WI need help writing the Wolf's side of the story of Little Red Riding Hood?hat would you like to ask?

Question

For my class, we're showing how there are two sides to every story. I'm writing the wolf's side of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We need to somehow relate it to a book we read (Girl, Interrupted), in which the main character had Borderline Personality Disorder. So it's logical that the wolf could have had BPD.

symptoms of BPD are:

- symptoms are most acute when people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.

- Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight spearation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme

- These may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression.

all of theses symptoms could be associated with the wolf having BPD.

The story is told as the wolf being the narrator. I have the story beginning with the wolf walking through the woods, but i don't know what could make him feel isolated that would cause him to form an attachment to Little Red..

I'm also planning to have him approach her and say something (maybe about the basket of goodies for her grandmother?) but i dont know what could happen that makes him feel conflicted with her and swith from the attachment to anger which would cause him to pretend to be her grandmother....

so after this, i am stuck.

also, I'm not sure how to end the story.. I want to somehow tell the reader that he went to a therapist and discovered that he has BPD.. hence his side of the story...

lots of info, I know!

but any help at all will be greatly appreciated!!!!!

Answer 1

clever idea.  Okay, I'll play.  First we need to realize that most villians don't see themselves as villians.  They're misunderstood or people are prejudiced against them or they're just free of the mundane pointless fences society puts up on themselves and each other - that kind of thing.  The wolf is lonely and isolated because he's a wolf and people tend to make suppositions about wolves - they're evil, they're dirty, they have fleas.  Its society that's driven him out into the empty woods, the fact they won't accept him for who he really is.  One day he sees Red and she's wandering in the woods alone - perhaps society has cast her out as well?  He's lonely, he wants someone that will understand him and mostly he wants someone that thinks the same way he does.  But she's nervous around him or scared of him or arrogant or mean and when she leaves him because she's chosing someone else (grandma) over him, her rejection makes him decide she's just a sheep anyway and he was wasting his time trying to befriend her/show her the truth/get a date/whatever.  But of course now he's got to show her she's wrong because some people just can't let things go and so hie thee to grandma's house, etc. etc.  You can either end it with the repressive representation of society busting in the door - ie the wood cutter or else you can have a twist and make grandma a practicing psychologist who's gotten him talked out of his tree so to speak and end it with her prescribing medication.  

Answer 2

How about the wolf was lonely to begin with because... I don't know, his wolf-girlfriend broke up with him, so he ended up running off into the woods to cry or whatever. He sees Little Red Riding hood walking through the forest, and forms an attachment with her, and asks her where she's taking her goodies, but she's slightly nervous because she's alone in the forest and there's a wolf talking to her. So, the wolf decides that she'll feel safer and friendlier when her grandmother is around, so he runs on ahead to the cottage. However, upon reaching the cottage, he discovers the grandmother is dead, and decides to take her place so Little Red Riding Hood will be all sociable and friendly towards him, thinking he's her grandmother. Then, when Little Red Riding Hood starts to get freaked out about his eyes and teeth, the wolf realises she's still afraid of him and won't be friends with him, so that causes him to see her as the villain who's torturing his lonely wolfy soul by not being his friend, and that triggers his anger towards her.

As for the BPD bit, you can make the wolf telling the story in the first person, and in the end reveal that he was telling the story to his therapist.