Mischievous Characters..

1. It does seem odd that the mother makes no mention of the dangers of wild animals/strangers. When I was a kid, I was always warned "never to talk to strangers." Perhaps the mother has a different way of thinking in her education to her child; she might understand that children, by nature, are very curious organisms and by mentioning wild animals, Little Red might become more accustomed to meeting one. Instead, she tries a different approach of playing on the love Little Red has for her grandmother. From the story, it can be seen that Little Red Cap and her grandmother have a very close and loving relationship. Her grandmother was the one who loved her “most of all” and even gave her a velvet red cap. I think that by warning Little Red to stay on the road so that the wine bottle doesn’t break is a very good technique. However, in the end when Little Red decided to stray from the road, it was only because she wanted to pick flowers and make her grandmother happier. The mother unfortunately could not foresee that circumstance.

2. There are many adaptations of the story of Little Red. I am unsure whether the original version was written with the intent of a subliminal sexual message. However, due to the numerous adaptations, it is quite possible for each to contain a slightly different sexual message. The color red is related to maturity and quite possibly a woman’s virginity. Little Red always wore the red cap that symbolized her innocence. I think this element would be more noticeable if she had lost her cap after her encounter with the wolf.

     To Americans, a wolf is referred to as a hungry and self animal that only cares for its own needs. The wolf could be used to represent a person who has strong sexual desires. In Chinese cultures, the animal wolf is often associated with sexually hungry males who are on a hunt of young and naïve young women.

     I felt that the interaction between Little Red and the wolf disguised as the grandmother may be seen as sexual. Little Red is observing all the parts of her grandmother (ears, eyes, hands, mouth) in careful detail. I may be overanalyzing, but I thought that even the specific foods (cake and wine) brought by Little Red can be seen as sexually explicit. Wine is most notably used to get someone drunk while cake can be used to persuade someone to trust you and like you better. The latter can also be observed when strangers offer young children candy. Also, I found it a little bit weird for a huntsman passing by to be able to freely walk into the grandmother’s house. I would think that he would at least knock on the door before walking in. However, at the end of the story, it seems like he was a protagonist.

3. I thought Aesop’s fables were very interesting to read because they serve a different purpose. Some of these stories justify the wolf for its seemingly shameful actions while others just show him as a greedy animal. Overall, I think these stories relate more to the cleverness of the wolf rather than the innocence or mischievousness of bystanders.

     In the first story, it doesn’t seem like the lamb is misbehaving at all. I believe he is indeed innocent. In fact, the wolf seems to try to justify his action by coming up with a reason to kill the lamb. It is obvious that he was unable to do so, and he acted like a “tyrant” as the lamb took his last breath. The story of the wolf in sheep’s clothing showed the wolf’s intelligence that helped him get close to his prey and eventually consume it heartily. Similarly, in the interaction with the Shepherd’s boy, the wolf ate the boy’s flock of sheep because it was simply his nature. Part of the blame was also put on the boy for being mischievous. Nevertheless, a clever lesson was taught by another character—the wise man of the village.

     In “The Wolf and the Crane” and “The Wolf and the Kid,” the wolf inadvertently teaches lessons through warnings. In the story of the crane, he tricked the crane into helping him. When I read this, I was actually surprised that the wolf didn’t eat the crane after he helped him. In the second story, it seems that the wolf was getting annoyed by the kid for calling him names and warned him to stay away. In both of these short stories, rather than feeling hatred or pity for the wolf, I felt empathic; it was easy for me to put myself in the wolf’s shoes.

     The story of “The Dog and the Wolf” made me feel admiration toward the wolf; in my opinion, he was really clever and worthy of praise because he refused to be a slave and would rather suffer hunger while keeping his self-pride. Finally, in the fable with the nurse, I felt pity for the wolf because he was patiently waiting for his dinner that he never received. I found the moral “Enemies promises were made to be broken” to be very educational especially since I tend to trust others easily. There exist many liars and defrauders in our world. There is even a special quote in Chinese that basically says that one shouldn’t try to harm others but should never stop being cautious of others either.