Roald Dahl's versions of both “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs”, in my mind, extract humor from the contrast between roles of women today and the women that exist in fairy tales. In fairy tales like Little Red Robin Hood, the female characters tend to not have any logic-guided sentience. Instead, they exist only to present morals that explain the outcomes of their stupid mistakes.
The Little Red Riding Hood in Dahl's tales is strong and independent. She sees danger, and she takes care of the problem immediately. She is also cruel, as seen in “The Three Little Pigs,” where she kills both the Wolf and the Pig. The line about never trusting “young ladies from the upper crust” makes me think that Dahl is slightly bitter, and is attacking the materialistic, self-serving tendencies of some women.
Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood reminds me of a movie (that I have yet to see) called Hard Candy ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424136/ ). It's a movie about a girl (wearing a red hoodie) who meets a sexual predator online, and feigns foolishness to arrange a meeting at the man's house to ultimately torture him. Both of these stories illustrate a type of modern violence not present in fairy tales (guns and online predators), and both also seem to contain morals that suggest tackling problems head-on instead of avoiding bad situations altogether.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
I was most captivated by Roald Dahl’s version, called Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. When I researched it, I discovered that it was published in 1982 as part of a book called Revolting Rhymes. Dahl wrote the poem as a joke and did not even mean for it to be published. I believe that his target audience is children. This is due to the fact that his story rhymes, and the fact that it has a happy ending. The way he presents this classic fairy tale makes it entertaining, but also it conveys morals and lifestyles of the time. Because Little Red Riding Hood pulls a pistol out and kills the wolf, I know that during the time this was written, children were seen as more independent and capable of learning. Using Shavit’s method, I think that this tale was not used for amusement, like children or for education of children, but as a demonstration that children are now able to protect themselves.
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
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
Little Red Riding Hood - January 27th
James Thurber’s version of “Little Red Riding Hood” clearly deviates from the versions of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. While his version is far shorter and changes a lot of the story in terms of structure and style, the biggest difference is the ending. It supports a different moral to the story than those of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. The ending, in where the young girl grabs a gun and shoots the wolf dead (a similar to ending to that of Roald Dahl), supports the moral that children are no longer as innocent and naïve as previously believed. They can be cunning and resourceful and, if you are a deceptive wolf, dangerous. Because of this, I believe that this story is predominantly intended for an adult audience. While everyone can find amusement in the twist ending, this story clearly is an attempt to tell adults that children are no longer the young, innocent, and naïve creatures that need to be fully protected from everything. They are capable of learning and adapting very well.
The fairy tale’s retelling by James Thurber (and Roald Dahl) clearly represents a culture that is more modern than those during the times of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. In the time that Thurber’s version of the fairy tale was written, the status of the child, using Shavit’s method of analysis, had progressed beyond that of amusement and education, towards a more protective and respectful tone. The tone of Thurber’s writing argues that children were no longer seen as agents of amusement for the elite class, or naïve bodies needed to be educated, but as future adults capable of reason and cunning. It can be argued that there is some element of a protective tone in the sense that the young girl has a gun, a tool to protect herself with, by her side. However, I believe the predominant focus of the tale is to represent children as intelligent and clever beings capable of reason. I believe that specific nature of the culture of Thurber’s time influenced his re-telling of the classic fairy tale.
Dr. Sahil Patel
The fairy tale’s retelling by James Thurber (and Roald Dahl) clearly represents a culture that is more modern than those during the times of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. In the time that Thurber’s version of the fairy tale was written, the status of the child, using Shavit’s method of analysis, had progressed beyond that of amusement and education, towards a more protective and respectful tone. The tone of Thurber’s writing argues that children were no longer seen as agents of amusement for the elite class, or naïve bodies needed to be educated, but as future adults capable of reason and cunning. It can be argued that there is some element of a protective tone in the sense that the young girl has a gun, a tool to protect herself with, by her side. However, I believe the predominant focus of the tale is to represent children as intelligent and clever beings capable of reason. I believe that specific nature of the culture of Thurber’s time influenced his re-telling of the classic fairy tale.
Dr. Sahil Patel
Assignment: 27 January 2009
Please respond to the following by midnight tonight. On Wednesday, read over the other posts in your sub-group and comment on at least two.
You have read Shavit's essay comparing the Perrault and Grimm versions of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Using Shavit's method, consider one of the other versions you read for this week (Dahl, Calvino, Thurber, Chiang Mi). With a little research (you may use Wikipedia, since this is not a research paper), outline who you think the audience is and what the fairy tale’s retelling says about the culture and time in which it was written.
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