Mammal Stereotypes - Wolves - 40 - Page 1

Cruel or evil, honorable, solitary or renegade

The big bad wolf is an image frequently depicted in fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, Peter and the Wolf, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In cartoons evil wolves are also omnipresent: the unnamed wolf in Tex Avery's work, the one in Hoodwinked,... The werewolf is another evil stereotype in association with wolves.

Though wolves have mostly been portrayed negatively throughout the centuries there have been exceptions. In many stories wolves have raised little orphans: Romulus and Remus, Mowgli in Jungle Book,... The scouts even have the honorary word akela for a female scouts leader, which is derived from the character Akela in Jungle Book. Through the latter half of the 20th century, the wolf was increasingly portrayed in the opposite manner of the evil wolf, as an especially dignified and capable wild form of dog and symbol of nature. (e.g. the Kevin Costner film, Dances with Wolves)