Theme and Red Riding Hood

Wow... the writings on Little Red Riding Hood were very interesting to say the least. I never really thought of nursery rhymes and stories to be turned into stories like I read. They were pretty gruesome, and then some were quite entertaining, but as I was reading them a question came to thought, "I wonder how a kid would react if we read these versions of the stories?"

Imagine if we told children the first story by Charles Perrault, they would be very frightened I imagine. I feel like if grandmother ever caught a cold there would be no little children paying them visits anymore. I also believe it would probably give kids nightmares about the forest; I know if I was a child I would definitely be freaked out by a story of scary wolves.

Now, imagine if we told children the second story, The Girl and the Wolf, I feel like it would make a kid laugh. I personally know that my little cousins who are very young tend to love humor of people getting hurt (including BIG BAD WOLVES). Speaking of that type of humor how much different are we than children and their humor? I feel like we still have not grown out of seeing someone getting bopped in the head or falling off of a latter. I know I still love slap stick humor and the "Three Stooges."

Tying all of this blog into the idea of themes may seem odd, but work with me. Basically themes are underlining messages and ideas in a story that play very important pieces to the puzzle of a great piece of literature, well I think we should stepback and look at themes in everything, whether its in The Little Red Riding Hood or a sitcom on television, I believe there are themes behind them all.

Imagine if we knew the themes and intent of an authors literature.

Hopefully some of this made a little sense.