Random Ramblings

So I suppose I should get caught up on some things I haven't yet blogged about.

First of all, I found the Little Red Riding Hood Collection very intriguing.The Charles Perrault version was the story that I was most accustomed to. It was short and simple, and the only thing dissapointing about it was the moral at the end. According to Mr. Sexson, you should not detach a moral from a story. There is no moral to a story. Instead, the moral IS the story.

The Grimm story was, as expected, more violent and contained more details. I can see how this version would be less appropriate for children. In one part of the story, the wolf's belly is violently cut open. I know if I was a young girl I would be disturbed by this idea. On the bright side, little Red lived.

I really enjoyed the version called Wolfland. It was unlike any other red riding hood tale I had read, yet it was written extremely well. The story reminded me of a mix of other fairy tales, including beauty and the beast, because it involves a young girl being trapped in a large house with a beast. In Wolfland, the grandmother turns out to be a wolf, which was an unexpected plot twist, but it gave the traditional story of Little Red Riding Hood a new, unique approach. It was as if the antagonist (the wolf) and the person Little Red trusted (the grandmother) were combined into one entity.

In class on Monday, proffesor Sexson talked about how everybody's story involves three stages. The first is when everything is "hunky dorey", home with mom and dad, in a symbol of harmony and perfection. Stage two is initiation, which involves pain. It involves conflict, fear, and unknown elements come into the equation. Pain is necessary because then the situation becomes embedded into your memory. The third phase is restoration, in which you return home, and go back to where you started from with experience. Thinking about these phases, I believe Mr. Sexson is right. I can't think of any stories that don't follow this structure in some way, and my life can certainly fit into this scheme.

Finally, I read the story A Good Man Is Hard To Find. In the story, "the Misfit" is a retelling of Arnold Friend. The story is similar to the story of Connie in many ways, and also reminiscent of countless scenes in movies involving a murderer and his victim begging him for mercy. The story was also violent (all of the initial family members died). I think the story exemplified how peoples attitudes can change drastically when put into life-threatening situations. The grandmother couldn't quit talking and trying to persuade the killer that he was a good man. I think she knew that his mind couldn't be changed, but to give up without trying would be a waste. It seems like in books and movies, whenever a victim is trying to talk to a killer, they always try to persuade them that they are a good person deep down, and that killing them won't do any good. Sometimes this strategy works, but often times it fails miserably. Also, I had mixed feelings towards the grandmother in the story. She didn't even want to go on the trip, but when pointing a finger to whose fault their death was, I can't help but criticize her. She was the one who wanted to take the detour, and who caused the car accident. if she had only been quiet, they might have never run into the killers. But I guess if that had never happened, we wouldn't have a good intriguing story.