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

To move one-step up can sometimes mean pushing someone else down. In Karen Russell’s story,“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” she conveys this adage through the story of girls who were raised by wolves for the first part of their lives. The story is told through the voice of one specific character, whose name is Claudette. She is the middle sister between Jeanette, the oldest, and Mirabella, the youngest. Claudette explains and describes their transformations from once wolf-like beings to human beings. They learned how to activate the human characteristics within them throughout their time at St. Lucy’s school. This process includes learning human emotions, behavioral skills, and gaining human personalities. Each girl has a desire

By stage three, Claudette wanted her gone. Claudette did not think Mirabella should be there anymore because her “inability to adapt was taking a visible toll. Her teeth were ground down to nubbins; her hair was falling out” (245) and she was no longer eating, which visibly showed as her ribs were poking through the uniform she wore. If you showed her any kindness, that was it, she would never leave you alone. This was another example of an obvious divide between the girls and Mirabella because they wanted nothing to do with her. When riding their bicycles and Mirabella is chasing them, they would ride faster. It is little things, such as this, that can show, one, how fast their mindsets have changed and their development into human beings and two, that although Mirabella was being a constant reminder of the past, they could not let her ‘negative’ energy be around

Lucy’s, Claudette seeks help from Jeanette when it time to do her Sausalito, a dance they girls had been practicing strictly for the ball. She forgets her steps as the spotlight hits her and the only thing she can remember was how to pump, meaning waging her invisible tail. “In a flash of white-hot light, my months at St. Lucy’s had vanished and I was just a terrified animal again” (249) Claudette utters. Then, just when she was about to revert, Mirabella saves Claudette by tackling her to the ground. In turn, Claudette repays her by using her as a scapegoat to save herself. “But everyone was watching, everybody was waiting to see what I would do. ‘I wasn’t talking to you,’…’I didn’t want your help. How you have ruined the Sausalito! You have ruined the ball!” (250), this scene speaks for itself. In order to better herself and to show the nuns how her enunciation had improved, she sells Mirabella out. This is also when the rest of the pack joins in and chant, “Mirabella cannot adapt! Back to the woods, back to the woods!” (250). Although Mirabella challenged the nuns and the girls every step of the way, in the end she was just trying to be a good sister. However, what her exact purpose was in this story is another thing to look