"Little Red Riding Hood."

Paper Summary:

The paper states that stories have been part of culture from the very beginning of human development and that over time, fables and fairy tales have continued to be integrated into everyday life. The paper also relates that scholars disagree on the primary reason why these tales have remained so important in modern times. The paper then questions if fables and fairy tales are just a means to provide information or entertainment with no hidden agenda or, is their purpose to encourage societal mores or intended to help individuals deal with their hidden psychological dilemmas? The paper uses the story "Little Red Riding Hood" to demonstrate these different interpretations.

From the Paper:

'' Some stories go even further and make Little Red Riding Hood do the victimizing. Roald Dahl's character pulls a gun out and shoots the wolf to replace her silly cloak and hood with a "lovely furry wolfskin coat" (Zipes et. al 359). Philippe Dumas's "Little Navy Blue Riding Hood" includes a very determined and self-confident girl who is jealous of her famous grandmother, the "ex-Little Red Riding Hood." Little Navy Blue Riding Hood frees the wolf in order to revive the old story and become well-known like her grandmother. However, this wolf, the great-great-nephew of Perrault's wolf, avoids "like the plague anything that resembled a riding hood, no matter what color it was, even if it came from Galeries Lafayette, and especially worn by a little girl" (Dumas 19-20). Believing that her grandmother is the wolf, Little Navy Blue takes the confused old lady to the zoo at knifepoint and locks her in the wolf's cage. Little Navy Blue Riding Hood becomes notorious with all the media attention and the outcry against the little girl who had previously seemed to be "so well-behaved and obedient."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 1977.
• Cashdan, Sheldon. The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales. New York: Basic Books. 1999.
• Dumas, Philippe. Little Navy Blue Riding Hood. In Recycling Red Riding Hood. Sandra Beckett (Ed). New York: Routledge 2002, 108-110.
• Orenstein, Catherine. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Ten Moral Tales from the Forest. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
• Zipes, Jack, Paul Lissa, Vallone, Lynne, Hunt, Peter and Avery, Gillian. Norton Anthology of Children's Literature. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 2005.

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