So this week we read many strange and some shocking versions of Little Red Riding Hood. After this assignment gone are all of the comforting thoughts that this was just a story because some versions of this tales actually made me cringe in fear and revulsion. I have never been particularly fond of LRRH or the thought of being alone in the woods and attacked by a wolf. There are numerous reasons for my fears : I had a very active imagination, I lived in the country, I had a grandmother that lived within walking distance whom I visited everyday, and I had an older brother with a habit of telling me scary stories in which I was the leading character.
I researched LRRH and found that various movies and even cartoons have used this story for inspiration since 1922 to present day. The characters and plot twists were as varied as the number of entries found within a Google search. In a 2011 adaptation of the story, LRRH is in love with Peter (ironic); however, her parents want her to marry another man who is wealthy. LRRH of course wears a red hood that her grandmother made for her and is used as bait to lure the werewolf terrorizing the village. This version has some seductive scenes, a bit of mystery, and suspense especially since LRRH believes the werewolf is a family member.
The though that a child is sent out into the woods alone as bait for a ravenous beast is an idea that would be considered criminal in this day, but children have not always been deemed as valuable with full rights of an adult. During the early period of human history, mortality rates of children were extremely high and survival rates to adulthood were also low. Could this be why children were not depicted in literature until after the Middle Ages when people gained more knowledge and chances of survival for children increased? According to Shavit, most stories began as folktales; therefore, we used these tales to entertain, teach, and explain the things that were unfamiliar or scary to people. After the Enlightenment, more people were learning to read, and as Shavit pointed out, that is when children were being considered as miniature adults. Now children need to be trained in behavior and trained to perform jobs that would make them productive adults.
The story of Wolf Alice by Angela Carter would have been a story that was told in parlors after a dinner as entertainment or as a bedtime story for children. The Werewolf seems to me as if it was a folktale that has been converted into written form. The geographic location could have been modified to suit the immediate surroundings and it has several lessons that could be heard by the different age levels that would have listened to a folktale. One lesson that is driven home by Carter in this tale is that to be different is dangerous. Everyone must conform and it does not matter who you are if you are different we (society) will dispose of you. Another lesson could be that if you don't take care of yourself then no else will. Who was really the wolf in this story, grandma or LRRH? Who tricked everyone in the end?