Science Fiction: Little Red Riding Hood Retelling And Analysis Essay Sample

A policeman was driving near a thick forest when he decided to stop the car to make a short call in the forest. On finding his way back to his car he saw something resembling a fire ball falling from the sky, an orb which fell some kilometers away from where he was standing. Because of his curiosity, he decided to go and check what it was. Upon his arrival at the scene, he saw a big wolf with fire on his body. The only strange thing was that the fire was not burning the wolf. When he moved closer, the wolf saw him and ran away into the forest, leaving behind footprints that were aflame. The policeman was very frightened, and left the forest in a hurry. He wondered what kind of creature that it was because the wolf he saw, was totally different than any normal wolf. He wondered if it could have been a beast from another planet. But, he just moved on because he did not believe in the existence of such things as aliens.
Inside the thick forest was a little girl with her grandmother, and their old thatched hut that was located in the middle of the forest. The little girl used to buy food at the nearest market that was many kilometers from their house. She was always told by her grandmother to stay on the road whenever she was going to the market, or returning from the market. Being a good girl, she abided by her grandmother's words, and never branched out anywhere, and always went directly home from the market. However, the alien wolf had been roaming about the bush trying to hide something that nobody knew about. One afternoon, when the little girl was walking along the road, a ball of fire came falling down from the sky. However, this time, the fire looked like a bright light, and fell down only a few meters on the road ahead of the little girl. Even though the little girl panicked, she just kept walking towards home. She believed in what her grandmother used to tell her: that nothing will ever happen to her if she walked on the road. While the little girl was walking towards the creature, the creature was very pleased with the little girl because the little girl was not afraid of it -- even though the creature looked very creepy, having the head of a turtle, six lower limbs, and four upper limbs. The upper limbs were carrying a bow and an arrow, and the creature looked like a seeker. The creature smiled at the little girl, and then with lightning speed, disappeared in the forest.
Upon her arrival at home, the little girl told her grandmother about her encounter, but her grandmother did not believe her. About two weeks after the incident, on her way back home, the little girl came across the big wolf again. But, this time she was very frightened, and ran away screaming. She ran very fast towards their house as the wolf ran behind her. Due to the little girl's confusion, she ran past their house into the forest. When the wolf reached the hut, it thought that the little girl was hiding in the house. The wolf entered the house, but was very happy to find the little girl's grandmother, and pounced on her, swallowing her wholly. The wolf then decided to take a nap with his mouth open, just breathing fire. The little girl, thinking the wolf was gone, decided to go into the house, and tell her grandmother about the incident. When she knocked at the door, the wolf, dressed like her grandmother, jumped on the bed, but this trick could not work because the clothes it wore were burnt, and the bed it jumped on caught fire. This was because the whole body of the wolf was like a burning bush, so the wolf decided to time his attack of the little girl, and eat her when she entered the door. When the little girl entered the house, the wolf caught her, and swallowed her just like it swallowed her grandmother. When the wolf was trying to find its way back to the forest, the seeker found it. Upon seeing the seeker, the wolf tried to run, but the seeker released one of its arrows, piercing and freezing the wolf. The seeker then cut open the stomach of the wolf, and released the little girl and her grandmother. The creature then got hold of the wolf, claiming he was taking him back to the prison on another planet (Brothers Grimm).
This story shows the cultural practice where the child has to respect the elderly by obeying their orders. The scene of the falling ball of fire from the sky is associated with an object coming into earth from space (foreign object). The wolf with a flaming body is a fictional representation of a creature from another planet, and how different the creature is from earthly creatures. Finally, the return of the wolf to its planet by the seeker is an indication that on the other planet, there is a system that governs the creatures living on that planet -- just as on earth (Freedman, p. 20).
The Little Red Riding Hood Story, in general, can be interpreted in a number of ways. Several theories explain its hidden meanings. For example, on the surface, the tale is a cautionary tale about how children should obey adults, in order to say out of trouble. In this kind of tale, children must obey their elders, and stick with the tried-and-true, being careful to stry from the path, literally speaking. However, Little Red Riding Hood can be analyzed with the assistance of many theories. The tale is a cautionary tale, yet it has sexual connotations, symbolism, and is also a coming-of-age story about a female losing her virginity to the "big bad wolf".
Of course, Little Red Riding Hood would not be the same without her red cap. Scholars such as Erich Fromm have speculated that her red cap is a symbol for menstruation (Lake, internet). The myth-ritual interpretation holds that the red hood symbolizes the May Queen, who wore a flowery hood made of white or red roses as a crown (Lake, internet). Another popular theory, the wolf-solar interpretation, asserts that the rising sun is symbolized by the red cap (Lake, internet).

Works cited

Brothers Grimm. Little Red Riding Hood. Autori Ebook, 2014
Freedman, Carl H. Critical Theory and Science Fiction. Hanover, N.H: Univ. Press of New England, 2000. Print.
Ransom, Candice. Little Red Riding Hood. Carson-Dellosa Publishing, 2013.