The Wolf's Defense
In The Wolf’s Postscript to “Little Red Riding Hood,” I find it amusing that the author takes the wolf’s actions and lets him explain that he is only trying to help little girls avoid the same trouble Little Red Riding Hood finds herself in. Obviously, it is the poor wolf who is the victim. “Little girls shouldn’t wander off in search of strange flowers, and they mustn’t speak to strangers.” (Ali ll. 5, 6, 7) This is very true so how could it be the wolf’s fault? Being a wolf, he can only follow his instinct which is to eat little girls and grandmothers. But he doesn’t admit that he did in fact eat them. He only says that he was innocently sleeping when he was cut open and filled with stones “simply so children could laugh at the noise of the stones…” (Ali ll. 27, 28) When I read this I’m reminded of the crazy defenses we hear whenever some lunatic commits a horrible crime. There are always reasons for the criminal to have done whatever awful thing he (or she) has done. How often do we hear a person say “I killed the girl in the woods because I’m evil and I think it’s fun?” I’d have to say never. But I wonder how many serial killers or child predators (or any other random criminal) would just prefer admit to the crimes and take the punishment. If not forced by some attorney to say how awful they had it growing up, and if she wasn’t alone in the first place, I wouldn’t have been forced to eat her!” When we do hear the rare story like that, the person being tried usually has to act as his own attorney and the true nature of his craziness is revealed. The wolf does seem to have some valid points in this poem so maybe he was framed. I almost want to believe that it was a set-up because as he points out, he had plenty of opportunities to gobble her up before but he didn’t. Since wolves can only act instinctually and don’t have the ability to plan things in advance, I might just buy his story and give him the benefit of the doubt!