Slides on Little Red Riding Hood

1. Little Red Riding Hood
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2. “Little Red
Riding Hood”
“Little Red
Cap”
“Red Riding
Hood”

3. How can we account for
the tale’s popularity?

4. Why is little red riding hood almost always an
innocent, pretty girl from the village?
The Innocent Girl

5. How is the wolf personified?

6. There was a little cat in the room who watched her
eat and aid: “Phooey! You’re a slut if you eat the flesh
and drink the blood of granny.”
“Take your clothes off, my child,” said the wolf, “and
come into bed with me.”
“Where should I put my apron?”
“Throw it into the fire, my child. You won’t be
needing it any longer.”
When she asked the wolf where to put all her other
things, her bodice, her dress, her skirt, and her
stockings, each time he said: “Throw them into the fire,
my child. You won’t be needing them any longer.”
“The Story of Grandmother”
One of the earliest versions

7. Little Red Riding
Hood
First published in print
by Charles Perrault in
1697

8. Little Red Cap
Brothers Grimm version
published in 1812

9. “Little Red Cap”
Brothers Grimm Version
“She left the path and ran off into the woods
looking for flowers. As soon as she picked
one she saw an even more beautiful one
somewhere else and went after it, and so she
went deeper and deeper into the woods.”
Straying from the path…

10. “Instead of firing, he took out a pair of scissors and
began cutting open the belly of the sleeping wolf.
After making a few snips, he could see a red cap
faintly. After making a few more cuts, the girl
jumped out, crying: “Oh, how terrified I was! It was
so dark in the wolf’s belly!” And then the old
grandmother found her way out alive, though she
could hardly breathe. Little Red Cap fetched some
large stones and filled the wolf’s belly with them.
When he awoke, he was about to bound off, but the
stones were so heavy that his legs collapsed and
he fell down dead.
The Huntsman’s Surgery

11. Perrault and Grimm Version
• In both of these versions, she courts her own
downfall; she is the result of her own fall; despite the
objections of many that nobody can be this stupid….
• The Perrault version ends with the wolf falling asleep
after swallowing red riding hood. In Brothers Grimm
version, a hunter comes to the rescue and cuts open
the sleeping wolf with his axe. Little Red Riding
Hood and her grandmother emerge unharmed.
• Perrault version centered on erotic metaphor; the
Grimm version eliminates traces of erotic playfulness
and reframes it in service of child pedagogy

12. The Moral?
• Warning about not
obeying your mother
• Warning about talking
to strangers, especially
those who appear
charming and tame
• Warning about the
dangers of forest as
compared with the
safety of the village

13. Other Interpretations?
• Story about the natural
cycles; allegory of day and
night
• Story about a girl’s puberty
rite; sexual awakening
• Story about an abduction
and rape
• Story of the girl’s rebirth
• Story about a wolf
suffering from womb envy

14. What about elements of play, pleasure,
nonsense, and enjoyment?

15. Modern Adaptations

16. Before reading the various versions of "Little Red Riding Hood", I was under
the impression that our modern versions of the fairy tales omitted some of
the violence and gore found in the older versions, but the moral remained
essentially unchanged. What struck me the most while reading the various
versions was the reaction of Little Red Riding Hood in the newer versions of
the tale. In the three versions written during the 20th century, Little Red
Riding Hood fights back and kills the wolf. In James Thurber's "the Little Girl
and the Wolf" [1940] she "took an automatic out of her basket and shot the
wolf dead." (17). In Chiang Mi's "Goldflower and the Bear" [recorded in
1979] "Goldflower threw the spear into its mouth. With a groan, the Bear fell
flat.Goldflower slid down the tree and kicked the dead Bear." (20). In Ronald
Dahl's "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf" [1982], "She whips a pistol from
her knickers. She aims it at the creature's head And bang bang bang, she
shoots him dead. (22). The endings of the stories are changed so
drastically that I wonder if the accompaning moral changes as well. Do
other fairy tales also have modern versions where the so-called "victim"
fights back?
Discussion Question about Adaptations
Jennifer Rhodes asks:

17. Post-Grimm Adaptations
• In 19th and 20th century, the popularity of the
fairy tale soared
• Many 20th century versions were influenced
by Freudian psychoanalysis and feminist
critical theory
• Revisionist versions deconstruct the gender
stereotypes, reversing the gender and sexual
norms associated with original versions

18. James Thurber Version (1940)
When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother’s
house she saw that there was somebody in bed with a
nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no
nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that
it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a
nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your
grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin
Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her
basket and shot the wolf dead.
Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it
used to be.

19. Roald Dahl
“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” (1928)
‘What great big ears you have, Grandma.’
‘All the better to hear you with,’ the Wolf
replied.
‘What great big eyes you have, Grandma,’
said Little Red Riding Hood.
‘All the better to see you with,’ the Wolf replied.
He sat there watching her and smiled.
He thought, I’m going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma
She’s going to taste like caviare.

20. Roald Dahl
“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” (1928)
Then Little Red Riding Hood said, ‘But Grandma,
what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.’
“That’s wrong!” cried the Wolf. ‘Have you forgot
“To tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got?
‘Ah well, no matter what you say,
‘I’m going to eat you anyway.’
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature’s head
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.

21. Roald Dahl
“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” (1928)
A few weeks later, in the wood,
I came across Miss Riding Hood.
But what a change! No cloak of red,
No silly hood upon her head.
She said, ‘Hello, and do please note
‘My lovely furry WOLFSKIN COAT.’

22. “How Could Red Riding Hood (Have Been So Very Good)?”
Written by A.P. Randolph in 1925
First song banned from the radio

26. This slideshow by Craig Carey is
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