Blog #1

Question 1:

I thought all of the versions of The Little Red Riding Hood were very interesting, however, the Italian/Austrian one, "Little Red Hat", was the one that caught my attention the most. Probably because it was gruesome and different than the rest. It isn't the only version where Little Red Riding Hood is eating her grandmother, but it does go more in detail about the cannibalism  involved. Also, here the evil doer is not a wolf but an ogre. In class we touched briefly upon the whole cannibalism ordeal and it is a little weird that this little girl, who is supposed to be innocent, is eating her grandmother's body parts "Little Red Hat opened the door, went inside, and said, "Grandmother, I am hungry." The ogre replied, "Go to the kitchen cupboard. There is still a little rice there." Little Red Hat went to the cupboard and took the teeth out. "Grandmother, these things are very hard!" "Eat and keep quiet. They are your grandmother's teeth!". I could not help but think that maybe this ogre had some sort of fetish about watching humans (maybe preferably little girls) eat other humans, since ogres supposedly eat people. Then he asks her to take off her clothes and get into bed with him which, I think we all understand, has sexual connotations. The ogre disguised as grandmother (evil man disguised as a nice man) got Little Red Hat (oblivious young girl) to lose her dignity (cannibalism and "getting into bed with him") then ends up dying (social death?) A very interesting version indeed. 

Question 2:

In this same version of Little Red Riding Hood the external conflict is pretty straight forward. The ogre's plot to eat Little Red Hat would be the external conflict. We watch as he tricks her into thinking that he is the grandmother and into eating the grandmother. The internal conflict can perhaps be the instances when Little Red takes a bite of whatever it is that she is eating and questions it "Grandmother these things are very hard" "Grandmother this wine is very red!". Little Red stops to question the ogre about the food. So she did, even if it was for a brief moment, have doubts in her mind.