Michael's Blog Assignment

look at that! Im the first one to post...now i feel special
For this assignment, i read the Italian version- Little Red Hat. i chose this version simply because Italians are awesome, and i found it amusing that they seemingly dislike red hoods.

This version of the story takes a very different approach to the story. It forgoes the usual resolution in favor of a darker and unforgiving warning to young women.
Rather than featuring a wolf, the antagonist is an ogre. An ogre, rather than serve as a symbolic representation of a disreputable suitor, serves as a more literal depiction of men who would corrupt a woman's purity. Like the ogre in the story, the wrong man will not only entice a woman to follow him, but he will lead her to destroy and undermine the very security and purity the once coveted- symbolized by her grandmother/her body parts.

While in other stories have interpreted the ill-fated quest to visit the grandmother as a test, this story features a shortened account of her actual travels, and lacks any implication of doubt or inner conflict about her decisions. What I did find interesting, though, was the simple yet powerful message sent by the roads that LRH and the ogre took. Of the two paths- a stone path and a thorny path, LRH took the stone path. This bears a resemblance to the biblical illustration of the " narrow road" leading to life and the "broad road" leading to destruction. In LRH's case, she chose the easy path of allowing association with an ogre (a corrupt man) instead of taking the thorns and making an effort to keep her good standing.

Another interesting element of the story was LRH's interactions while eating the grandmother. On conversation is as follows:

A little while later Little Red Hat said, "Grandmother, I'm still hungry."
"Go back to the cupboard," said the ogre. "You will find two pieces of chopped meat there."
Little Red Hat went to the cupboard and took out the jaws. "Grandmother, this is very red!"
"Eat and keep quiet. They are your grandmother's jaws!"
"What did you say?"
"Eat and keep quiet!"

 LRH notices that something is wrong. When she asks if something is wrong, the ogre actually confirms that it is her grandmother(purity) that she is eating(destroying) her. I'd like to believe that this is a warning that  evil men will hardly try to hide their malevolence. LRH's question could be seen as either legitimate disbelief at what she has heard, or an almost sarcastic dismissal of the revelation. This may or may not be some form of internal doubt/regret she is feeling. The fact that she proceeds to eat seals her fate- whether intentionally or not, she has caused her own destruction.

A lesson to be drawn may be that initial failure to discern a danger will lead to death. Even the realization of one's error will not bring salvation. It should also be noted that LRH followed the ogres instruction: "Eat and keep quiet!". Any inner turmoil was not voiced. even when LRH began noticing her "grandmother's" external flaws, she did not run away, almost as if she did not want to believe anything was wrong.