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

785 Words4 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. An epigraph before each stage is included to help with the organization and structure of the story. It also includes things rehabilitators should expect from the students and is taken from the Jesuit handbook. In Stage 2, the girls realize that adapting to the host human culture will not be an easy task. They will have to work to adapt and will struggle in the process. They will have strong feelings of culture shock and become agitated. They may reminisce about their past wolf life and daydream. In a wolf pack, the alpha is the leader of the pack. The alpha would be in control and the rest of the pack would follow. That was Jeanette. In Stage 2, Jeanette was the furthest developed and was envied by the pack. Russell writes, “The pack hated Jeanette. She was the most successful of us, the one furthest removed from her origins” (232). Jeanette realized early on she was going to have to work towards her goal of achieving human identity and didn’t mind being at the top. Jeanette adapted quickly and had learned many human-like abilities. Jeanette “..could even