A Comparison of Little Red Cap and the Evil Seekers

What comes to your mind when you hear the word 'red rose'? Love? Passion? Or maybe danger? There are numerous things that one thing can symbolize. This essay is to compare 'Little Red Cap' and 'The evil seekers' and find out what symbols are hidden in the two stories. To briefly introduce the two stories, "Little Red Cap" is a story about a girl heading to her grandmother's house on an errand for her mother, and "The Evil Seekers" is a poem with a message that we face many hardships and crises in our lives but eventually learn from them. So, what symbols appear in the two stories?

First, it is the symbol of innocence. In ‘Little red cap’, the little girl symbolizes innocence. She leaves the house just with a piece of cake and a bottle of wine to visit her grandmother. She meets a malicious wolf on her way, but never suspects the wolf, answering all the questions it asked without realizing the scary intention to attack her. Moreover, while the wolf pretends to be her grandmother in bed after eating her up, the girl still does not notice and asks questions about the odd appearance. This shows that children tend to think of everything positively, which is true innocence. In the first stanza of "The Evil Seekers," you can also find a symbol of innocence, as it states that we are born with luck, that we are born with gold in our mouth, that we are soft and fresh like grapes, that we are clean like Alaska Pond, and that we are strong as the stem of a green bean. Just like a young girl is unaware of evil in "Little Red Cap," “The Evil Seekers” also tells that people are initially born with purity.

The second is the symbol of evil. In ‘Little red cap’, the wolf represents evil. The wolf maliciously approached the little girl, found out the address of her grandmother's house, tricked and ate up the grandmother, and finally ate up the girl. The wolf that led the girl and grandmother to misfortune can be said to be the villain, and like all fairy tales, faces an unhappy end, symbolizing ‘didactic morality’. The poem, on the other hand, indirectly exposes evil, by suggesting some dangerous and desperate situations, rather than any single object symbolizing evil. Stanza 2 tells us that we have to learn evil and confront dangerous situations, and Stanza 3 tells us that we have to go through and get over those hardships. The two stories provide different perspectives of evil. In 'Little Red Cap', evil is viewed as solely bad, and the wolf who symbolizes evil faces a tragic ending. However, in 'The evil seekers', it is said that we learn true life through evil, which means evil is not just a negative factor.

Finally, the two stories include the symbol of wisdom. At the end of "Little Red Cap," the girl is pulled out of the wolf's belly with the help of a hunter. She makes a firm resolution that she will never diverge from the right path and run off into the woods by herself. She gains wisdom from the incident. "The Evil Seekers" tells that one must go through numerous trials and tribulations in order to realize true life. Wisdom is only obtained when we challenge ourselves with adventurous situations. From this point of view, the two stories commonly signify wisdom, especially that you have to confront danger in order to acquire insights.

In conclusion, various symbols can exist in a single piece of writing. Searching for symbols, we can penetrate the message the writing is trying to convey. In "Little Red Cap" and "The Evil Seekers," there are lots of similar symbols, but what these symbols exactly represent is quite different. Again, when you think of 'red rose', various meanings can come to your mind. Even if everyone looks at the same object, they can all have different thoughts. This ‘symbol’ is of great value in that there is never a right answer.