At the beginning of Duffy's collection of poems, Little Red Cap depicts the state of adolescence and the rites of passage that lead to adulthood , containing autobiographical accounts of Duffy's own life. “Little Red Hat” is based on a young girl at the end of her innocence as she goes through a sexual awakening which can be interpreted as a feminist recreation of the original classic, Little Red Riding Hood. Duffy examines the constraints imposed on women by men, particularly vulnerable and curious young women who are easy to convince. Duffy seems to base many of her poems on female empowerment, in which her ideal is to influence the reader to change their mindset on the topic of feminism. Female liberation is the main theme throughout the poem, as the young woman reaffirms her femininity as she takes direction without the direction of a man. On the other hand, at the age of sixteen, the situation could be seen as violating her innocence because it reinforces the authority over her of the male gender and patriarchal society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The beginning of the poem signifies the narrator's exit from childhood, "at the end of childhood", which is a play on words that clearly shows how literally, the narrator exits from her childhood; for streets and districts are commonly called "End" in England, in the same way as "Wood End", etc. As his childhood comes to an end, the structure of his life is also lost as "houses fall apart" signifies the loss of security that a house represents. "Playing fields" are an aspect associated with childhood that the narrator moves away from, it is also similar to the original metaphor of "level playing field" which advocates that life is equal for all, but in reality, in adult society, it is dominated by men. However, at the end of the first stanza, Little Red Hat is the instigator of this journey and the word "clap" introduces a slight control, which reverses the stereotypical roles of 20th century women. In the second stanza, the narrator identifies "the wolf...the red wine staining his bearded jaw." Using 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 spoiling something perfect and innocent which is linked to childish innocence as she explores her sexuality in a repressive society for women. This portrays Little Red Hat as naive due to his desire to explore his sexuality. Little Red Hat continues by saying "I made sure he spotted me", which reverses the gender roles since the girl is in a position of power unlike the fairy tale while Little Red Hat continues to make progress and s tries to get noticed. Similarly, in Duffy's poem "Queen Herod", the gender roles are reversed in the biblical story of the three wise men into "three queens" and liberate the women by showing them as cunning and deceptive as they have 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 only desire limited material gifts and are greedy, women aspire to useful and lasting qualities. This is evident through the use of capitalized abstract nouns which are juxtaposed with the seemingly unnecessary and neglected material ("Silver and gold, small change") given to Jesus, alluding to gold, Frankincense and myrrh offered in biblical history. In.