What Is Thurber's Representation Of Gender

Little Red Cap, recorded in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm, and The Little Girl and the Wolf published in 1940 by James Thurber reflect societal values and society’s representations of gender during the time that they were written in. In the first version of the Grimm’s tale, they constructed an unintelligent and oblivious protagonist to depict the lack of agency of women. They also introduced a male hero to the tale to implement the belief that a woman is always saved by a man in society. However, Thurber portrayed his protagonist as capable and intelligent to highlight women’s ability to defend for themselves, which is also evident in the latter version of Little Red Cap. Thurber’s tale and the latter version of the Grimm’s tale also wiped out …show more content…
However, Thurber effectively wiped out the huntsman that was present in the Grimm’s tale in order to challenge the accepted gender construction of men in the first version of Grimm’s tale. In the story of Little Red Cap , the huntsman ‘[cut] open the belly of the sleeping wolf’ to save Little Red Cap and her grandmother. It is clear that the Grimm’s huntsman is a portrayal of a masculine male that is characterised through his bravery, intelligence, and capability. The Grimm’s used this masculine figure to insinuate the necessity of a masculine hero to save the day. They also implied that Little Red Cap would have never pulled herself out of the situation given her role as a female character. Alternatively, Thurber and the latter version of Little Red Cap eliminated the role of the hero-saviour as there was no huntsman that came to the rescue of the Little Girl and Little Red Cap. Thurber utilised his protagonist’s initiative to ‘[shoot] the wolf dead’ to allude that women can fence for themselves without the need to rely on men for protection. Similarly, in the second version of Little Red Cap, the female protagonist and her grandmother created a ‘trough’ for the wolf to ‘drown’ in. In both Thurber’s and the second version of the Grimm’s tale, the heroic actions were displayed through the female protagonist instead of the huntsman. In constructing Thurber’s character as a woman who is not reliant upon men to protect her, he subverted the gender roles that were visible in the first version of the Grimm’s story. As the huntsman was a representation of protection in society, it is clear that the Grimm’s tale designed women that depended upon men for protection, but this is not true in Thurber’s