Background about Littel red riding hood books - Essay Example

Your Full Your 25 February Background of the Fairytale Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood is a tale familiar to almost everyone from their childhood. It is about a wolf that follows a girl to her grandmother’s house where he eats both of them; however, both of them are subsequently saved by a woodcutter who splits the wolf’s stomach open from which both females emerge unharmed. This story, in various different versions, was told in various European countries, with French peasants telling the story as early as the 14th century.

However, these were all oral accounts. The earliest known printed version of the story was also based on French tradition and published in a book by Charles Perrault in the late 17th century. The Perrault version was aimed at older girls, in a bid to teach them to discourage the advances of unknown or unwanted men. Finally, Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, popularly known as the Brothers Grimm, in the 19th century, printed a version of this story that was based on folklore and was quite similar to the tale published by Perrault.

Later on, there were many other versions printed, in a bid to perhaps decrease the violence and make the theme of the story less dark. The main theme of the story, as is quite apparent, is a warning to young children not to talk to strangers. Though the modern versions aimed to decrease the violence present in the story, e.g. the wolf eating the grandmother and the hunter splitting the wolf’s stomach open, however, they still maintain the main “moral” of the story regarding its warning against socializing with strangers.