When I read through all of the versions of Little Red Riding Hood (the French Version, the German Version, the Italian Version, the poems by Ronald Dahl, the Chinese Version, and the African Version) I was surprised at how from all different cultures how similar the stories were. I was also surprised at how graphic some of the versions were! Specifically the Chinese version, where instead of typing a rope to Little Red Riding hood (or in this version just a young girl) she ties her brothers intestines to her and just expects her not to notice!
Although these stories were all from extremely different cultures, there were a lot of similar elements in the stories. One common theme was that a relative (normally a grandmother but in one case a brother) is brutally murdered by an animal, normally a wolf but in the Chinese version a tiger and in the African version its the Marimo (a tribe of cannibals). Also a surprisingly common theme was how often the wolf (or other animal) tied a rope to the little girl while she went outside after she convinced the animal she had to leave. The last common element that I noticed that was obviously common in all of the stories was the constant wearing of the color red by the little girl, either as a hood or as a cap.
The more I thought about the common theme of Little Red Riding Hood constantly wearing the color red, combined with the small moral at the end of the French story, where it warns young girls about letting tame wolves into their homes, and into their ~chambers~, the more I came to an interesting conclusion that the Little Red Riding Hood story, in its original form, is likely about warning girls to protect their virginity. The color red often symbolizes love and passion, and very easily can represent virginity and sex, and Little Red Riding Hood is always a young naive girl. I thought this symbolism was incredibly interesting as I had never made that conclusion before reading the older versions, as the modern version that I had grown up with has lost most of the direct symbolism that was apparent when you read multiple versions of the story across many cultures.
