Different Versions of Little Red Riding Hood Essay Example

Little Red Riding Hood is a well known fairytale/folktale with a story of a little girl in red who goes to grandmother's house to bring her food. Along the way she encounters the big bad wolf and he pretends to be the grandmother. They get rescued by a huntsman and the wolf runs away. The moral of the fairy tale is not to speak to strangers or stranger danger. There are many more versions of Little Red Riding Hood and what the folktale is trying to tell us, it's nothing like the cute, little kids version that we all know and love. The evolution of the folktale was grown to demonstrate how much can one folktale can depict a certain meaning to it in many forms. Little Red Baseball Cap by Ramon Garcia and Lon Po Po By Ed Young folktales have an underlying message that is comparable and different. Both folktale stories have quotes with sexaul representation on the girls’ and how the child predators are being personalised as the wolf.

Little Red Baseball Cap by By Ramon Garcia was published in 1996. This folktale/story is about a Hispanic girl walking to her grandmother's house after elementary school. She is being harassed by older men in her neighborhood and catcalled because she's looking more like a woman. There is Mr. Wolf who is the white neighbor who takes advantage of the children and the parents are afraid to report. The narrator states, “ Oh, man, another year and i'm going to tear her apart, shes gonna be fucken good”(Garcia 90).  Little Red Baseball Cap is being harassed verbally by the men in her streets. She is growing up and becoming more like a woman and by the phrase “Tear her up” it's referring to her popping her cherry. The old men are describing Little Red Baseball, Cap as his own trophy that he will obtain. This can officially turn Little Red Baseball Cap into embracing her womanhood. Similarly, the folktale Lon Po Po A Red Riding Hood Story From China by Ed Young published in 1989 is another remake of Little Red Riding Hood. This folktale/story is about three sisters who get an unsuspected visit from their grandmother.

The wolf is imitating the grandmother to try to get inside the house. The narrator states, “Tao and Paotze rushed to their Po Po and wished to be hugged… The old wolf held Tao “good child, you are so plumbed”... He embraced Paotze “good, child you have grown to be so sweet”(Young 2). The words the wolf is using to describe the girls is very sexual. He is calling Tao “So plumbed” and it is suggesting how grown up her body is getting. The wolf's description of Paotze is also commenting on her body. The embrace of the hug is where the wolf gets to feel every inch of the girls bodies. They are being touched by the wolf, who they believe is their grandmother. Both folktale/stories are used verbatim language in different scenarios to prove a point. The girls in the folktales are sexualized by the men around them. They are not being seen as children anymore and are perceived as older. The folktale/story is sending a message to the reader. The narrator wants the readers to know how gross men are using language when dealing with girls changing into womanhood. 

In addition, the folktale/stories have a wolf in them that represents more than an actual animal. The narrator says, “Well, the better to eat you with, my little nacho nymphet, Mr. Wolf says as he reaches his right hand towards her crotch… he is beginning to rub her tiny love tuna through her denim jeans when little red interrupts him”(Garcia 97). Little Red Baseball cap is being groped by Mr. Wolf. He is labeling her a “nymphet” and nymphets are girls who are attractive and sexually mature. Mr. Wolf is a child predator in the story. This grown man, Mr.Wolf is about to take advantage of Little Red Baseball Cap.

In the regular Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale we all know as an innocent wolf who just tricks and is hungry is not the same as this one. The wolf is not an actual beast/animal that can be chased away. This kind of animal is a child rapist that preys on innocent children. Likewise, in Lon Po Po it claims, “When he climbed into the big bed, Paotze climbed in at the end with the wolf, and Shang and Tao climbed in at the other… Shang stretched, she touched the wolf's tail… Po Po, your foot has a big brush on it… Shang touched grandmother’s sharp claw.”(Young 2).  The wolf in this folktale is an actual animal, but the phrases he says can have another interpretation. When Shang touches the “wolf's tail” the tail can be interpret as a penis. When she also touches the “sharp claws” it can be ironic due to when losing their virginity, it can be painful. The wolf in Garcia story is an actual man and in Young the wolf is an animal, but with bad intentions.

Furthermore, the wolf's intentions in both folktales have similarities. They have to deal with a sexual predator. The difference is the actual being of the wolf. In Garcia’s version of little red riding hood the wolf is an actual human being. In Young's version the wolf is the animal, but can his words can be depicted as more. The words in both folktale are very sexual towards the little red riding hoods. There is sexual tension with what the men and wolf are claiming towards  the young innocent girls. Fairy Tales are beneficial for children because it's tradition.

Everyone has heard a fairy tale either by their parents, school or tv show. I agree that they should be known by children. They are beneficial because the fairy tales send a message to the children. Some fairytales are gruesome and should not be read to kids. The one that can benefit children are those fairytales that are innocent and adorable. The article The Moral of the Story by Alice Alber says, “The dual forces of cause and effect have been consistently at work through the ages...The mutable fairy tale has always been both an unrelenting influence on society and a mirror of society.” There are many versions of folktales and fairy tales out there that fit to a certain areas in the world. They show in their stories what’s occurring in society, but those gruesome fairy tales/folktales should not be read to children. 

All the versions of fairy tales/folktales have been remade and some have the same moral. With little red riding hood we came across two different versions that are alike in certain forms, but differences in the storyline. Both have sexual content in the phrases being said to the little red riding hood and have a child predator played as the wolf. These stories have more content in the writing than what it seems. It is not the same little red riding hood that is known for kids. The message and storyline in both are graphic. The folktales/fairy tales are evolving as time goes by.