but there is one person that really helped start the fairy tale, Charles Perrault. For anyone who does not know Charles Perrault wrote Tales of My Mother Goose, otherwise known as a collection of eight fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella (Wiki 1). Although he was not the first to publish fairy tales, his tales were an instant success as he was able to incorporate his own style of writing by providing morals at the end of every story. His goal was to amuse and educate young ladies about the importance of grace and beauty, the two most important characteristics a woman should possess (Wiki 1).

            Charles Perrault was born on January 12, 1628 in Paris, France (Barchilon). Throughout his school years he excelled in many topics about law and later took a government service job. It was not until he became quite old did he begin to write Tales of My Mother Goose and with such detail he was able to capture the main points of fairy tales that everyone had only heard and leave his own signature style on it as well (Wiki 1). He dedicated his later years towards fairy tales and to ensure that they would never be forgotten.

            Perrault had his own style of writing that included the most important part of his fairy tale, morals. The moral section is to help young ladies understand two key characteristics a woman should possess, grace and beauty (Barchilon). Perrault felt that by having this section at the end of the fairy tale would really help illustrate the importance of his morals as the story blatantly had questionable spots for him to add lessons. This style was widely accepted at the time and he was able to distinguish himself from other writers. Not only did people enjoy reading his stories, but they also were rewarded with a little life lesson that they could relate to their own lives.

            To say that Charles Perrault was just another writer of fairy tales is completely false. What makes him so different from everyone else is that his fairy tales intended to help people better understand lessons that were not taught to the readers by adding his signature. He deserves credit for trying to educate young women while writing his fairy tales whereas those who simply write a fairy tale with no meaning behind it.

Barchilon, Jacques, and Peter Flinders. Charles Perrault. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Print.

"Charles Perrault." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Perrault>.