Little Red Riding Hood

A young girl who lives with her mother is given a little red riding hood to wear, and

everyone starts to refer to her as ‘the Little Red Riding Hood’. One day, the girl’s mother asks

her to go and visit her grandmother, who lives through the forest. Little Red Riding Hood is

given some food to take with her to give to her grandmother. On the way, she meets a talking

wolf in the woods, who asks her where she is going. Little Red Riding-Hood tells him that she’s

going to visit her grandmother and tells him she lives in the first house in the village, on the other

side of the mill. The wolf distracts the girl by convincing her to collect flowers for her

grandmother. As she is busy, the wolf continues to the grandmother’s house. While Little Red

Riding Hood takes her time walking to her grandmother’s house, picking nuts and flowers in the

forest, the wolf legs it as fast as he can. When he gets there, he knocks at the door and pretends

it’s the woman’s granddaughter with the food. The grandmother, who is in bed ill, tells the wolf

to come in. The wolf does so and immediately and devours her. Then he gets into bed and

pretends to be the woman by dressing in her clothes.

When Little Red Riding Hood eventually arrives at the door, the wolf pretends to be the

girl’s grandmother. Her voice sounds hoarse because ‘she’ has a sore throat. Little Red Riding

Hood pulls the latch and enters the house, and is surprised by her grandmother’s big arms, her

deep voice, her big ears, her big eyes, and her big teeth. The wolf eats Little Red Riding-Hood.

The wolf is exhausted from his meal so he falls asleep in the bed. A huntsman walking by hears

the wolf snoring and looks into the window to see the wolf occupying the bed. He rushes into the

house and cuts open the wolf’s stomach to release Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.
 Since the Grimm brothers did not intend for Little Red Riding Hood to be permanently

trapped inside the wolf’s stomach, it leads the reader to question what the moral of this fairy tale

is supposed to be. A number of fairy tales are about the dangers of going off into the woods

alone and meeting strange creatures. Little Red Riding Hood goes out into the world

unsupervised and is taken advantage of by the wolf. Because of her loose tongue, she

unknowingly kills both her and her grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood is too innocent: she

fails to realize the wolf’s intentions against her vulnerable old grandmother. The Brothers Grimm

made the moral clearer, with Little Red Riding Hood being told by her mother not to stray from

the path. It is her failure to follow the instructions that lead to the events with the wolf.

The reason Little Red Riding Hood does venture off the path is innocence itself. She is

tricked into noticing the beautiful flowers all around her by the wolf. and decides to pick some

for her grandmother. In other words, she's thinking about Grandmother, not having fun. The wolf

has already eaten Grandmother and dressed in her nightclothes by the time Little Red Riding

Hood reaches the house. This detail sanitizes the story further so readers don't have to witness

the death of the protagonist.

The central idea of the story is that Little Red Riding Hood believes the wolf is her

grandmother. A girl as young and innocent as she is should realize that it is not Grandmother

lying in that bed. An earlier version of the story is more sophisticated: Little Red Riding Hood

does recognize the wolf and tries to escape. Because the Grimms delete that detail, their

rendition is left with an inconsistency that has troubled generations of children.

The huntsman also saves women from the wolf by chance. Earlier versions did not

feature the huntsman because Little Red Riding Hood was able to save herself. In the Grimm
version, the huntsman not only shows up at just the right moment, but he also realizes that the

wolf is the one that ate grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood. But Little Red Riding Hood

comes out a changed girl. As she watches Grandmother eat the cakes and drink the wine, she

promises herself she'll never disobey her mother again. It seems like a rather tame takeaway after

so much drama, but the Grimms wanted it that way.