Entry #6
Jordan Rice
ENGL 1302.P15
Mar. 3, 2011
From the Wolf's Point of View
The Wolf's Postscript to “Little Red Riding Hood” is basically the Wolf saying that he deserves more credit than he is actually given. Why would a wolf who lived in the same woods for years ask a young girl where her grandma lives, he would know the location of any significant destination for miles. If the wolf is playing dumb, then why? “I did it for posterity,” (Ali, 2) or in other words he tricked the girl in order to prove a point: don't talk to strangers. If you were a 14-year-old girl and a grown man asked where you were going would you give him a detailed description of where and who would be there, I would think not. The wolf also makes the point that “you may call me the Big Bad Wolf,” but if he really were so bad, why didn't he just eat her upon the initial meeting, and why would he not have eaten the old woman years ago? The wolf is trying to teach a lesson to the future youth that it is not alright to go into the woods and speak to potentially dangerous strangers. Given the time period that the poem was written in, the message is clearly influenced by the rapid decline of wilderness because of the vast increase of population mixed with the desire for land. The wolf plays the role of the misunderstood predator, and he went out of his way to teach little girls a lesson of why they should not trust strange men.
ENGL 1302.P15
Mar. 3, 2011
From the Wolf's Point of View
The Wolf's Postscript to “Little Red Riding Hood” is basically the Wolf saying that he deserves more credit than he is actually given. Why would a wolf who lived in the same woods for years ask a young girl where her grandma lives, he would know the location of any significant destination for miles. If the wolf is playing dumb, then why? “I did it for posterity,” (Ali, 2) or in other words he tricked the girl in order to prove a point: don't talk to strangers. If you were a 14-year-old girl and a grown man asked where you were going would you give him a detailed description of where and who would be there, I would think not. The wolf also makes the point that “you may call me the Big Bad Wolf,” but if he really were so bad, why didn't he just eat her upon the initial meeting, and why would he not have eaten the old woman years ago? The wolf is trying to teach a lesson to the future youth that it is not alright to go into the woods and speak to potentially dangerous strangers. Given the time period that the poem was written in, the message is clearly influenced by the rapid decline of wilderness because of the vast increase of population mixed with the desire for land. The wolf plays the role of the misunderstood predator, and he went out of his way to teach little girls a lesson of why they should not trust strange men.