Little Miss Red

Red Riding Hood is of course a familiar character to almost every child. I have heard of her story when I was younger. I do not remember the details anymore but I know who the characters are, the roles they play, the setting and the plot that they take part of. Even more, the famous dialogue between the wolf and Red Riding Hood by Grandma's bed. After I read four versions of the faerie tale, more details resurfaced and ideas new to me came about. Especially among the contemporary versions, the change in the plot tickled a new interest in me on Red Riding Hood's story. I may not testify that I came to like Red Riding Hood a whole lot more, but I must say that I did appreciate the faerie story better than I did when I was younger. The meanings betwixt the lines discussed in Bettlelheim's essay showed a new perspective I never had toward faerie tales before. It showed that Little Red's story had deeper meaning—things that children wouldn't naturally think of after reading a story for entertainment. It may be necessary to remember that Little Red Riding Hood wasn't intended for children in the first place. I'd like to believe that when when the story was first summed up, there was already meaning interwoven in the story, not just when Freudian theories came about. For if it were not so, Sigmund Freud would have been having a hard time trying to explain Little Blue's Riding Hood. Perrault himself wrote morals at the end of his versions.
Personally, I like the Politically Correct Version best. It has so much in it and it totally broke off from the traditional setting. It makes one realize so much, starting from Red's bringing of fat-free, sodium-free food to Grandma, Wolf, and Red, living together in harmony. Red's line wherein she calls the woodchopper a Neanderthal tells so much. I guess it's about time we leave some tradition behind. After all, our era demands it and its better that we make our own mark in history. Although of course, gender roles are gender roles—a debate until earth passes.
I like Perrault's version better than Brothers Grimm's, then Roald Dahl's last. Perrault's version has more truth in it and is psychologically more realistic. If the point of writing “Little Red Riding Hood” is to show young women how premature sexual desire backfires, then it has to be shown that a girl would be 'eaten up' for life. What was lost cannot be restored by the coming of any other male figure anyway.
With Roald Dahl's, well... I must admit that I find it really funny. But of course the representation of the wolf in the poem is a character the same as Red Riding Hood's level. What I mean to say is, the two were practically both human and Red killed Wolf to get what she wanted. From the start, that was all shown, even until Red's appearance in “Three Little Pigs.” It was as if the story is telling the audience that it is necessary to kill to take possession of the heart's desires.
All in all, “Little Red Riding Hood” is more than just a tale. After all, no matter what the intention of an author, truths about life always come in the picture.