Big Bad Wolf [1]
“First, grant me my sense of history,” writes Agha Shahid Ali in his poem “The Wolf [3]’s Postscript to [3]‘Little Red Riding Hood [3]’ [4]” in which he reimagines the classic fairy tale from the perspective of the story’s villain. “And then grant me my generous sense of plot: / Couldn't I have gobbled her up / right there in the jungle?” The poem offers a complicated portrait of the “Big Bad Wolf,” including disturbing confessions and provocative questions that reexamine this allegory and consider the power of perspective in storytelling. Write a story that explores the perspective of a villain in a children’s story you know well. What new information will you include about this character? What, perhaps, was left out of the story?