Fairy Tales, by Tom Wolfe – Summary & Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Chapter 73 reframes four classic fairy tales through the lens of Tom Wolfe’s New Journalism, a style that foregrounds the author’s presence while reporting. Each tale becomes a vehicle for satirizing American greed—especially the excesses of the 1980s.
Little Red Riding Hood walks confidently into the woods, ignoring her mother’s warning to stay on the path. She wonders why she should not stray, since the woods (a metaphor for opportunity) are full of goodies.
Goldilocks enters the bears’ house uninvited, eats their porridge, and sits in their chairs. The bear’s internal monologue seethes with outrage at her entitlement, reflecting a sense that anyone can take what they want.
The Big Bad Wolf observes the three pigs building houses of straw, sticks, and bricks. He scorns the first two pigs as morons for thinking flimsy materials offer safety. He blows down both houses easily, but respects the third pig’s brick house—though he still attempts the chimney.
Hansel and Gretel stumble upon a gingerbread house and begin stuffing themselves without hesitation, viewing it as the “brass ring” of opportunity. The narrator notes that this is the 1980s, implying a culture of unapologetic consumption.
Throughout, the recurring “four-letter word” driving every character is greed, presented not as a vice but as the natural instinct in a “free country.”
Key Events
- Little Red Riding Hood dismisses her mother’s advice and sets off into the woods, attracted by the promise of better flowers and baked goods.
- Goldilocks invades the bears’ home, prompting the father bear’s indignant internal tirade about her nerve.
- The Big Bad Wolf blows down the straw and stick houses, then respects the brick house but plans to descend the chimney.
- Hansel and Gretel gorge themselves on the gingerbread house’s candy and icing with no thought of consequences.
- The narrator directly declares that greed is the unspoken motive behind all the characters’ actions.
Character Development
No traditional character arcs appear. Instead, each fairy-tale figure functions as an archetype of greed:
- Little Red Riding Hood embodies impulsive self-indulgence, abandoning caution for immediate gratification.
- Goldilocks represents entitlement—she takes what does not belong to her without guilt.
- The Big Bad Wolf acts as a critical commentator on the pigs’ foolishness, yet he too is driven by greed for pork.
- The Three Little Pigs illustrate status competition: building flimsier houses to one-up each other.
- Hansel and Gretel personify the consumerist urge to “get while the getting’s good,” stuffing themselves without recognizing danger.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Greed as the American Ethos: The chapter reframes greed as the unspoken four-letter word driving all fairy-tale plots, linking it to the “free country” rhetoric and 1980s materialism.
- New Journalism Style: Wolfe’s signature technique—exclamation points, hyperbolic interior monologues, and self-conscious narration—is mimicked to satirize both literary pretension and the tales themselves.
- The Woods as Opportunity: The woods represent a lawless, abundant frontier where anyone can grab what they want, echoing myths of American frontierism.
- Houses as Status Symbols: The straw, stick, and brick houses parody conspicuous consumption; the wolf’s respect for the brick house ties security to material success.
- The Gingerbread House as Consumer Trap: The candy house lures children with instant pleasure but conceals a threat (the witch), mirroring the dangers of unchecked greed.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 73 serves as a sharp satire of both literary culture and historical period. By mapping 1980s greed onto timeless fairy tales, Petri critiques the American tendency to celebrate self-interest as opportunity. The chapter also parodies Tom Wolfe’s New Journalism, showing how stylistic flourishes can become a vehicle for ideological commentary. It connects to the book’s larger narrative of U.S. history as a series of competing narratives—here, the “fairy tale” of American exceptionalism is exposed as a story that rewards greed.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does the chapter use fairy-tale characters to comment on 1980s American culture?
Each character’s behavior—Little Red ignoring warnings, Goldilocks invading a home, the pigs competing with flimsy houses, Hansel and Gretel gorging—mirrors the 1980s ethos of individual enrichment and disregard for communal rules. The narrator’s aside “It’s the 1980s!” explicitly links their greed to that decade.
2. What is the effect of employing Tom Wolfe’s New Journalism style in a collection of rewritten fairy tales?
The style exaggerates the characters’ interiority and makes the author’s presence known (e.g., via exclamation points and parenthetical asides). This self-consciousness turns the fairy tales into meta-commentary on how storytelling shapes values—in this case, reinforcing greed as natural.
3. Why does the chapter insist that greed is the “unspoken, understood thing” driving the pigs and the wolf?
By naming greed as the motive, the chapter strips away the moral lessons typically attached to fairy tales (e.g., “hard work pays off”). Instead, it suggests that the real lesson of American history is often about who can grab the most, regardless of virtue.