In the Company of Wolves by Angela Carter - Book Report/Review Example

In the Company of Wolves In Angela Carter's story, "In the Company of Wolves," she has made feminist revisions to the classic, famous fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood." She demonstrates that with a little updating of the story, which can be done to accommodate the present-day concepts of female living and gender roles, much can be demonstrated about the main point of the story. By taking a closer look at Carter's story in comparison with the original fairy tale, one can see how gender roles as well as the reversal of gender roles has an overall affect on the classic fairy tale. Therefore, by taking a closer look at Carter's story, the reader can gain a better understanding of Carter's approach overall. The first thing we note in Angela Carter's version is how the gender roles have changed. In this tale, Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed as a "strong-minded child"(Carter 215) who knows no fear and won't be denied. These traits are generally considered to be masculine attributes. The reason for this switch has much to do with Carter's own female empowerment views as it does with the changing social views of the time. In the olden days women were expected to stay at home and take care of the kids, as well as be responsible for the household duties like cooking and cleaning. They had no place else in society and any female caught doing otherwise was looked down on by society. This was a point in time when it was generally agreed that people should be punished for their mistakes, a time when forgiveness was an unheard of term. This can be seen in an earlier version of Little Red Riding Hood written by Perrault, where the tale ends with the death of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. However, as times changed and women slowly began to move out of the household and into the working world, societies view point began to change as well. As a result, a newer version of the same story arose, written by the Grimm's brothers, in which Little Red Riding Hood was saved by the hunter, signaling that she was being forgiven for her mistakes and given a second chance to redeem herself which she does by working together with her grandmother to plot the death of the second wolf. In this version, it is the wolf which is ultimately punished. His stomach is filled with stones and the hunter removes his skin. It is possible that he is punished not for eating Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, but rather for being lazy and falling asleep in the grandmother's bed instead of somewhere else. This probably reflected the view of the times, one where it was forgivable to be naive and trusting, but where laziness was looked at as a punishable sin. Carter's version is yet another step in the ever-changing view of society, a view that seems to suggest perhaps Little Red Riding Hood's actions are not wrong at all. After all, the only person punished in this version is the grandmother, and this could stem from Carter's own strict upbringing as a Catholic. In the story, the grandmother tries to protect herself from the young man by hurling the bible at him but to no avail, suggesting Carter's view that religion alone is not going to save a person from having terrible things happen to them. In both versions of "Little Red Riding Hood", the tale is concerned with the model of feminine behaviour, and draws upon cultural stereotypes to reinforce this view. The tale itself is also aware of the social - and hence tenuous - creation of gender. The fairy-tale genre relies upon binary opposites, and it has been suggested that this is how children view the world. Equally then, as femininity is idolized in beauty, stupidity and passivity, the masculine is highlighted as predatorial, cunning and sexual. Through the use of the wolf, such male characteristics are made to seem inherent in men. In Grimm's version, Little Red Riding Hood is objectified through the giving of the nickname "Little Red Riding Hood." She has no control over her individuality as is a kind of continuation of socio-sexual codes of the times; she is the little girl that is made a type because she stands for all girls. She becomes a trope in which is focused patriarchal sexual desire. The opening line of the story which goes "Once upon a time there was a sweet little maiden"(Grimm 149) alone emphasizes the importance of passive temperament, diminutive size and unbranded sexuality. In Grimm's version, she is portrayed as the typical female object because she fulfills the three main characteristics; beauty, stupidity and passivity. She is "much beloved by everyone"(Grimm 149) for her beauty, she is stupidly trusting of the wolf, going so far as to tell him where her grandmother lived, and her passiveness is displayed in the fact that she does not do anything to escape the clutches of the wolf. What Carter has done is completely turn the tables on Little Red Riding Hood's character. Gender biases are a learned condition and most children learn these biases through the reading of fairy tales. Angela Carter is trying to reverse the trend of brainwashing kids into gender-role biases by using the fairy tale formula as a back-drop for her stories. In Carter's version, Little Red Riding Hood possesses all the traits commonly associated with masculinity; she is cunning, predatorial and sexual. In the tale, she wants to kiss the young man, so she cunningly "dawdles on her way to make sure the handsome gentleman would win his wager"(Carter 216). Later on when she is trapped in the house with the young man, instead of being afraid, she displays a confidence and boldness in her actions, going so far as to undress herself and the young man, suggesting an almost animal, or predatorial instinct. In this version, she is also openly sexual, as can be seen when "she freely gave him the kiss she owed him"(Carter 219). She shows no shyness about stripping naked in front of the young man, and she even initiates the lovemaking by stripping the young man of his clothes and giving him a kiss, in a sense, taking control of the situation. This is in keeping with the times today when women are playing a more important role in society and proving themselves to be just as capable as men, if not better, and this sense of empowerment is embodied by the actions of Little Red Riding Hood when faced with the young man. "Little Red Riding Hood" is a myth type that warns of childhood disobedience against parental figures. When Little Red Riding Hood disobeys her mother and strays from the path, it results in not only her 'death', but also the death of her grandmother. This is a familiar pattern in stories that have been traced throughout time where the actions of female figures like Eve and Pandora cause not only suffering to themselves, but also to everyone else. In Carter's version however, the message seems to be clear that not everything a person does results in devastation for the entire society, and that women are not to be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world. Ultimately, Grimm's version of "Little Red Riding Hood" is a story about maturity, growth and learning. She is given a second chance at life after her first mistake, and learning from that mistake, takes the chance to use the advice of her grandmother in plotting the death of the second wolf. The not too subtle message of this story is one which says that the elders know best, and that if any trouble arose, you could always depend on the elders to come up with a solution. In Carter's version however, the lesson is less clear cut. The message would seem to be that the elders are not always right and this can be witnessed when her grandmother's wisdom and faith in God does not help her escape the young man. Instead, Little Red Riding Hood uses her own smarts to seduce the young man and thus avoid death. The message her from Carter is one which suggests that young people are capable of making good decisions themselves. Carter's version is also a story of maturity, a coming of age tale where Little Red Riding Hood crosses over from a young girl into a woman. Unlike Grimm's version, there does not seem to be a real moral to the story, which in its own way mirrors society's view today that suggest not everything is black and white, but rather large areas of grey. The tale of "Little Red Riding Hood" becomes, in Carter's hands, an update for today's generation, mirroring the thoughts and sentiments of society, one where accepted female behaviour and gender-roles are being dismantled and reconstructed. Undoubtedly, there will be future versions of this simple tale, and Carter's tale will, just like Grimm and Perrault, be just another step in the passing of time. But for today, this is an inspiring tale that suggests that it is okay for men and women to share the same traits, and that it is also okay for women to display masculine traits as it is for men to display feminine ones. Read More