Gender Stereotypes in Little Red Cap and The Grandmother

The folk tale of â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood† has numerous variations and interpretations depending on what recorded version is being read or analyzed. â€Å"Little Red Cap,† by the Grimm Brothers, and â€Å"The Grandmother,† as collected by Achille Millien, are different in numerous ways: the depth of the narrative structure, characters involved, length – yet, the moral lesson is largely unchanged between the two versions. One of the more glaring differences between the two versions is the way that the narrator and the actions of the characters are used to describe the young girl, female, and the wolf, male. Being either female or male are matters of biological makeup. The characteristics of femininity and masculinity that are associated with being†¦show more content†¦The majority of the story is reiterated through dialogue that allows the girl’s words, but also her actions, to speak of her â€Å"sweetness,† or lack thereof, rathe r than an arbiter such as the narrator. The reader must decide whether or not the actions of the young girl are of merit. For example, the story begins, â€Å"There was a woman who had made some bread. She said to her daughter, ‘Go and carry a hot loaf and a bottle of milk to your grandmother. So the little girl set forth† (Millien). It is safe for the reader to assume that the young girl is obedient because that is all the reader has seen of the young girl, she has not taken any other action and there is not a narrator who prescribes any other attribute. The lack of a narrator preemptively assigning causal relation between the young girl’s action and her reception in the community allows the act of obedience to represent a virtuous quality, rather than a virtuous quality that is inherently feminine, as the Grimm brother version does with the quality of being â€Å"sweet.† After defining the young girl as â€Å"sweet† in the Grimm version the mother gives the girl instructions to take cake and wine to the ailing grandmother. 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