once upon a time there was a young girl
who lived with her mother and a cottage
near the edge of a forest
and this young girl had a grandmother
who lived deep in the forest and she
loved her grandmother and one day she
learned that her grandmother was ill so
she decided to go visit her so she
gathered some food and some wine into a
basket wrapped herself in the red cloak
her grandmother had made for her and she
started down the path to grandmother’s
house but just before she got to the
forest her mother called to her this
morning don’t stray from the path we
encounter pathways like this and
literature so frequently that we rarely
take time to stop and think about them
and this is because we intuitively
recognize the paths as symbolic so the
path that little red riding hood walks
symbolizes her obedience her goodness
her virtue to stray from the path would
similarly in our own lives we encounter
pathways so frequently we rarely take
time to stop and think about them and
again it’s because we intuitively
recognize the paths as symbolic and we
make these connections between the
pathways of literature and the pathways
because as Northrop Frye says
imagination is the power constructing
possible models of human experience so a
story like Little Red Riding Hood is a
model of our everyday some part of what
it is in some part of what it could be
so we talk about pathways in business
pathways and education pathways in life
generally if someone makes a decision we
approve of we say she is on a good path
if someone makes the decision we
disapprove of we say he has lost his way
or he has gone astray but what we call a
path is really just a series of discrete
choices that only appears as a pathway
so if someone commits an atrocity we
play a game of connect the dots to try
to figure out where it all went wrong
which is just another way of asking
where did this individual stray from the
path now there’s two problems with this
way of thinking the first is it
significantly limits your individual
agency to a single choice to walk the
path you’re on or not to walk it the
second is it assumes you should always
walk the path so the young girl slips
beneath the shade of the trees and has
lost to her mother’s sight she enters a
bigger world the world she’s not fully
prepared to deal with and almost
immediately she’s confronted by the
silver-tongued wolf where are you going
little girl he asks two grannies the
first house in the village at the center
of the forest she innocently replies and
the two make a wager that the wolf can
arrive at grandmother’s house ahead of
Little Red Riding Hood by leaving the
path cutting through the trees she
chooses to walk the path she’s on the
wolf gains an advantage by his decision
to stray from the path which also marks
him as wicked and these lessons that we
learn by making connections between
literature and life have far-reaching
implications and they are probably the
reason we engage in storytelling as a
matter of fact Harold Bloom says we read
to prepare ourselves for death this is
what the story of Little Red Riding that
represents to us we anticipate that if
the girl steps off the path she’ll be
eaten by the wolf and if she sticks to
the path she’ll arrive safely at
grandmother’s house because to stay the
so if the general consequence of seeing
pathways in literature as symbolic is
that we see pathways in life as symbolic
the particular hazard is that we begin
to participate in this idea that path
following can save us from death well
and variably the wolf arrives at
grandmother’s house well ahead of Little
Red Riding Hood who trudges along the
narrow winding path he devours the old
woman and the young girl in turn then
occasionally a huntsman will come along
free the victims that’s after the fact
it’s irrelevant to our discussion about
path following God little red into
trouble wasn’t the path she followed it
was her decision to continue walking in
that path
remember Little Red Riding Hood was on a
mission to grandmother’s house her goal
was within reach she simply had to
follow the path to arrive at her
destination the problem is that the wolf
was waiting for her the path led her
directly into his gaping maw so what we
see at the beginning of the story as a
prohibition against death don’t stray
from the path they actually have just
been bad advice from a well-meaning
mother who never imagined she had said
and again this is because she could only
see the symbolic path if red or her
mother or we could see the literal path
in addition to the symbolic path it
would free red to stray from the path
arrived at grandmother’s house ahead of
the wolf sparing her the stigma of
wickedness
even the pains of death we must learn to
don’t stray from the path and you will
always arrive at your destination
whether or not death awaits you at the
end as a step or matter but this is why
it’s so important that you know the path
you want and be prepared to stray from that path thank you
who lived with her mother and a cottage
near the edge of a forest
and this young girl had a grandmother
who lived deep in the forest and she
loved her grandmother and one day she
learned that her grandmother was ill so
she decided to go visit her so she
gathered some food and some wine into a
basket wrapped herself in the red cloak
her grandmother had made for her and she
started down the path to grandmother’s
house but just before she got to the
forest her mother called to her this
morning don’t stray from the path we
encounter pathways like this and
literature so frequently that we rarely
take time to stop and think about them
and this is because we intuitively
recognize the paths as symbolic so the
path that little red riding hood walks
symbolizes her obedience her goodness
her virtue to stray from the path would
similarly in our own lives we encounter
pathways so frequently we rarely take
time to stop and think about them and
again it’s because we intuitively
recognize the paths as symbolic and we
make these connections between the
pathways of literature and the pathways
because as Northrop Frye says
imagination is the power constructing
possible models of human experience so a
story like Little Red Riding Hood is a
model of our everyday some part of what
it is in some part of what it could be
so we talk about pathways in business
pathways and education pathways in life
generally if someone makes a decision we
approve of we say she is on a good path
if someone makes the decision we
disapprove of we say he has lost his way
or he has gone astray but what we call a
path is really just a series of discrete
choices that only appears as a pathway
so if someone commits an atrocity we
play a game of connect the dots to try
to figure out where it all went wrong
which is just another way of asking
where did this individual stray from the
path now there’s two problems with this
way of thinking the first is it
significantly limits your individual
agency to a single choice to walk the
path you’re on or not to walk it the
second is it assumes you should always
walk the path so the young girl slips
beneath the shade of the trees and has
lost to her mother’s sight she enters a
bigger world the world she’s not fully
prepared to deal with and almost
immediately she’s confronted by the
silver-tongued wolf where are you going
little girl he asks two grannies the
first house in the village at the center
of the forest she innocently replies and
the two make a wager that the wolf can
arrive at grandmother’s house ahead of
Little Red Riding Hood by leaving the
path cutting through the trees she
chooses to walk the path she’s on the
wolf gains an advantage by his decision
to stray from the path which also marks
him as wicked and these lessons that we
learn by making connections between
literature and life have far-reaching
implications and they are probably the
reason we engage in storytelling as a
matter of fact Harold Bloom says we read
to prepare ourselves for death this is
what the story of Little Red Riding that
represents to us we anticipate that if
the girl steps off the path she’ll be
eaten by the wolf and if she sticks to
the path she’ll arrive safely at
grandmother’s house because to stay the
so if the general consequence of seeing
pathways in literature as symbolic is
that we see pathways in life as symbolic
the particular hazard is that we begin
to participate in this idea that path
following can save us from death well
and variably the wolf arrives at
grandmother’s house well ahead of Little
Red Riding Hood who trudges along the
narrow winding path he devours the old
woman and the young girl in turn then
occasionally a huntsman will come along
free the victims that’s after the fact
it’s irrelevant to our discussion about
path following God little red into
trouble wasn’t the path she followed it
was her decision to continue walking in
that path
remember Little Red Riding Hood was on a
mission to grandmother’s house her goal
was within reach she simply had to
follow the path to arrive at her
destination the problem is that the wolf
was waiting for her the path led her
directly into his gaping maw so what we
see at the beginning of the story as a
prohibition against death don’t stray
from the path they actually have just
been bad advice from a well-meaning
mother who never imagined she had said
and again this is because she could only
see the symbolic path if red or her
mother or we could see the literal path
in addition to the symbolic path it
would free red to stray from the path
arrived at grandmother’s house ahead of
the wolf sparing her the stigma of
wickedness
even the pains of death we must learn to
don’t stray from the path and you will
always arrive at your destination
whether or not death awaits you at the
end as a step or matter but this is why
it’s so important that you know the path
you want and be prepared to stray from that path thank you
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