ipl-logo

Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

915 Words4 Pages

In the short story Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell, nuns at St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves try to turn a pack of young girls, including Claudette the narrator, whose parents are werewolves, into proper humans who can fit into society. Claudette struggles with balancing her wolf upbringing with the teachings of the nuns, and ends up conforming to the standards and morals of humankind. Her change from being a pack member to a human individual is seen in many places throughout the text. Although it is certain that Claudette grows to be human by STAGE 5, she has to struggle through the difficult and disorienting processes that are required in order to become human. There are several challenges that Claudette surpasses in order to abandon …show more content…

We would snarl at one another for no reason. I remember how disorienting it was to look down and see two square-toed shoes instead of my own four feet. Keep your mouth shut, I repeated during our walking drills, staring straight ahead. Keep your shoes on your feet. Mouth shut, shoes on feet. Do not chew on your new penny loafers. Do not. I stumbled around in a daze, my mouth black with shoe polish. (229, STAGE 2)”. Although Claudette is initially bewildered by human concepts, she is able to achieve things that come naturally to most humans. Claudette says “I had an ear for languages, and I could read before I could adequately wash myself,”. Claudette also realizes that, unlike “the woods, where you had to be your fastest and your strongest and your bravest self, Different sorts of calculations were required to survive at the home. (232, STAGE 3)”. This shows that Claudette is beginning to understand how to survive in human society: by conforming. With this realization, Claudette has taken her first step toward being considered human. Claudette also comes to believe that the actions and culture of wolves and

Show More
Related

  • St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Short Story

    1067 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are many literary devices used across stories. Color imagery is one of these literary devices that is used when colors give objects a symbolic meaning. In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell, girls who have been raised as wolves are thrust into the unknown as they are forced to adapt to human society. Their childhood was spent living with wolves, however they are taken in by nuns of St. Lucy’s who attempt to assimilate them into the human world through different phases. Throughout the story, color imagery is used to emphasize the key theme of unity, establish the conflicted tone, and metaphorically develop Claudette’s character.

    Read More

  • St. Lucy's Home For Girls Character Analysis

    922 Words  | 4 Pages

    She is not comfortable in the human culture if she resorts to her natural tendencies. While she is preparing to dance, she, “rubbed a pumpkin muffin all over [her] body earlier that morning,” (Russell 242) to mask her scent. This action not only creates humor but also shows that Claudette is not ready to go back and forth from human culture and wolf culture. Normal humans would use perfume to mask a smell, Claudette chose to use a pumpkin muffin because she knew it would mask her odor. This is not a human action, therefore, she does not meet the expectation of Stage

    Read More

  • Lycanthropic Culture Shock Character Analysis

    1455 Words  | 6 Pages

    This proves itself by how Claudette took on a large dose of self-confidence and independence. At the installation of the fourth section, Claudette ignored Jeanette’s need for help and continued with what she needed to accomplish for herself to be successful at the time. Claudette’s confidence and independence shows her understanding of situations and comfort in her new life. Further along in the fourth stage, when the Debutante Ball began, Claudette had her hair swept “back into high, bouffant hairstyles” and was “wearing a white organdy dress with orange polka dots” while eating fancy hors d’œuvres (Russell 242). This display of comportement further shows her confidence and acclimation to the human culture through her ability to stand the high class situation.

    Read More

  • Child Abuse In The Glass Castle

    808 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jeannette narrowly escapes rape, but because her father exploits her in a way that makes it seem like she would consent to underage sex, she is abused. The sexual abuse Jeannette suffers results in her having more trust in her own intuition as she

    Read More

  • St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, Claudette, Mirabella, and Jeanette is taken to a foreign place to adapt to human nature. They are taken through the process of 5 stages of becoming human. Claudette, the speaker of the story, is stuck between two faces, the human and the wolf face. While Claudette is in between these two worlds, she has fully conformed from wolf to human. She has completed the transformation from wolf to human because her own mother doesn 't recognize her, trying to make herself seem more like human, and not even caring about her own fellow wolf mates anymore.

    Read More

  • St. Lucy's Home Raised By Wolf Analysis

    504 Words  | 3 Pages

    and she acts like a good student it is only because of the school’s expectations. Claudette wants to return back to her wolf culture so she pretends to have

    Read More

  • St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

    785 Words  | 4 Pages

    People who endure dislocation feel out of place and have many mixed emotions. Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” tells the story of a group of girls who suffer from lycanthropy including Jeanette, Claudette, and Mirabella. The “pack” of girls go through many stages to rehabilitate to their human identity. The girls experience culture shock and have to work as they progress through the stage.

    Read More

  • The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls Character Analysis

    448 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jeannette’s Tone Change As a result of maturing and learning new things, perspectives on people usually change. This is what happened with Jeanette Walls in her novel, The Glass Castle. Her initial attitude towards her father, Rex Walls, is loving, supportive, and faithful. However, when she is able to process how many times her father has let her down, her tone in the book changes to being very critical and clinical.

    Read More

  • Responsibility In The Glass Castle

    750 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many other times that the reader will find an act of responsibility that Jeannette had but those were just a few that stood out in the novel. With her family being the way it was, there were two things that could have happened to Jeannette, she could have turned out like her parents or turned her life of poverty into a life of wealth. Jeannette is an inspiring author and also a motivational speaker with a story that needed to be told that wasn’t just told, but printed to hundreds of people that needed to hear her story

    Read More

  • Feral Diction In St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolf

    462 Words  | 2 Pages

    Claudette tried her best to adapt to the humans culture and all the feral children had spent months learning to assimilate into human culture. However, despite her perseverance through all these challenges, some of the wolf in them still remained. This would later cause Claudette to stand out in both societies due to the wolf characteristics that still remained (thus not fitting in with the human societies) and the human characteristics that she learned (thus not fitting in the the werewolf societies). Feral diction also appeared in the story when Claudette attempted to dance to sausalito with Kyle. When she stepped onto the dance floor, the panicked and the feral part of her returned; Russell writes, “I threw back my head, a howl clawing its way up my throat” (250).

    Read More

  • Struggle Of Life Exposed In Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle

    758 Words  | 4 Pages

    They think they can bend the rules and do what they think is necessary. Jeannette is exposed to these understandings, making her the person she grew up to be. Jeanette demonstrates how she struggles with her family throughout numerous portions of the novel: “The Desert,” “Welch,” New York.” These struggles developed and defined who she came to be.

    Read More

  • Summary Of St Lucy's Home For Girls

    1429 Words  | 6 Pages

    Not great and not terrible, solidly middle of the pack” (Russell 232). This idea of Claudette being a good but imperfect character connects to her relation to the Handbook, as she mostly follows along with its expectations but occasionally lags

    Read More

  • St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

    989 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” written by Karen Russell, a pack of wolf girls leave their home in the woods for St. Lucy’s in order to be able to live in human society. Within the story, Russell has included epigraphs before each stage from The Jesuit Handbook for Lycanthropic Culture Shock. This handbook was for the nuns at St. Lucy’s to help guide their students. Karen Russell included the epigraphs, short quotations at the beginning of a chapter intended to suggest a theme, from the handbook to help the reader understand what the characters might be feeling or how they will act in a certain stage. In Stage One, the epigraph closely relates to the characters’ development, yet doesn’t consider that the girls could be fearful in their new home due to interactions with the nuns.

    Read More

  • Summary Of St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves

    1580 Words  | 7 Pages

    In Stage One, Claudette exceeds the standards the handbook sets. The handbook says that the girls will experience new things, full of curiosity and wonder of what is to come (225). Claudette exceeds this description, along with most other members of the pack. Throughout Stage One, each member of the pack has great curiosity of their surroundings, leaving a destruct wake in their path. The girls “tore through the austere rooms, overturning dresser drawers, pawing through the neat piles of the Stage 3 girls’ starched underwear, [and smashed] light bulbs with [their] bare fists” (225).

    Read More

  • Dances With Wolves Analysis

    1097 Words  | 5 Pages

    The film Dances With Wolves is a moving, culturally significant American western film produced in 1990 and directed by Kevin Costner, who also plays the lead role of John J. Dunbar. It portrays a fictional account of the relationship between a soldier and a tribe of Sioux indians. In the beginning, Dunbar is an injured soldier who accidentally makes himself a hero while trying to commit suicide by riding his horse in front of the enemy. When given a choice for where he wants to be stationed he requests the frontier, because he wants to see it “before it’s gone. ”While stationed alone at Fort Sedgwick in Dakota territory, he befriends the people of a nearby Lakota tribe.

    Read More

More about Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

Open Document