Analysis Of The Book ' Little Red Cap '

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Rewriting Classic Texts When authors or writers rewrite classic texts, they are able to reveal important lessons to readers or make the underlying message from an original text more obvious to readers. Rewriting classic texts can also allow the writer make an original text more moderate, by doing so it makes the text more relatable to the readers and help them understand the story more clearly. This is exactly what Angela Carter did in her text, “The Company of Wolves,” Carter creates and reveals to readers a feminist point in her rewrite. Carter is criticizing the original text of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s story, “Little Red Cap.” Carter develops a female protagonist who is independent and also explores her sexuality, unlike the Grimm Brothers who creates a poorly developed damsel in distress. Carter, also does not include a typical fairytale story ending, unlike the Grimm brothers and most fairy tales which end on a happy note. By creating these kind of character developments and disregarding a typical “happily ever after” ending, Carter expresses feminist ideals and rids the stereotypical attributes a female character is usually given in fairytales. Carter is trying to show readers the importance of developing the female characters, unlike the Grimm Brothers who have much more developed male characters than female characters. Endings, especially in fairytales, end on a happy note and by doing so, all is well for the protagonist and their sidekicks in fairytales. Readers can see this when the Grimm brothers ended the story with, “And Little Red Cap returned home happily, and no one harmed her.” (Grimm 1084). This is very typical ending for fairytales, having the protagonist move on with their life, disregarding the fact they... ... middle of paper ... ...t is a young girl with “vulnerable” features, that does not define her and make her dependent. Fairytales have a tendency to create stereotypes or create the basic ideals of how some values of society should be. Though rewrites are an opportunity for an author to trash these repetitive stereotypes and create a statement. Rewriting classic texts help an author to show a realistic moral and make a classic more moderate, making it relatable to readers. This is exactly what Angela Carter did in her rewrite of “Little Red Cap” by the Grimm brothers, Carter had revealed to the readers that female characters do not need to be strong nor weak in her story, “The Company of Wolves.” By stating these attributes of the main character and creating a different ending, she reveals to readers that female characters do not have to fulfill these tropes and can be whatever they want.

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