Both Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves” and Gwen Strauss’s “The Waiting Wolf” are based on the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. They focus on gender roles that were accepted by the society of the late twentieth century. This essay will discuss the perspectives the two texts have regarding gender roles and establish how it is incorporated in the texts by analyzing certain aspects according to Nick Peim’s formula for textual analysis (1993: 6).

The narrative perspective of a text refers to the point of view from which it is narrated. An outsider relates the events in “The Company of Wolves”, but a character, the wolf, relates the events in “The Waiting Wolf”, giving him the opportunity to express his emotions. He provokes sympathy from the reader by saying, “at this moment I do not like myself” (l. 30), and explaining his behavior as being in his nature when he says, ”I was meant to stalk her” (l. 8). On the other hand, the wolf in “The Company of Wolves” does not get the opportunity to express his emotions or explain his behavior. Carter, an outsider, classifies a wolf as

She ripped of his shirt for him and flung it into the fire, in the fiery

The reader may ask what the wolf is insinuating. It may be that the girl has met him on a previous occasion. This relates to how a pedophile often befriends his victims before molesting them. On the other hand, Carter concludes with the following: “Sweet and sound she sleeps . . . between the paws of the tender wolf” (1993: 55). One may ask what the wolf did to her. With the concept of a pedophile in mind, it may be that he molested her or they even had intercourse.

Furthermore, there is a gap in “The Waiting Wolf” about the whereabouts of the grandmother. One only reads how the wolf lies in her bed, wearing her nightgown, panties and cap (ll. 20-23). He does not mention where she is, but one may assume that the he ate her. One may base this on the original fairy tale. On the other hand, Carter leaves no gap regarding the grandmother’s whereabouts- he describes in full how the wolf eats her.

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