Comparisons Between Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White

There are some clear links between the two stories.

1. Being re-born

Both their journeys prior to them being re born into the mature women they become, starts off in a forest. By the time they make it out, they have grown up from a girl to a woman, older and wiser.

Both Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White are naive and go against the moral warnings set for them. However they both learn from the mistakes, and once they have matured in their mind, they are re born to start life over again, however much wiser this time round.

Being re born is their transition from a girl to a woman, not just mentally but also physically.

2. Desire

Both the girls start off pre-adolescent and therefore innocent. However there is the element of desire running through the stories, in more ways than it just being a sexual desire.

Snow White desires to be seen as beautiful, and will do silly things (accept corset tightening and hair to be combed by a stranger) for people to be attracted to her. It is a trait of hers which began as a child with her mothers magic mirror.

Both the girls have a desire to please others. They don't want to let people down and this means they are unable to distinguish between friend or fo. Little Red Riding Hood is polite to the wolf, and Snow White is polite to the old woman (evil stepmother).

The enemies (wolf and stepmother) have a desire to kill. The step-mother is purely jealous of Snow Whites beauty and her desire is to be the fairest of them all. The wolf is hungry and has a desire to consume Little Red Riding Hood (this is a metaphor for wanting Little Red Riding Hood sexually, and raping her).

Both of the desires from their enemies stem from the girls beauty

I think that Snow White will be a very good story for me to be influenced from in terms of the symbolisms, they all relate to beauty, nature and the body, which are interesting also for artistic outcomes.