Inderpreet Kaur Bambrah1 Professor Jeremy BrownEAC 1503 January 2018Topic: Courageousness of Red RidingHood Angela Carter’s “The Company ofWolves,” departs from the Red Riding Hood story, moving away from the standard fairy-talestructure.
By breaking from this well-known pattern, Carter turns Red RidingHood into more grounded, more autonomous, and more rounded character than whatthe original story had. The Girl, as the protagonist is known in Carter’sversion of the story, has proved herself to be stronger and braver in thescenarios happened in the story such as, when the girl meets a wolf disguised asa hunter, further she faced her grandmother’s murder (the wolf) and showed her courageon going all alone to visit her grandmother. Carter produces a strong feministlead by pushing the girl through a startling transformation. The story’s protagonistis a blond child who sets on to visit her grandmother by herself inspite of knowingabout the danger. She is the youngest and most beautiful child, her family has lovedand protected her from harsh realities of the life which makes her so fearlessto be scared.
The girl is strong enough, in the fact, that she knows she won’tbe eaten when she is confronted with the wolf at the end. After she commentson the size of the wolf’s teeth, to which the wolf replies “All the better toeat you with” (Carter 118), rather than reacting to the wolf with Bambrah 2fear, the girl shows courage andconfidence. Carter writes: “The girl burst out laughing; she knew she wasnobody’s meat” (118). This courageous response appears the guts Carter infusesinto character that had started from a lady who required sparing. Instead ofshowing a woodsman, Carter gives the reader a Red Riding Hood that can protectherself without a man’s assistance. The child is so brave that even the glareof the devilish eyes of werewolf which she encounters on reaching hergrandmother’s home couldn’t scare her at all. Further she meets the brothersof the werewolf, who were howling a chorus up around the cottage. Instead ofbeing afraid, she pities the wolves for bearing the cold outside.
The girl,shown as protagonist in Carter’s version of the story, is stronger than hergrandmother. On the way to her grandmother’s home at cold winter night, shehears a wolf’s howl and instinctively clutches her knife which shows that sheis not only unafraid of the journey; she is afraid of nothing. She even ignoresher granny’s bones which clattered from their place under the bed and lay onthe bed fearless with the werewolf in favour of consummating her relationship withhim. The female character is sofearless that she sets her journey to her granny’s home alone. She isdressed in a red shawl which is represented as “look of blood on snow”.
On herway to home, she is introduced tom this carnivore incarnate not as a horriblebeast, but as a dashing young man who makes a bet with her. On reaching home,she immediately senses a difference in atmosphere, but she refuses to let herfear get the better of her. She is proved to be wiser, so she controls her fearand plays along with the wolf. This shows her courageousness and proves thatshe is not afraid of anything.
Bambrah3 To conclude, the girl received plenty of lovefrom her family which made her so fearless and she is not afraid of anything,not even from the wolves. She knows that being afraid of something is of nouse, so she becomes more stronger and more fearless which can be represented asheroic. Angela Carter basically excluded any male hero in the story and madebeyond any doubt Red Ridding Hood the central attention and that her strength wouldbe what redeems her. Work Cited:Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber, Apenguin book, 1993.
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