LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD RESPONSE

Text 1: Carol Ann Duffy poem
Text 2: Grimm tales

Little red riding hood has a story that contains both the werewolf and the little girl. Although the poem that Carol Ann Duffy has written is more based upon the werewolf, on the other hand, the story from the Grimm tales book is based upon the personality of the werewolf as well as the grandmother having a character in the story. The story from the book can be compared to what is written in the poem since a lot of it is similar, only the characters have been played with.

The different versions of the story definitely play a role in the character development since the little girl is shown innocent in the book and fierce in the poem. Regardless of the actions of the characters, the setting is also very similar, although in the poem they have emphasised the dreary forest that Little red riding hood is walking through. The grandmother has not been presented in the poem although we know that the young teenage Little red riding hood was walking deep into the woods, getting feeling of suspicion, in the next line of the poem where she mentions her walking into the woods, she says that her stockings had ripped, which shows that she had been raped into the forest. This has a direct effect on the audience since it shows that for a young teenage girl to be walking alone is extremely dangerous.

The most appealing part of both texts is that they have the word ‘Little’ as the title, and both stories have such strong different meanings that correlate to Little red riding hood. This could exhibit the evolution of the little girl, still being tortured by another being regardless of age. Both stories also have the ‘what big eyes, what big ears,’ this also replicates her evolution of innocence, where she initially said that to her grandmother, now that she’s getting older she has started to say is to another gender in a possible sexual way. The least appealing part of the story is that her mother has left her, we could see that by Duffy’s poem, the mother was not in sight, not even to help her get out of what she could be stuck in.

To me, the story is still as when it was first written, showing the innocence of the little girl who is going to help her grandmother feel better and the mother playing a role in preparing her daughter to be a better version. After reading the poem, I was very shaken at how people could turn such a naive story into something so brutal and disturbing to read. The poem could also be written to show to the younger audience that not every girl stays as innocent and that society helps you to change the way others wish to see you.

Pullman’s story contained a lot of excitement while reading, always wanting to know what would happen next, his story was also purer compared to other texts that have been written. Regardless of knowing other Little red riding hood texts, Pullman was able to create a story where both the mother and grandmother were included, it seemed as if some of it was adapted from the poem. The story written in both cases has its own meaning one shows a younger girl while the other shows an older woman.

I think that the story in the book would be more interesting to read since it is not as disturbing and brutal. Also, the story contains more of a ‘story’ where the poem seems more like a lesson to learn for a younger audience. The audience of the poem should definitely only start from the age of 16 since it really shows the true colors of certain things, in reality, the story from the book can be read by anyone. It is a very enduring story due to the language used in the poem, it makes you continuously think of certain things that have an effect on your brain since you never imagined something like it to happen. The poem sinks into your mind leaving traces of unwanted memories where you can picture what the ‘wolf’ could have done if you were in the position.

In order to conclude what has been stated above, the innocence of the little girl is slowly developing through more recent versions of the story, the poem shows an adventurous soul exploring the deep side of reality and getting caught under what she had not experienced or expected before. Due to the language used in the poem, the story can only be read by an older audience. Pullman’s story almost exactly replicated the original story, however, the language use makes it more interesting to read.