At the beginning of Duffy's collection of poems, Little Red Riding Hood describes the state of adolescence and the rites of passage that lead to adulthood, containing autobiographical tales of Duffy's life. “Little Red Riding Hood” is based on the end of a young girl's innocence as she goes through sexual awakening which can be interpreted as a feminist recreation of the original classic, Little Red Riding Hood. Duffy examines the restrictions placed on women by particularly vulnerable men and curious young women who are easily persuaded. Duffy seems to base many of her poems on female empowerment where her ideal is to influence the reader to adapt their mindset to the theme of feminism. Female liberation is the main theme throughout the poem as the young woman reaffirms her femininity as she takes charge of her action without the guidance of a man. On the other hand, at the tender age of sixteen, the situation may violate her innocence as it reinforces the authority over her from the male gender and patriarchal society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The beginning of the poem indicates the narrator's exit from her childhood, "at the end of childhood", which is a play on words that makes it clear how literally the narrator exits her childhood; as streets and neighborhoods are commonly called "End" in England similarly to "wood end" etc. As her childhood comes to an end, the structure of her life is also lost as “out of homes” signifies the loss of security that a home represents. The "playing fields" are an aspect associated with childhood that the narrator is moving away from, it is also similar to the original "level playing field" metaphor which claims that life is equal for everyone, but in reality, in adult society, society is dominated by men. However, at the end of the first stanza, Little Red Riding Hood is the instigator of this journey and the word 'clap' introduces a slight control, which subverts the roles of stereotypical women in the 20th century. In the second stanza, the narrator identifies 'the wolf...red wine staining his bearded jaw'. The use of the phrase red wine can suggest sexual maturity, passion and seduction; it also represents the aspect of alcohol in adulthood. The word stain also implies ruining something perfect and innocent which connects to childhood innocence as she explores her sexuality in a repressive society for women. This portrays Little Red Riding Hood as naive due to her willingness to explore her sexuality. Little Red Riding Hood goes on to say “I made sure she saw me,” which reverses the gender roles as the girl is in a position of power in contrast to the fairy tale while Little Red Riding Hood proceeds to make progress and strives to be noticed. Similarly, in Duffy's poem "Queen Herod", gender roles are reversed in the biblical story of the three wise men in "three queens" and liberates women by showing women as cunning and deceitful as they maintain a secret agenda against men. The three queens give Queen Herod's daughter qualities instead of material gifts: "Grace... Strength... Happiness." which suggests that while men desire only limited material gifts and are greedy, women desire useful, everlasting qualities. This is evident through the use of abstract capitalized nouns that are juxtaposed with the seemingly useless and overlooked material (“Silver and gold, the pennies”) given to Jesus, alluding to the gold, frankincense, and myrrh given in the biblical story . In the third verse of "Little Red Riding Hood" Duffy uses a hypophora "you might wonder why". That's why' which emphasizes that she is already sure of.