Fables

I loved James Thurber's twist on Little Red Riding Hood.  He showed how ridiculous some fables and fairy tales can be.  He showed how little girls would probably know better and see better.  Once she saw her grandma she would have known it was not her grandma.  It even says in Perrault's version that not until she undressed to get into bed with her grandma did she start to notice differences.  And I don't know about you, but if my grandma was sick she would not invite me to lay by her.  My grandma would probably make me leave quickly to make sure I didn't get sick.  Some other ridiculous stories are:

Snow White:  I love Snow White it is my favorite Disney princess movie, but it talks about a girl who goes runs away and finds a house.  No ones there and she just sleeps in the house until the dwarfs come home.  And then she lives with them.  She lives in a house with seven men she doesn't even know, but I guess that doesn't matter because they had different morals they wanted to convey.  One was don't take anything from a stranger and especially don't eat it. 


The Story of Goldilock's and the Three Bears: I'm going off the orginal story of where Goldilocks gets eaten. Here we have another great example of entering a home without permission.  Not only does she go in without permission she eats the food, breaks furniture, and trys out all the beds.  Then the bears eat her when they find her sleeping.  This story moral does say you should respect privacy this time, but like Little Red Riding Hood a girl should have had better sense if raised properly.  The newer version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears doesn't really have a moral since Goldilocks runs away.


I haven't read fables or really thought about them in a long long time, but after reading Thurber's The Girl and the Wolf I went back and read some of my favorite ones from when I was little.  I encourage you to do so because you will be surprised at how some are just a little ridiculous.