Jennifer
ENG125:Intro to Literature
Instructor McGrath
11/28/2011
All stories come together by a solid idea. The idea behind a story is known as a theme. When looking at a theme, you must go beyond the title and critically think to acknowledge key terms and symbols within the narrative you are reading. The theme in “Little Red Riding Hood” is a prime example of how readers have to critically think and acknowledge the symbolism of the story. When “looking beyond the plot” of Little Red Riding Hood, the story is more adult oriented than child oriented, and it is fascinating that it has remained popular for so many years. Within the theme there is symbolism such as the red cape for Little Red Riding Hood. Red is also known as “passion or danger.” This symbol shows that the author was considering Little Red Riding Hood to be in danger within her relationship to the wolf. The wolf wanted more from her than just her homemade cakes (Clugston 2010). All fictional works have a plot. A plot consists of five outlined situations within a narrative which are: exposition, complication or rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In “Little Red Riding Hood” the exposition would be explaining the setting and characters, the woods, as well as, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. The complication or “conflict,” is when the Wolf is not getting what he wants out of Little Red Riding Hood. The climax is when the Wolf eats the grandma and pretends to be her as when Little Red Riding Hood gets to her home. The falling action would be when Little Red Riding Hood makes statements such as “what big eyes you have.” The resolution is when the Wolf finally gets what he wants from Little Red Riding Hood (Clugston 2010). Tone is considered to be the attitude expressed throughout an author’s work. In Little Red Riding Hood on the surface you see a sense of innocence but when you read more you feel the danger within the tone
References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content.ashford.edu/books Lombardi, E. (2010). How to become a critical thinker. Retrieved from http://classiclit.about.com/od/forstudents/ht/aa_criticalread.htm Milhauser, S. (2008, October 3). The ambition of the short story. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/books/review/Millhauser-t.html?_r=2