Company of Wolves vs Little Red Cap

The difference in cultural values of ‘Little Red Cap’ by the Grimm brothers and ‘The Company of Wolves’ of Angela Carter is seen through the use of structure, plot and characterisation. The basic plot of the texts is the same but the language techniques used have altered the message of the texts. The different messages are representative of a timeline of the change in people’s attitudes towards what is right and wrong.

‘Little Red Cap’ target audience is children with short attention spans and so uses very little description and the plot is used to gain the attention of the reader rather than through the used of atmosphere.

‘and thought to himself. The way the old woman is snoring, you’d better see if anything’s wrong.’

The quote shows that the composer is very straight forward and so the text is easily understood with the plot being emphasized. The target audience for ‘The Company of Wolves’ is adults as conveyed by the vast use of language features especially symbolism. The complex nature of the text such as voca

bulary and due to its use of erotic and mature language the text is for an adult audience.

Carter has used description especially of gothic elements to create an atmosphere of inevitable doom and it is this tone that holds the responders attention.

“Oh, Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have!”

The use of past tense creates a mood of inevitability that no matter what occurs the girl is doomed to die; the change of tense to future creates the mood that the girl now has power of the situation instead of the Wolf. Carter has successfully conveyed her message that only through corruption can women survive in the world controlled by men. The girl is in power of the situation, she is not scared of the wolf anymore and this frightens the wolf. The maiden symbolising woman can now live by the boundaries she chooses to set and not those imposed on her by the wolf that symbolises men. This is the opposite of ‘Little Red Cap’ where at the end of the story the girl is still though alive is powerless for has kept her innocence but gained the fear of the wolf and so the wolf has won while the girl remains oppressed destined to stay on the path instead of creating a path of her own.

‘Since her fear did her no good, she ceased to be afraid.’

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