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

What constitutes a person’s humanity? This is the question Karen Russell explores in her short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” Russell defines it as one’s individuality and their moral choices, as evidenced by the central idea of the story. This is reflected in the fact that the entire story is an allegory for the struggles of the Native American children in the 19th century. The main characters in the story are three wolf-girls, Claudette, Jeanette, and Mirabella. They are heavily influenced by the nuns teaching them how to be “more human.” This allows Russell to demonstrate humans’ influence on those they consider to be “non-human.” When humanity is defined in this way, it is demonstrated by the nuns teaching the girls

Both groups of children were taught more “traditional” morals and ways to act. Physically, this was exemplified by cutting their hair, different manners of dress, and gaining new names. Psychologically, certain changes were that they were taught new languages, being told that their old language was wrong or inferior, they both forced to assimilate with a new culture after being ostracized.The two groups also both lost their home cultures, being forced to use a different language and practise Christianity. Most importantly, both groups of children were taken from their parents and homes to become more cultured or civilized, by American standards. This resulted in the parent-child bond being broken. This is symbolized in the story by Claudette not being able to find her way to the cave where she was raised after becoming more “human.” The more “civilized” people in both of these situations often teach the children these new beliefs about what is right and wrong, giving them a more “human” set of morals, and this is one of the points Russell makes in her central