Little Red Riding Hood Analysis Essay Example

Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood is a short story narrated in the third point of view about a girl walking alone in the forest and a bad wolf who is trying to eat her. The introduction of an animal as a character makes this story what is known in the literary world as a Fable. A little girl, who always wears a red cap, is told by her mother to take a basket full of food to her sick grandmother. She lives in the woods and the girl is told not to leave the path but go straight to granny’s house. On the way she’s accosted by a wolf who suggests she pick a bunch of flowers for her grandmother. While she is doing so, the wolf runs to the grandmother's house, devours her and lies down in her bed. This story clearly portrays the difference between the safety of a town and the danger of the forest. The story is not just an ordinary fairy tale; it has a very strong moral symbolism in order to prevent little girls and young women from dealing with strangers. The author may very well want to use sarcasm to expose many cultural issues in relation to the dangers girls encounter in society. For example, what kind of parents would let Little Red Riding Hood wander alone into the forest knowing the possible danger? How naïve can the girl be not to notice major differences when the wolf replaces her grandmother? If it is just a danger creature why doesn’t the wolf attack little red in the woods which is its perfect preying territory? In this older version of the classic tale made famous by the Grimm brothers, we see a more sadistic, crude and erotic story. Some are in the form of metaphors like when the author writes “so I can eat you better” in my opinion cannibalism is used to represent the extend of the betrayal and tactics some predators might use to lure girls in. The devouring of little red riding hood by the wolf is also a metaphorical way the author represents sexual intimacy or rape. In other occasions the writer uses a more direct hint like when the