On May 16, 1703,
Charles Perrault died. Many consider him to be the beginnings of the fairy tale genre. Yes, even before the Grimm brothers, Perrault, who didn't begin writing fairy tales till he was 65, used existing folk tales and, with a little embellishment, created what we know as the fairy tale.
One of Perrault's most well-known tales is of
Little Red Riding Hood. He was very keen on writing stories that had a moral and
Little Red Riding Hood is actually a warning about men preying on young girls.
"I say Wolf for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition - neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but taming, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentles wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!" (Charles Perrault)
When you know the meaning of the story, it becomes a bit more unsettling. After all, Little Red gets into bed with the wolf and is eaten.
On a side note, one of my favorite Halloween costumes was when I went as Little Red Riding Hoodlum. I wore a sweet dress and red cape with a bandits mask and a toy gun.
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| Little Red Riding Hoodlum |
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