Comparative Analysis of The Company of Wolves and Wolf-Alice.

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

THE COMPANY OF WOLVES AND WOLF-ALICE

BY: ANGELA CARTER.

WORD COUNT:

ANGELA VEGA

ENGLISH A1

11-5

Through ¨The Company of Wolves¨ and ¨Wolf-Alice¨, we can see how Angela Carter uses magic realism, violence and eroticism, to present a feminist version of the traditional stories of ¨Little Red Riding Hood¨ and ¨The Werewolf¨. By using features of fairy tales, Carter reminds the reader that her stories are extensions of the traditional fairy tale genre, but that she changes the original message into a feminist literary purpose. Both stories have a combination of fantasy elements and realistic fiction and at the end they give the same feminist message to the reader. However, in each story the message is shown through different images and symbols.

To begin with, we can say that the basis of Angela Carter’s literary work is her interest in changing gender roles and this is evident in both stories. ¨The Company of Wolves¨ tells the story of a girl who is deceived and captured by the false appearance of a handsome man. Later he turned into a wolf and was very aggressive with the girl but she was able to control the situation. Similarly, ¨Wolf-Alice¨ is a coming of age story about a girl named Alice, who was raised by a pack of wolves. One day humans found her and tried to train her to act like a human, but when that failed she was sent to live with a Duke, who was also violent and aggressive. One day she found a mirror and a dress in the Duke’s house and realized that she was a girl, not a wolf. When the Duke tried to attack her she was also able to control the situation. In both stories the reader can clearly identify the feminist idea that women must change roles and become the aggressor instead of the victim.

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Importantly, the themes, feminist ideas and writing style are exactly the same in both stories, however, their symbols and images are different. One of the similarities is the use of literary resources. There is always a third person narrator, who presents the feelings and thoughts of all the characters in the story. Descriptions of places and things are also done in a detailed and exact. The use of language is carefully planned by Angela Carter, in order to capture the reader’s attention. By adding horrific details to her descriptions, the stories no longer fit into the classic fairy tale ...

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