Little Red

Fairy tales, like most mythical works, have basic elements that make them unique from other literary pieces. In contrast to that, many tales contain certain patterns and themes central to the story. The tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” certainly contains such factors found in many works of literature. Perrault was the first author of this story about an innocent girl who is taken advantage of. An example of similar writing is “Little Red Cap”. They share comparable themes, characters, and entertainment for children.

The first motif between the stories can be found in the titles. Just hearing the names alone you can feel these stories must be parallel. There is a connection between the red hood and the red cap that the little girls received from their grandmothers. Another pattern between the stories is the setting in the woods. In most fairy tales the woods represent a place of unknown. This is the location where both girls were trapped into giving away their destination. Also, the wolf's character in the stories is pretty much identical. Little Red Riding Hood was challenged by the wolf, “ I’ll go this way and go you that, and we shall see who will be there first,” in an effort to deceive her. Little Red Cap was able to get distracted by the wolf when he says, “just look at the beautiful flowers that are all around us. Why don’t you just go take a look?” The wolf is successful in both stories to trick the little girl so he can beat the girls to the grandmother's house.

The major link between the two stories is their connection in themes. One theme present in both fairy tales is the old saying "never talk to strangers". The mother in both stories warned the little girls to mind their way and stay on path. However, both girls openly talked to the wolf and gave him valuable information that would cause her trouble in the future. In "Little Red Riding Hood" the moral of the story is, "Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf." Basically meaning we shouldn't speak to strangers because you never know their intentions. Even if the stranger doesn't look harmful, "there are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets." Today, it doesn't really matter who the person is, you can't trust anyone you don't know.

A final similarity between the stories is the girl's reaction to the wolf posing as their grandmother. The description of what big ears and eyes the wolf has in order to hear and see the young girl better is the same in both stories. Also, the little girls describe either the mouth or teeth as being big and the wolf in both stories agrees that his mouth is big so he can eat her. And in both stories after the girl said these words the wolf got up and "ate her all up." But, in one of the stories, this wasn't the fatal ending for one of the girls.

There are many more noteable similarities that exist in these two stories, however, there are numerous differences in them also. A small difference in the stories is what each girl is bringing to her grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood is to take her grandmother cake and a pot of butter while Little Red