4 ms·
I think we just didn't pull our punches, even if the story was for children, and sometimes that's a great disservice. Take the end of Little Red Riding Hood as
by tasha0663 5y ago
I think we just didn't pull our punches, even if the story was for children, and sometimes that's a great disservice. Take the end of Little Red Riding Hood as recorded by Perrault (SPOILERS):
> "Grand-mamma, what great teeth you have got!"
> "That is to eat thee up."
> And, saying these words, this wicked Wolf fell upon poor Little Red Riding-Hood, and ate her all up.
THE END
The tension builds and then the bottom drops out because the protagonist is dead. The ending is jarring. The wolf is so dangerous that he doesn't just kill Red, he kills the whole story.
- germinalphrase 5y agoYea - well, the little brat should have just listened to her mother rather than picking flowers and dawdling.
- taneq 5y agoLife was much more dangerous back then. Telling small children they could be eaten by a sneaky wolf might save them from actually being eaten by one.
- tasha0663 5y agoSee also the Three Little Pigs, wherein we note that a pig will eat anything, including a wolf that is still digesting the pig's brothers.
- kragen 5y agoYup. Lots of farm kids' lives could have been saved by paying more attention to that fact.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- labster 5y agoAnd now we live in a world where this anti-wolf propaganda costs lives through degraded ecosystems and deer overpopulation causing more car accidents.
- dustintrex 5y agoLikewise, Japanese kids were taught that kappa lurked in bodies of water and under bridges, and would snatch and drown them if they got too close -- so they didn't, and avoided drowning.
- kgran 5y agoNow we need to adapt and tell fairy tales about big bad cars that gonna kill you once you step into their territory.