The company of wolves

She wants to see her grandmother since it's christmas. It is no girls task to go walk through the wild forest in the middle of a blizzard, but she does it anyway, fighting away her fears with a knife. Her father would have not let her go, neither have a knife, but father's away. She sets out, and she runs into a handsome young hunter who has a compass. Then they make a game of it,

Is it a bet? he asked her. Shall we make a game of it? What will you give me if I get to your grandmother's house before you?
What would you like? she asked disingenuously.
A kiss.
Commonplace of a rustic seduction; she lowered her eyes and blushed.

If I was a feminist critic, I would focus on the facts that lead to discovery of one's charater, boths ones that are compatible to one's gender, and ones that are not. In the beginning, she's portrayed as a little soldier rather than a girl, and if the story ended there without mentioning if the charater is he or she, I would have concluded it's he not she. She is brave enough to make the journey alone in the forest in the blizzard. This is a quality that we wouldn't expect from a woman in the traditional sense. Lastly, even a brave girl with no fear with a knife in her hand can blush at one word said by a man, "a kiss."