The Big Bad Homo-Economicus
Ā Ā Ā Ā My Google Drive is running out of space again and I donāt want to pay for more storage, but I donāt want to let go of these gems from college either. Hereās yet another writing assignment from my Art History class, freshman year, about Little Red Riding Hood through the ages. Enjoy!
Ā Ā Ā Ā The first recorded version of the story was that of Charles Perrault, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (The Little Red Riding Hood), published in 1697. The major, striking aspects of the story with respect to the prevailing economy of seventeenth century France, are the contents of the basket, the location of the grandmotherās house, and the presence of woodcutters. Perrault had produced this story for the ostentatious halls of King Louis XIV, better known as the Sun King. At this time, France was pursuing the plan for a centralized economy that had been laid down years before, by the deceased finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert. As per his manifesto, production of normal goods was decreased and production of luxury goods was increased. This was primarily to maintain a standard of French goods for foreign trades. However, this led to an increase in taxes, which also facilitated the luxuries enjoyed by the royal authorities in Versailles while the rest of France remained in poverty. It was at this hour that the reigning Queen, Marie Therese had said exasperatedly to a group of angry and hungry peasants, āQu'ils mangent de la briocheā. While a rough translation would mean āLet them eat cakeā, brioche is actually a type of cake or bread with high butter and egg content. It is intriguing as to how Perrault chose exactly those ingredients to be in the little girlās basket, i.e., cake and a small pot of butter. One can only assume that Perraultās reference may have been intentional, but the relation is, nevertheless, uncanny. If this was a satirical reference then it reflects the failure of French absolutism that prevailed.
Once upon a time, in seventeenth century Paris, the supervisor of Royal Buildings, Charles Perrault decided to publish an oral folktale about a little girl being deceived and eaten by a wolf.Ā A century later, two folklorists, the Grimm brothers, hailing from Germany, published their own version of the same tale. As the years passed, more renditions of The Little Red Riding Hood, emerged by various authors from all over the world, and it continues to be so. The plot of this popular childrenās story remained the same, but the characters evolved with time and the contents in the story were often manipulated. The reason for this has been credited to the socio-economic conditions of the respective time period in which each of the versions were published. As the Grimm brothers would call the story, it was āpoetry of the peopleā. Itās true that the surrounding situations have influenced the evolution of the story over centuries. The Little Red Riding Hood in itself is an anthology of economic concepts and issues, and its various versions substantiate the difference in economic thought and action in the time period and location in which the respective story was published.
Ā The first recorded version of the story was that of Charles Perrault, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (The Little Red Riding Hood), published in 1697. The major, striking aspects of the story with respect to the prevailing economy of seventeenth century France, are the contents of the basket, the location of the grandmotherās house, and the presence of woodcutters. Perrault had produced this story for the ostentatious halls of King Louis XIV, better known as the Sun King. At this time, France was pursuing the plan for a centralized economy that had been laid down years before, by the deceased finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert. As per his manifesto, production of normal goods was decreased and production of luxury goods was increased. This was primarily to maintain a standard of French goods for foreign trades. However, this led to an increase in taxes, which also facilitated the luxuries enjoyed by the royal authorities in Versailles while the rest of France remained in poverty. It was at this hour that the reigning Queen, Marie Therese had said exasperatedly to a group of angry and hungry peasants, āQu'ils mangent de la briocheā. While a rough translation would mean āLet them eat cakeā, brioche is actually a type of cake or bread with high butter and egg content. It is intriguing as to how Perrault chose exactly those ingredients to be in the little girlās basket, i.e., cake and a small pot of butter. One can only assume that Perraultās reference may have been intentional, but the relation is, nevertheless, uncanny. If this was a satirical reference then it reflects the failure of French absolutism that prevailed.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Another intriguing aspect of the story is the Grandmotherās house. Red Riding Hood describes it as the first house in the village next to a mill, which is very far away. Given the economic manifesto provided by Colbert, it can be assumed that the mill in question was for a specialized good. However, the product of the mill is not mentioned and is open to interpretation. The presence of the mill suggests the changing technology in production, which would eventually lead to the Industrial Revolution in the coming century.Ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Agriculture has always been a predominant occupation in France, especially in the given setting of an early modern French village. But Perrault chose woodcutters over any other laborers. The reason for this is more psycho-sociological than economic. The woodcutters, with their arms not only intimidate the wolf, but also render Red Riding Hoodās character passive, i.e., by implying the dependence on men for protection. However, from an economic perspective it is curious that if the wolf was hungry indeed, why didnāt he feed on the woodcutters and wait for Red Riding Hood? The opportunity cost of not feeding on the woodcutters was quite high. Not only did he have to starve for longer, to wait for Red Riding Hood, but he also had to go to great lengths to actually be able to eat her. The utility that heād have gotten from eating the two woodcutters would have been equal to the utility he received from eating the grandmother and the girl. This may be because the wolf was able to assess the risks of eating the woodcutters. It would have been one against two armed men. As the first principle of risk management states: the gain must exceed the pain. The wolf might have realized that the margin of risk with Red Riding Hood is much lesser than that of eating the woodcutters, which could increase his probability of being killed. Thus, the wolf represents a true Homo economicus or āeconomicĀ manā who only caters to selfish motives while making a rational economic decision. The wolf abides by economic laws while making this decision but fails to do the same later when he contradicts the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility which states that with every successive unit of consumption the utility derived from that additional unit decreases. The wolf is more satisfied by eating Red Riding Hood than he is by eating the grandmother even though he was hungrier when he ate the latter.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā This discrepancy was addressed in the version published two centuries later by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Rotkappchen (Little Red Cap) in 1812. In this version the wolf specifies that the little girl would be much more satisfying than the old grandmother, because the girlās flesh is tenderer.The wolf wishes to capture both to satiate his hunger, thus treating the grandmother and the little girl as parts of a single source of utility.Ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The Grimm brothers were German philologists whose expertise was in collecting popular folktales. The time the Grimm version of the Little Red Riding Hood was published; France was dominating the European economy and facing a revolution. The Germans were lagging far behind in economic development. Their economy was feudal and traditionalism was widespread. Germany had yet to catch up with technological advancements. This probably explains the location of the grandmotherās house being so deep in a forest as Germany was more of a rural society than urban at the time.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā This was also a time of poverty and poor health across Germany. This makes the grandmotherās illness more credible. J.J. Sheehan , an American historian, notes that āeven in the best of times the poorest families spent most of their income on food; when prices rose they bought less, ate less, and became susceptible to typhus, typhoid, and the other infections that raged throughout these years.ā This explains why Red Riding Hoodās mother gave her a basket full of food to take to the grandmother instead of medicines. However the food items in the basket were cake and wine which are considered luxury items. Luxury items are goods that are purchased upon an increase in income, unlike necessities which are not as affected by income. This helps to hypothesize that The Little Red Riding Hood came from a comparatively better off background. Her velvet red cap also supports this theory as velvet used to be associated with nobility. However this contradicts the feudalism spoken of before.Ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā This can be explained by the history of the Grimm brothers themselves. They were raised in the bustling town of Hanau, and the Grimm family was among the cream of the society. Despite living a life of comfort, Jacob and Wilhelm, as Jack Zipes records, were very much familiar with things relating to rudimentary lifestyles such as farming, peasant customs and superstitions. This depicts the aforementioned traditionalism that prevailed in the German society. It also provides a better understanding of Red Riding Hoodās character. Her character can be easily related to the lives of the Grimm Brothers.Ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā In the Grimm version of the story, the little girlās credibility was still suppressed by the hunter who saved her life. But Roald Dahl allows Red Riding Hood to have her moment ofĀ bravado in Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf. This poem was published in 1983, which was the same time when Margaret Thatcher had taken up the seat for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the second time. This was a time when women were making a difference in various occupational fields during the second wave of the Feminist Movement. Margaret Thatcher strived for a modernized economy and used uncompromising techniques to implement economic policies that saved the United Kingdom from its recession. Her methods earned her the nickname āthe Iron Ladyā.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Roald Dahl is renowned for his satire, wit and humor. His poem of the Red Riding Hood Story may have been his own interpretation. However, the facts of the time period in which it was written allows me to infer a relation between Roald Dahlās Little Red Riding Hood and Margaret Thatcher. In 1983 Margaret Thatcher was re-elected as the post of Prime Minister after she picked herself up from the recession in the beginning of the 1980s. Similarly Red Riding Hood had been in a low point of her own in the previous versions of her story wherein she was killed, saved by someone else or identified as a sex object. Roald Dahl gave her the opportunity to take control of the story without compromising her dignity or sovereignty and she proved herself to be an Iron Woman by killing the wolf. In this instance Red Riding Hood becomes the Homo economicus. Without letting any other emotions override, she shoots the wolf. The opportunity cost of letting it live would be the price of her life and many others. Many behavioral economists believe that the opportunity cost of selfish behavior is rather high that they might encourage unrelated motives. For example, like most female protagonists of fairy tales, Red Riding Hood could have shown compassion towards the wolf, which could have unreliableĀ consequences, i.e. good or bad. A rational economist would ignore nonegoistic motives, like the Homo economicus or Red Riding Hood. Thus, Red Riding Hood, for once, has been described as the ideal role model not for her morals but for her actions.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Thus, every development in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, in all the versions, has some kind of economic dimension to it that can often be derived or integrated into the real world at the given time period. The different versions show the changing economic perspectives. In Perraultās version of Le Petit Chaperon Rouge we see a reflection of the early modern French society, where the male figure (the wolf) makes rational economic decisions. In the Grimm version, we see an influence of a better standard of living through Red Riding Hood. And finally, in Dahlās poem, we see the woman making the rational economic decisions. The evolution of the Red Riding Hood story helps to map out the economic development of the society over centuries and hence, may even serve as historical evidence.
[My Bibliography was 3 pages more so I thought Iād spare you. Rest assured itās available on demand]