Little Red Riding Hood

Assignment One - Mythology

Little Red Riding Hood, the story of a little girl who travels off into the woods to deliver goods to her sick grandmother. But is warned by her mother not to go off the path and not to talk to strangers. And of course, because little Red Riding Hood is a child, she does go off the path and she does talk to a stranger (big bad wolf) and divulges too much information leaving herself and her sick grandmother vulnerable to an attack.

She trusted a stranger, who seemed friendly who ended up backstabbing her. It's a good story to make you understand even the nicest of people can have a negative ulterior motive, and will step on you to get a head.

Little Red Riding hood, was scared of the huntsman because he looked like a big scary person, who was out hunting the wolf. She was quick to judge and that might of just been Little Red's naive downfall.

As a child I always loved the story of little red riding hood. I don't know if it's the red hood I loved or the wolf. However, it was a childhood book that I always found myself drawn too.

A young naive girl on her way to grandma's house encounters a big bad wolf who she quickly learns is not out to help her, but in fact is out to eat her.

Maybe it was the fact I spent a lot of time with grandparents, and it is one of the earliest books I remember my grandma reading to me. And it connected us, she was my grandma and I was like her "Little Red"

I've always enjoyed all the variations that have been created, book wise, movie wise and even when it’s incorporated into tv shows. I think my favourite one was from ABC’s Once Upon a Time, where they made Ruby (Little Red Riding Hood) a werewolf, so she was both the good guy and the bad guy. It was such a different twist.

It was nice view that maybe Little Red wasn't the good guy in the story. Brings to light that theory, the darker side of the story.

I found that images of the “little red” running away worked best, because it left that mystery. Is she running away from something or is she running towards something? I like that it gives you something to think about, but I also liked the photo where the “little red” is in the middle of the forest because she is off the trail and that’s where trouble finds her.

However, when I shot these images, they were much brighter and more green. So I felt a fall like preset fit the images better, made them feel darker. Give that vibe of eerie-ness of what lurks in the woods.

I find myself relating to this especially after seeing so many adaptations, because it gives you a different view on the same story. In some ideas, Little Red Riding Hood, could be the bad guy, the villain, she lures the wolf to grandma’s house and kills it. So, maybe the main character isn’t all good. Like most of us now in our own stories. We can’t aways be the good guy.

I know it is a story of trust, and you need to be weary of who you can trust and who you can't. Because Little Red Riding Hood trust the wolf he's not bad because he looks so kind and friendly. And Little Red is nervous of the huntsman because he looks big and tough. And in the end, it is the huntsman who helps save her and grandma.

Too quick to judge someone.

Life isn't always black and white like these fairy tale stories made us believe. We can all be the villains and the heroes, just depends on which chapter of our own lives.

" She wasn't Little Red Riding Hood. She was the Big Bad Wolf. She wasn't Beauty. She was the Beast."