Perspectives

Literary perspective

The short story “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter can be seen as a postmodern fable, a reinterpretation of the old European fairy-tale “Little Red Riding Hood”. In Carter’s story, the girl and Little Red Riding Hood are alike in many ways. They begin with the same purpose – visiting their grandmothers – and, at first, they are both tricked by the wolves. However, Little Red Riding Hood ends up the wolf’s victim, while the girl in “The Company of Wolves” is determined to live: “she knew she was nobody’s meat” (p. 6, l. 20). 

The story’s ending suggests that the text might be a piece of feminist literature. In this light,...