The Company of Wolves

In Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves we see a newly development Little Red Riding Hood that is no longer afraid or naive. She's young woman prepared for the wolf on her way to grandma's house with her basket of goods and a knife for protection.
It's good to see her developing as a character and as woman, she is learning that a woman has things a man wants ans she is learning that using these thing will save her life. This is not the spiritual warnings of staying on the right path or are they. Even in this tale if LRRH had not allowed the man/wolf to peak her womanly interest she would not have taken her time to get to her grand mother while letting the wolf take her basket that was holding her knife. She hoped for a kiss, she received a lot more; with her grand mother dead and her life at risk she does the only thing she can think of to save herself, She gives herself to the wolf becoming his bride.

I was watching the movie Red Riding Hood (2011 directed by Catherine Hardwicke) last night and realized for the first time that the ending is a combination of tales, from LRRH eating her grandmother after she was killed by the wolf, the Grimm Brother's placement of stones in the wolf's belly, the Bisclavret's werewolf though this one does not seem ashamed of what he is, right down to the marriage of Red and the wolf.
It's interesting to see the various versions of a tale rolled into one. More interesting is how the role of Red Riding Hood has changed becoming a woman no longer afraid. She has a power within her, a strength to surpass the things she has been taught to fear. She now understands that she is a woman and no longer a girl and more importantly she now knows what needs to be done to save herself.