Little Red Riding Hood Context

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Zach Sattler Professor Dilbeck Composition II 11 November 2014 Historical Context in “Little Red Riding Hood” “Little Red Riding Hood” is a story that has been told around the world for hundreds of years. The basis for many of the retellings is Little Red meets the wolf and tells him that she is going to visit her grandma, only to discover upon arrival that the wolf had already eaten her, dressed in her clothes, and now also planned on eating her as well. Overall, throughout the original version of the tale and various retellings, it can be found that three symbolic features of the tale are frequently repeated: the choice of path that the wolf and Little Red select, the cannibalism that occurs when…show more content…
Overall, the historical context in the original version of the tale creates the symbolic details of Little Red Riding Hood needed for the original story and the retellings as well. This paper will examine the original story of “Little Red Riding Hood,” by Charles Perrault, written in France, and various retellings such as “Little Red Riding Hood” by Ludwig Bechstein, written in Germany, and the story of “Little Red Cap” by the Brothers Grimm, also written in Germany, and the effect of the symbols that the historical context of the original story creates has on each retelling. The original “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perrault was written in France, and therefore numerous historical and geographical connections to France can be made between the telling of the story. In ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Rated R,’ Carl Heinz Mallet states that when analyzing “Little Red Riding Hood”, it should be noted that the greatest consistency occurs in French tales that originated in a region encompassing the Loire basin, the northern Alps, northern Italy, and the Tyrol, in the area where the greatest number of werewolf trials occurred during the period of witch persecution in France (Mallet 52). In “Little Red Riding Hood,” it seems that each…show more content…
The choice of path that the wolf and Little Red selected, the cannibalism that occurs when the wolf eats her grandmother, and the savage ending and recurring cannibalism when the wolf eats Little Red. In this version of the tale, “Little Red Cap” was on her way to her grandmother’s house when she was approached by a wolf. He asked her where she was going and she told him that she was taking cake and a bottle of wine to her grandmother. Just like in the original version of the tale, the wolf and “Little Red Cap” are faced with a choice of which path to take to the grandmother’s house. Little Red Cap took the path of flowers to the house, while the wolf took the path straight through the woods. In the original version of the text, the choice of path had the historical context behind it that Little Red took the “path of needles” to institute her choice of becoming a prostitute, and the wolf chose the “path of pins” to institute his identity of a witch. In “Little Red Cap” the implications of which path the wolf and Little Red Cap choose seem to be different. According to professor Lynn Strachey in his article The Decline and Fall of Little Red Riding Hood, Little Red Cap’ seemingly picks the path of flowers in order to establish her innocence, and the wolf seemingly picks the path through the woods in order to arrive at the grandmother’s house
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