THE GENRE’S CONVENTIONS

Elements of the genre

Style

Design

Sources

Elements of the genre

Is a made-up story, geared toward children.

Has a moral, which, in this case, is spelled out in the final paragraph.

Includes magical elements, e.g., a talking animal.

The main character has a task/journey to complete and is in potential danger.

Features symbolism, in this case, a red cloak.

Style

Set in the past; the author begins with the much-used opening “Once upon a time.”

Perrault tells the story simply, but builds tension as he moves toward the conflict and the closing lesson that he wants to impart.

Feature a stock character (the big bad wolf).

Not much detail of setting.

Design

Perrault wrote text; editors of some editions of his text added illustrations, such as the one shown here.

Sources

No footnotes or Works Cited list. There are many different sources and versions of this story. This one is the popular seventeenth-century Charles Perrault version, and its sources, in turn, probably date back to the fourteenth century. He is credited with being the first person to gather tales that had only been told orally in the past, and to treat them as literature.