What is the Moral of Little Red Riding Hood

Moral: Never trust strangers/ Don’t talk to strangers

Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Red Riding Hood or Little Red Cap is a fairy tale about a young girl and a wicked wolf. This popular story also teaches a valuable lesson to children. Let’s first see what happens to this girl in the story.

The Story of Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood walks through the forest to take some food to her ill grandmother. She meets a wicked wolf that asks her which path she is taking. She naively replies and tells him the road to the grandmother’s house.

While Little Red Riding Hood is busy picking flowers to take to her grandma, the wolf goes to the cottage and swallows her. Then the wolf puts on the grandmother’s clothes, gets in her bed, covers up in blankets, and settles in. The little girl arrives at the cottage and goes into grandmother’s bedroom.

She says,

“Granny what big ears you have.”

The wolf replies “All the better to hear you with, my dear.”

And when the girl comments on grandmother’s eyes, the wolf replies,

“All the better to see you with, my dear.”

Then she says, “Granny what big teeth you have.”

Wolf replies,

“All the better to eat you with, my dear!”

The wolf swallows the girl in one gulp and then falls asleep. A woodsman comes by while the wolf is still asleep. The woodsman cuts the wolf open with his ax and takes out Grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood.

Never Trust Strangers

What is the Moral of Little Red Riding Hood

The Moral of Little Red Riding Hood is that you must never trust strangers. Even a very friendly stranger may have very bad intentions. Little Red Riding Hood finds herself in danger because she talks to the wolf and naively points out the direction of her grandmother’s house.

In some versions of the story, Little Red Riding Hood’s mother advises her to not to talk to strangers and not to stray from the path. Red Riding Hood promises to obey her mother but breaks both promises when she meets the wolf. So, this story also brings out the importance of obeying your parents. If she has obeyed her mother, she would not have been in that predicament.

Image Courtesy:

“Little Red Riding Hood”  – The Traditional Faëry Tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, & Jack and the Beanstalk, 1845, (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia 

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