Little Red Riding Hood seems like a pretty terrible story to tell kids. What the hell was the point of the story? Fairy tales and fables are supposed to teach a lesson or something, but I really don't see any value in LRRH. Comments?
what is the point of Little Red Riding Hood?
- Thread starter SubZeroX
- Start date
Most fairy tales were told to keep kids in line (Struwwelpeter). Kinda like another book I know of...
As I was once told:
The dark ages were a very dangerous time. The roman empire fell apart, and all their territory (basically europe) became completely lawless and very dangerous. Fairy tales like LLRH (assumed to have originated around that time) were designed to prepare children for a dangerous, and probably short, life.
About a thousand years later, enter disney, who made it happy and fun.
The dark ages were a very dangerous time. The roman empire fell apart, and all their territory (basically europe) became completely lawless and very dangerous. Fairy tales like LLRH (assumed to have originated around that time) were designed to prepare children for a dangerous, and probably short, life.
About a thousand years later, enter disney, who made it happy and fun.
GTaudiophile
Lifer
- Oct 24, 2000
- 29,767
- 33
- 81
I heard somewhere that Little Red Riding Hood is symbolic of virginity...and the wolf's consumption is the loss of that virginity...
A lot of nursery rhymes and stories are actually pretty nasty.
My friend has a theory that people are afraid of heights, or spiders, or whatever becuase of these things.
I don't know the words exactly, but I know there is one about cradles falling out of trees...and it was my mom's favourite, and I'm terrified of heights...never even attempted to climb a tree. I've never thought about it like that before, but Brent's theory seems to fit.
On the other hand, my mom never used any about spiders, and I'm not at all afraid of spiders, unless they are really big and potentionally poisonous, but plenty of people are scared of normal spiders that are totally harmless....
Now I'm not saying his theory is true...but have a critical look at these things, alot of the nursery rhymes, and so called children's stories, are actually pretty nasty things to tell small impressionable children.
My friend has a theory that people are afraid of heights, or spiders, or whatever becuase of these things.
I don't know the words exactly, but I know there is one about cradles falling out of trees...and it was my mom's favourite, and I'm terrified of heights...never even attempted to climb a tree. I've never thought about it like that before, but Brent's theory seems to fit.
On the other hand, my mom never used any about spiders, and I'm not at all afraid of spiders, unless they are really big and potentionally poisonous, but plenty of people are scared of normal spiders that are totally harmless....
Now I'm not saying his theory is true...but have a critical look at these things, alot of the nursery rhymes, and so called children's stories, are actually pretty nasty things to tell small impressionable children.
Whitecloak
Diamond Member
- May 4, 2001
- 6,074
- 2
- 0
here's a few my nasty mind thought of
virgins should beware of wolves
not everybody is what he appears to be.
prince charming will rescue you
microsoft is suck
virgins should beware of wolves
not everybody is what he appears to be.
prince charming will rescue you
microsoft is suck
Originally posted by: whitecloak
microsoft is suck
oh yea, i remember getting that point out when i read apple's version of little red riding hood.
There is an excellent book, "The Uses of Enchantment- The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales" by Bruno Bettelheim. He is a child psychologist who researched the hidden meanings of fairy tales. The book takes a detailed psychological look at this subject, so if you are puzzled about what was read to you as a kid, or if you have kids of your own, it's worth checking out.
Little Red Riding Hood is basically a coming of age morality tale dealing with a girl's sexual awakening at puberty. Issues of breaking away from parental influence and establishing one's own sexual identity are dealt with in a symbolic fashion. The story ends with her being eaten by the wolf, but then later being cut out of the wolf's belly, emerging as a sexually mature woman- no longer a little girl.
Little Red Riding Hood is basically a coming of age morality tale dealing with a girl's sexual awakening at puberty. Issues of breaking away from parental influence and establishing one's own sexual identity are dealt with in a symbolic fashion. The story ends with her being eaten by the wolf, but then later being cut out of the wolf's belly, emerging as a sexually mature woman- no longer a little girl.
Rock a Bye, Baby
Rock-a-bye, baby,
In the treetop,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall,
And down will come baby,
Cradle and all.
I never understood why that's a lullaby, but, my parents sung it to me and I used to climb trees as a kid. I became more afraid of hights as I got older and (realized I was getting) more fragile.
Lots of nursery rhymes and songs.
That's totally rediculous.
I mean, come on. People love to read sexuality into everything, but I think this is stretching it a bit too far. How does the grandmother fit in? It was grandmother the girl was going to visit to begin with. Grandmothers are the #1 way of becoming sexually mature?
And how does a woodsman, hacking open a wolf, and pulling out a girl, symbolically represent emerging as a mature woman? Sure, sure, blood/menstration, but I don't know too many women that went into wolf-cocoons during puberty.
That book sounds to me like another case of taking Freud's ideas too far. Freud's ego/id model of the mind has been completely replaced by cognitive theory, and many of his ideas regarding sexuality have been disregarded. (For example, Freud also once blamed a boy's fear of horses on his lust for his mother, and the fear that his father would murder him after he slept with his mother. So that's about how far you can trust Dr. Freud.)
Any hidden meaning is pretty obvious: Evil disguises itself as something trustworthy (the wolf as the grandmother) but don't be stupid when you see warning signs (What big teeth you have, grandmother!) Also, in some versions, the girl gets into the whole mess because she wanders off the path into the forest, where the wolf finds her and asks her where she's going. Her parents had told her not to leave the path, you see. So there's your obedience moral.
So there are your lessons, your morals. This story is about hidden dangers and being aware.
"Girl goes to see grandmother, but grandmother is killed by a wolf who takes her place. The girl is oblivious, and is devoured by the wolf. (In some versions) a kindly woodsman bursts in, kills the wolf, and pulls the girl out from the wolf's stomach."
I'm no child psychologist, but it takes a lot of imagination to read sex into that.
dullard
Elite Member
- May 21, 2001
- 25,898
- 4,485
- 126
Finally someone with some common sense. Even if the tale was meant to teach about sex, no 4 year old child would understand that symbolism! The tale has several morals that Calundronius pointed out:
1) Obey your parents (LRRH disobeyed orders, if she didn't nothing bad would have happened),
2) Don't talk to strangers (LRRH shouldn't have told the wolf where to find her and her helpless grandmother),
3) Don't blindly trust things that are familiar, but instead trust your instincts (LRRH knew deep down it wasn't her grandmother),
4) Those who don't follow morals 1-3 will be punished severely.
Any 4 year old will understand at least three of those above.
The gore comes from all German fairy tales. Go read a real version of those tales and you'd find out how much Disney distored them. In the real Cinderella, the step-sisters hacked off bloody pieces of their feet in a failed attempt to fit the glass slipper...
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 21K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter