RA Rough Draft

A literature genre that is perceived as simple, childish, and onedimensional: the authoritative dictionary Merriam-Webster defines the genre
fairy tale as following, a : a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces
and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins) called also fairy story b : a
story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending. As seen in
likewise official descriptions, fairy tale is a genre that is often overlooked for
its typical happy endings and overly simplified and censored story plot.
Nonetheless, such stereotypical characteristics of fairy tale were nonexistent once the history of genre is tracked back to its roots. For centuries,
fairy tale genre has gone through the pens of countless authors and editors,
getting criticized and readjusted in order to fulfill the changing perspective
and taste of the audience of different regions and time periods. In that
process of development, each version of fairy tales from different
backgrounds has come to incorporate a major aspect of literary works, the
rhetorical situation. Rhetorical situation is generalized as the circumstances
under which the rhetor writes or speaks, (pwr.la.psu.edu). Accordingly, it
includes variety of elements of the setting in which a literary work has been
created, such as the audience, the authors purpose, and general societal
context. Therefore, when several versions of one fairy tale story show largely
differing elements and settings that connect to their historical context, it can
be said that the differences are originated from the rhetorical situation of
each stories.

The beloved fairy tale of all time, Little Red Riding Hood is one of the
examples that exceptionally prove such point. The origin of Little Red Riding
Hood is the work by Charles Perrault a French author from the Salon Era
during 17th century titled Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. A brief summary of
Perraults version of Little Red Riding Hood would be the following: a young
and beloved girl named Little Red Riding Hood goes on an errand to deliver
her sick grandmother some food, and carelessly gets herself and her
grandmother eaten by a wolf. Unlike the prevailing stereotypes on fairy tale
genre, Perraults version of Little Red Riding Hood contains neither a magical
creature, nor a happy ending. Such crudity and cruelty of Perraults version
of the story becomes reasonable when the historical context is brought into
the picture. In 17th century, France, the main audience for fairy tales was
aristocratic men and women, who would gather around in Salons to
exchange knowledge through sophisticated discussions. Accordingly, the
fairy tales written in that time period contained morals for young men and
women, without further considerate process of censorship that would purify
the story free of explicit elements. Thus, not surprisingly, Perraults version
contains many references to sexuality, and sexism. However, as time
progressed to 19th century, the age of the main audience drastically
decreased from young adults to little children. Therefore, Brothers Grimm,
the German fairy tale authors from 1800s German Romanticism movement,
were forced to scrape and clean out such crudity of the earlier versions of
fairy tales, in their publication of edited fairy tale composition in 1857.

Grimms version of Little Red Riding Hood includes a far more cunning Big
Bad character of a wolf, and a hero who rescues the Little Red and her
grandmother from the danger, along with inevitable happy ending. In
contrast to Perraults version, a short summary of Grimms version of the
story would be as follows: a young and beloved girl named Little Red Riding
Hood goes on an errand to deliver her sick grandmother some food, and
almost carelessly gets herself and her grandmother eaten by a wolf, but a
huntsman comes to save the day, and they all lived happily ever after. As
seen in such differences between Perraults version and Grimms version of
the story, the development progress of Little Red Riding Hood over time
that is specifically seen in the change of wolfs trickery and the creation of a
hero character is the result of incorporation of rhetorical situation in each
texts, according to the change in time period and societal conventions from
17th century to 19th century, along with the change in the main age group of
the audience.
As fairy tale genre has developed through a long period of time, lists of
generally accepted conventions and motifs were also developed. One of such
fairy tale conventions that prominently reflect the change in rhetorical
situation between the two previously mentioned versions of Little Red Riding
Hood is the fairy tale function defined by a Soviet folklorist named Vladimir
Propp, the trickery, done by an archetypal character, a villain. In both
versions of the story, wolf tricks the innocent Little Red to tell him the
location of her grandmothers house, then arrives at the house before Little

Red, patiently waiting for his time to prey on the poor young lady. However,
in Perraults version of the story, the villain, wolf is portrayed as a very
passive character with subtle tricks to hide his identity to others except for
Little Red. Such passiveness of the wolf is seen in the story when Perrault
wrote, a wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he dared not,
because of some woodcutters working nearby in the forest. (Perrault). Such
passiveness and devious manner of the wolf derives from the Perraults
purpose behind the story, and his intended audience. Catherine Orenstein, a
journalist and the author of the fairy tale genre analysis book titled Little Red
Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale,
mentions in her book the old saying of France, Elle avoit v le loup, which
was used as a phrase describing the loss of virginity in 17th century France.
Interestingly, that certain French saying directly translates to she has seen
the wolf in English. In 17th century France, aristocratic women were gaining
more independence and liberty as they participated in the intellectual
gatherings of Salon Era, and pursued compatibility between sexes, and
freedom from arranged marriages, so called marriage de raison, (Windling).
Such modernization movements from the women were deemed as a threat
to family life and social values, as it was loosening the stance of the
aristocratic families in the society that was maintained through the arranged
marriages between families (Orentein). Therefore, sexist writers such as
Charles Perrault himself put in efforts into their works to warn the young
women of the society about the consequences of rebelling against the

accepted social roles of woman. Specifically, in Little Red Riding Hood, its
clear to see that Perraults purpose is to warn young women against the loss
of virginity, which was one of the requirements for successful arranged
marriages. Perraults obvious use of the symbolism of wolf, and the act of the
Little Red getting into the bed with the wolf after taking off her clothes
plainly shows the elements of sexuality and connection to virginity inside the
story. Due to such Perraults purpose behind the composition of the story, the
wolf in the story is deemed as a sneaky, subtle, and perhaps charming
character that easily lures Little Red into the bed, for the wolf is
representation of the young men of the society that lured young aristocratic
women to seeking sexual freedom, losing their virginity, therefore
threatening the societys conventional structure. However, while wolf is a
manifestation of young men in Perraults version of the story, the wolf shows
completely different characteristics in Grimms version of the story. In
Grimms version, wolf shows maximum effort to tempt and trick the Little
Red into drifting off her original path in order to get his chance to prey on the
grandmother and the Little Red. The wolf is no longer afraid to be seen by
the men in the woods, and appears obviously evil that it causes the Little
Red to be cautious and doubtful in treating him. Also, he seems to have no
intention of getting the Little Red out of her clothes and into the bed. Such
change in wolfs trickery and personality is the result of the changed
audience of the fairy tale, following the change of time period. The main
audience of Brothers Grimms works was Protestant parents and their young

children of 1800s Germany. In his introduction to Brothers Grimms works

recollection, Zipes states the reason for Grimms edits that they have made
to numerous different fairy tales: Some thought that the stories were too
crude, were not shaped enough to appeal to children, and were weighed
down by the scholarly notes For the changed audience of young children,
the original version of the Little Red Riding Hood was a little too cruel, and a
little too sexual. Since the targeted audience of the story has become the
young children, the purpose of the story also changed from warning young
women about virginity, to warning young children about the possible harms
and dangers in outside world. In order to emphasize the dangerousness of
the seemingly friendly offenders, the wolf has come to have a more cunning,
and persuasive personality compared to the naturally-appealing
characteristic of Perraults version of young-men wolf.
Another convention that reflects the changes that derive from such
changes in rhetorical situation is the Propps function rescue, by the
archetypal character, a hero. As previously stated, the purpose of Perraults
version of the story was to warn the young women about the possible tragic
consequences of the mistake of losing virginity, thus the story did not require
a happy ending. However, Brothers Grimms version had to also serve the
purpose of providing the young children with hopeful and dreamy images of
the world, they had to incorporate a happy ending that was purposefully
created. And the element that was elected to create an artificial happy
ending to the story was a hero character, and his rescue of the poor Little

Red. In 1800s Germany, the family structure was greatly altered compared
to the 1600s France, into a form of a strong nuclear family. The familys
value was accepted to be very high with paternal authoritative system, and
the widely accepted system of a family was as follows: the family was the
center of society, no matter what economic level it lived at the father is the
center and leads the wife and children. Youth was supposed to be obedient to
the elders and the father's word was law, (Strawser). From such emphasis
on paternal structure of the family, the Brothers Grimm obtained the idea for
their hero character that resembles a father of the family, thus a huntsman.
Brothers Grimms utilization of a fatherly hero character also adds new
aspect to the moral of the story, that young childrens promiscuity and lack
of caution leads them to a critical distress, but the father, as the head and
leader of the family, would be able to come and save the day.
Just as growing childrens personality development reflects their
background and environment, developing literary works over time such as
fairy tales reflect the environment in which they have been created and
refined. The two versions of the popular tale Little Red Riding Hood by
Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm are especially exceptional mirror to
such life-like trait of literary works. From the large difference that was
observed in common fairy tale conventional elements of the two stories, it
can be easily seen that rhetorical situation not only allows the readers to
understand the rhetors intended audience, but also the purpose behind the
creation of their certain literary work. Such analysis of rhetorical situation

that is seen in fairy tales shows that the ability to spot and comprehend the
rhetorical situation of a text allows a more effective and interactive
communication between the reader and the rhetor, thus better
understanding of the text.
Works Cited

Buchinger, Michael. Desexualizing Little Red Riding Hood: A Comparison of

Charles Perrault's and the Brothers Grimm's Versions of the Popular Fairy
Tale. Diss.Academia, 15 Oct. 2003.

Orenstein, Catherine. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the
Evolution of a Fairy Tale. New York: Basic Books, 2002

Windling, Terri. "Les Contes Des Fes: The Literary Fairy Tales of France." Les Contes
Des Fes: The Literary Fairy Tales of France. Web Archive, WaybackMachine, 28 Mar.
2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

Zipes, Jack. "Introduction: Rediscovering the Original Tales of the Brothers Grimm."
The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Jack Zipes, trans. Princeton,
NJ. Princeton UP: 2014, 1-26.

Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

Strawser, Dick. ""Mendelssohn's World"" : Being German in the Early 1800s.

Web. 16 Feb. 2016.