January 27, 2009: The False Grandmother

The fairy tale "The False Grandmother" retold by Italo Calvino has similar characteristics to the story "The Story of Grandmother". "The Story of Grandmother" was first spread orally before Perrault's version of the tale, which was a time when Shavit says that children were viewed as "entertainment". The similarities between "The Story of Grandmother" and Calvino's version suggest that "The False Grandmother" also first appeared before children were viewed as having a separate identity from adults. The fact that the girl in "The False Grandmother" is resourceful and defeats the ogress on her own also suggests that the tale was told before children were considered different from adults. The story's references to cannibalism and defecation show that the tale was not used as a educational tool for children unlike the Grimms' version "Little Red Cap".
In both "The False Grandmother" and "The Story of Grandmother" the little girl is tempted by cannibalism. However, in "The False Grandmother" the little girl does not actually engage in cannibalism like the child in "The Story of Grandmother" does. This difference might show that the culture that created the tale "The False Grandmother" was not as concerned with food shortage as the society that told "The Story of Grandmother" because the little girl was not actually driven to participate in cannibalism. The shortness of the story and the repetitive language use suggest that the story was part of an oral tradition when stories were told simply to pass the time.

Audra Crosby