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Little Red Riding Hood

Author: Charles Perrault

"Little Red Riding Hood" is one of the most famous stories from Perrault's fairytales. Even though witches, fairies, and other surreal creatures don’t appear in this story there are many unordinary events.

Despite the fact that she was an obedient child, Little Red Riding Hood committed an irrational action, and a wolf outsmarted her. The moral of the story is that kids should keep an eye on the evil people that cross their path. It doesn’t have to be a mean wolf, but it could be someone worse.

In the beginning, we are introduced to the girl and the plot twists when she encounters the wolf, and through the dialogues, we find out that the bad wolf first ate the grandmother and then the little girl.

Genre: fairytale

Time: once upon a time

Place: woods, grandma’s house

Book Summary

Once upon a time there was a good and obedient girl who was loved by everyone and especially her grandmother who made her a red hood. The girl loved wearing it, so she got a nickname by it - Little Red Riding Hood. One day her mother told her that her grandma got ill and that she should visit and bring her some cakes and butter so that her grandma would get her strength back. Before she headed off to her grandma, she was warned that she has to follow the path without making any turns.

Her mother also told her to act nicely at her grandma's and that she shouldn't roam around the house and peek in every corner. Grandmother lived in another village, and the Little Red Riding Hood had to go through the forest to come to her house.

On her way to grandma, she intercepted the wolf that immediately wanted to eat her. However, because they were in the forest filled with lumberjacks, he decided not to do so.

Since she had no clue that the wolf was a dangerous animal she wasn't scared, and she started talking to him. The girl was naive, and the wolf got her to talk about everything, starting from her ill grandma, what she was carrying to her house and the location of the house. The wolf listened with interest and began plotting a vicious plan. He couldn't be happier about eating the girl and her grandma.

The Wolf knew he had to take care of granny first, so he suggested competition - he would go one way, and Little Red Riding Hood other, to see who would get to grandma's house sooner. She didn't suspect wolf was misleading her because of his agenda.

The wolf headed to grandma's house. He ran the shortest way while he sent girl the longer way. He reached the door and represented himself as Little Red Riding Hood. Grandma told him how to open the door, and he can come in. When he entered the house, he ate the grandma in one bite and laid in her bed.

Eventually, the girl also came to the grandma's house. The open doors surprised her a bit, and she had a strange feeling without knowing why. She came to her grandma's bed to say hello, and her grandma looked weird. She asked her grandma why she has such big ears and hands. When she asked her why her mouth is so big, she responded that they were big so he could eat her.  The wolf swallowed the girl whole.

Characters: Little Red Riding Hood, Wolf, Grandma

Characters Analysis

Little Red Riding Hood - she is as beautiful, young and naive girl who has met with the voracious wolf. She started a conversation with him, not knowing she is in any danger, and ended up telling him where she was going. Although she was well-behaved and known not to engage in conversation with strangers, Wolf's politeness made her make a mistake.

The Wolf - not only does the wolf ate her grandmother, but he ate the little girl. He was anything but benevolent, and he used Little Red Riding Hood's naivete to get his hands on the spoils.

Charles Perrault Biography

Charles Perrault (1628. - 1703.) was born in Paris to a wealthy family as the seventh child. His father was very strict and imposed a particular kind of education upon him, so he decided to study law. When he finished school, he got a job in the public service.

Many consider him to be the founder of the most popular genre between children, and those are the fairytales. He took his inspiration out of folks tales. Some of them were carried mouth to mouth, and the Grimm brothers told some of them. The fairytales that Charles made famous: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Puss in Boots.

This famous writer from France published another interesting book and it is Tales of Mother Goose. It consisted out of 8 fairytales.

Charles published this work under the name of his son. His fairytales were so popular that they were screen and TV adapted. The first fairytale The Sleeping Beauty was published in 1969.

Charles was considered to be one of the most influential people in the 17th century and a fighter for the younger generations. A conflict was going on back then between the old who believed that people should stick to the traditional way of writing and the young who were fighting for a new, fresh way of writing.

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