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

Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”,(2006) is a short story that tells the tale of children that were originally raised by their werewolf family, but are taken out of their natural environment to be socialized into "naturalized citizens of human society” (Russell 238). The story is narrated by the second of the three sisters, whose name is Claudette, as she experiences the different stages of becoming acclimated to human society. The narrator states “They had ostracized the local wolves by having human children.” (Russell 238). This illustrates that the children were sent to St. Lucy’s because their condition skipped a generation, alternating between humanity and wolfishness. Therefore, their parents thought it would be in everyone’s best interest if the children, who have more traits of humanity in them than wolfishness, were taught the ways of

This indicates that the nuns thought now that the children are trying to learn and study a more preferred culture, it was therefore necessary for the girls to change their old names and have a more humanized name. One can also say that the story symbolizes the assimilation of people to be westernized which is considered to be important in other to fit in a particular social group. The girls are given certain names. This could also signify the typical first step of being westernized as to being given a nickname in other to blend in and be accepted.

Secondly, the story also relates to an allegory that points out the tragedy of what one loses as one learns to conform to society’s expectations. The story can be interpreted as how the girls are more like immigrants being immersed in their new culture which inevitably caused them to lose their old culture which disconnected from their families. Also, the narrator states “The pack used to dream the same dream back then.”(Russell 239) The word “used” is in past tense, which indicates that when one