Critical Reading and Writing

BS Social Sciences – I
Instructor: Ms. Safia Mehmood
Student: Khushhall Khan ERP-ID: 28855

Reflection Paper
Topic: Little Red Riding Hood from the Politically Correct Bed-time Stories

To be honest I had never been through the original text of the “Little Red Riding Hood”,
although I deciphered the original one by reading the “Politically Correct One”. At first the
text seemed confusing to me, but when I gave it a second chance I became familiar with the
author’s intentions and his purpose of making corrections.
To begin, the author's initial intentions, according to the book's introduction, were to not
create biasness in children about certain things that he disliked in classical bed-time stories.
[See page 04, paragraph 01] But what I think is by over-explaining those particular topics
author did the absolute opposite. For instance; when I returned home from college and
proceeded directly to the restroom, I was in a very relaxed state. It was only when my mother
knocked on the door and informed me about the presence of a lizard that I suddenly became
acutely aware of my surroundings. This shows that such level of awareness can be unsettling,
particularly for a child, as it may hinder their ability to act comfortably in the future.
Author is explaining the same things again and again, just to annoy and irritate the reader
with, what I would like to call, their satirical work. When the wolf attacks Red Riding Hood,
author connects her screaming to willful invasion of her personal space rather than attributing
it to a rational fear of an apex predator, which struck me very disgusting because when one
gets attacked by something like a wolf for instance one does not think of their personal space
invasion at all. [See page 08, paragraph 01]
Furthermore, If the author is genuinely interested in "politically correcting the so called bed-
time stories" then why is the author profiling the bats by referring to Red Riding Hood's
grandmother as "Optically challenged as Bats"? [See page 07, paragraph 03] This labelling
is contradictory, especially considering author’s initial paragraphs, where no such arguments
can be found.
Lastly, as I mentioned before I have never read the original Red Riding Hood story, but I
sympathize with those who have for the author has suck the humor and soul out of it by
unnecessarily dwelling on making corrections. What I believe is, a bed-time story should be
exciting and fun to read rather than depressing.

References:
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories - Modern Tales for Our Life and Times by James Finn Garner