Buddhist Ideologies In The Red Shoes

“The Red Shoes” is a folktale that narrates the story of a poor, homeless girl who gets taken in by an affluent women and gets swept into a world of materialistic concepts and ideologies. Ultimately, at the end, the girl succumbed to greed and it results in her feet being amputated off. Although an initial reading of the text may suggest that being malicious to your elders, will result in your harm is being promoted, a closer analysis reveals that this piece is conveying the Buddhist ideology that states desires leads to sufferings. In “The Red Shoes,” the red shoes, both the homemade and store bought, play a significant role in this short story; the red shoes shifts its symbolic meaning three times. The first pair of red shoes are handmade