Joseph Leach Professor Siller Children’s Literature 12 February 2009 Time to Grow Up Now we go into another classic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. There was once a little girl whose mother made her a brilliant red cloak, giving her the nickname we’ve all grown to know and love. Her grandmother comes down with a cold, so Little Red is sent off to take her some warm food. On the way she meets a charming wolf that persuades her to ignore her mother’s advice and gather some firewood for her granny. Then the wolf eats the grandmother, does the standard “what big eyes you have bit”, and swallows up Little Red Riding Hood. There are two obvious symbols in this story which hold a lot of meaning to them. The first, a “Red Cloak”, which I feel resembles sexual maturity of a young woman. The other is a wolf, who is interpreted as aman who seduces women. He hides under the covers, and urges the girl to climb into bed with him. The girl comments on "what big" arms, legs, ears, eyes, and teeth the wolf has, which ends with the wolf saying "The better to eat you!" The wolf then eats her. Also, there is a hidden moral to this story in which I believe is that, children, especially young attractive ladies, should stay away from strangers! Another thing thought to us from our parents at young age. One thing that caught my eye in these fairy tales, which I did not mention in my summary, is that both take place in a forest. The forest to me kind of resembles an unfamiliar realm to us. It’s something mystical. It gets the mind going, wondering “What’s in that forest?” Both Stories include animals, which are usedin plenty of fairy tales BUT these animals also take the place of human characters. The use of bears and wolves are used because children are familiar with these animals. These are only but a few similarities these stories share. Fairy tales allow children, even adults, to use their imaginations to take them to places. If we consider the flow of images, and reflect...