Fairy Tales

6/11/07

As I was preparing for our upcoming exam I decided to take one more look at Bettenheim's essay on Little Red Riding Hood. I was reminded of how much I was taken back by some of the information in this text, and to be completely honest, had a hard time even finishing it the first time through.

I grew up hearing all of these fairy tales. They were stories that kept my attention, which was not very long. I could hear these tales over and over again, to the point that I could repeat them word-for-word, as my mom read them aloud to my siblings and I. I loved the stories, but at no point did I read so much into them that I thought Little Red Riding Hood was desiring sexual attention from her father (which is a point that Bettenheim makes at one point)!!! These stories are meant to entertain and if there is any hidden message, it is simply a moral in order to keep children safe and guarded. I know that I have to open my mind when reading literature, but where do we draw the line of reading too much into a piece?

I realize that we all have our own opinions on these tales, as well as any other piece of literature, but Bettenheim's (in my opinion) is much too far fetched! Why does Little Red's name and color of her cap have to stand for sexuality? This is a children's story, and such ideas which will eventually, much further down the road be brought up, don't need to be included. I found myself getting irritated with how Bettenheim couldn't let anything go. He was reading so much into every little aspect of the story that after awhile, it made no sense whatsoever!!! He seems to be so set in his ways, that I almost feel sorry that he can't take a piece a literature, no matter how simple, and just enjoy it. And yes, I used the word JUST in the sense that Mr. Sextson was explaining to us now to use it in such a way, but sometimes you have to simply take something how it is.

I think that if I were to come upon another piece of Mr. Bettenheim's work that picked apart another story that I was fond of, I would not read it. Call me simple minded, but I still stand by the fact that some things are better lift without being analyzed!