Quotation: âYou may call me the Big Bad Wolf, now my only reputation.â (Ali, stanza 3, ll. 1-2).
Mini-summary of immediate context: The wolf seems to try to appeal to his audienceâs better nature through an abstract excuse for his actions.
Mini-summary of broader context: He relates his reputation with his actions with the underlying reasons behind his actions. He tried to use this to make the audience thing of him differently while the other lines in the poem suggest that his title may well be validated (i.e. âI did it for posterityâ and âI was no child-molester though youâll agree she was pretty.â)
One focal word or phrase: âyou may call meâ
Strand of evidence to which focal word belongs: acknowledging societyâs view of him
2-3 binaries, divisions, concepts, or themes relevant to quotation: truth/falsehood, reputable/non-reputable, good/bad
2 implications of the focal phrase:
The focal phrase suggests that the wolf is acknowledging the binary between truth and falsehood in this situation - that while the audience believes one thing about him, there is a possible alternate explanation.Â
It seems to me that the wolf is suggesting that the audience has already heard of the tale of the âThe Little Red Riding Hood.â This helps support his explanation of the story, since his motive in his version of the story was to teach a lesson, and if he was heard of, so was the lesson with which he is associated.
2 implications of the focal word:
The word may could imply either of two things: that there are two versions of the story (one right version, one wrong version), or that the audience âmayâ have heard of the wolf. Â But since the wolf is saying that they may âcallâ him something, and theyâd have to have heard of something first before âcallingâ it anything, it would make more sense to assume that the wolf simply wants to draw the audience in to hear an alternate story and change their perception of him.
Since the word âmayâ goes to allow or suggest something, it is not necessarily saying that the wolf isnât âThe Big Bad Wolf.â The wolf, in this way, leaves his argument pretty open-ended; the audience is left wondering wether or not to believe him or the tale they were likely told.
Reference to one other moment in the text that provides additional insight:Â âBut I was no child-molester though youâll agree she was prettyâ (Ali, stanza 3, 3-4)
While the wolf is trying to convince the audience that he was of good intentions, he - presumably a fully-grown male character - continues to acknowledge the attractive appeal of the little girl. Were he to only be trying to convince the audience that he wasnât responsible for the actions which he is accused of, he wouldnât try to excuse the idea of hurting the little girl because âyouâll agree she was pretty.â
Reflection/Analytical Paragraph: Â
The wolf essentially sets-up the post-script to be ambiguous; while he is claiming that he is looked at in the wrong light, he gives the audience room to speculate wether or not the original story or his side of the story is the truth. Â Through phrasing his words as, âyou may call me The Big Bad Wolf,â rather than directly stating what he âisâ or âisnât,â he is demonstrating that there is another version of this story other than his own - and therefore, some degree of falsehood must exist in one of the stories. Furthermore, he is implying that the audience has likely heard this story before. Â After all, the audience would not be able to call him anything had they never heard of him. Â This adds another layer to the ambiguity of the story, since the claim of the wolfâs story is that he was trying to get his âlessonâ heard for generations to come. This would support his story, since it means that the goal he claims to have had was completed, and it gives an explanation as to why his lesson was passed on for so many years: he was making a spectacle of himself. Â However, this claim is ambiguous in that he is also claiming that his lesson was taught and passed on because he had made it look like he is a predator. Â Since, in the post-script, he is telling people that he only made himself look like a predator, he is destroying the principle by which his interior motives were once âsecret.â In this way, his story is once again both plausible and falsifiable.