Analysis Of Sharon Singer's Little Dread Riding Hood

Art falls under the umbrella of literature, allowing it to be crucial part of how literature is viewed and analyzed, whether it is critiquing the text or providing a deeper meaning for the text. Hence, Sharon Singer’s paintings of well-known fairy tales function as literary comments and critiques of those stories. In Singer’s image of little red riding hood, named “Little Dread Riding Hood”, there is a vital part that depicts Dread wearing or riding the wolf. Arguably, the skates Dread wears signify she is probably riding the wolf, as though he is a “hobby horse” (Zipes 2). However, whether she is wearing or riding the wolf, she is using his body, mirroring the version of the famous fairy tale by Roald Dohl when Little Red Riding Hood kills
the wolf and uses his skin as her coat rather than her traditional red cloak (Tatar 21). The painting displays a matured and older Little Dread Riding Hood, comparable to the Grimm Brother’s narrative in which Little Red Cap defends herself against another wolf later in life, and walks away unharmed (Tatar 16). Although Singer’s recreates little red riding hood numerous times, she also produces several other paintings of fairy tales as commentary.
One painting named “Re Boot”, challenges views to feminize the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. Formulated by the title and the boot worn in the portrait, Singer portrays Cinderella in opposition to how the classic story is told. The depicted image shows a woman’s legs and feet, one of which is placed inside a boot. Contrasting is a worn out, dirty, dark boot to the infamous clear, shiny, dainty glass slipper associated with Cinderella. Although Singer justifies her claim in feminizing Cinderella even more by leaving only one boot covering a foot so the other, rather large, foot out for display. This distinction between the size of the foot comments on the more likely possibility a hard working young main possess a large swollen foot then a dainty small one, after a long hard day. Combining these two aspects of the painting and the value of Feminism appears to play a large role in Singer’s recreation of Cinderella. Cinderella is the face of common feminine products as well as Disney itself and play largely to young girls. Singer’s painting reconstructs what the viewer knows about Cinderella, as a hard worker wearing masculine footwear, with large feet in juxtaposition to the dainty, glass footwear the view imagines her in. The title “Re Boot” critics how readers view Cinderella and questions them to “Reboot” their ideals of what hard
working women looks like. Zipes essay Sharon Singer: The Painter as Subversive Storyteller analyzes how effective Singer’s ability to criticize and recreate the classic fairy tales of childhood. Zipes persuasively argues Singer’s paintings as “stunning works that undermine not only tradition views of fairy tales, but even some of the post-modern perspectives” (Zipes 1). Assessing the paintings, Zipes uses examples like “Little Dread Riding Hood” and “The Maiden Without Hands” to justify Singer’s ability to not only comment on the classic fairy tales but to recreate them and expand the minds of her viewers. Zipes comments that “Sharon Singer wants us to think more profound about what constitutes happy endings” and that “her paintings do not force feed us with home-made recipes” (Zipes 4).