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

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Through the use of her short story, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell tries and succeeds in pushing the idea that being civilized does not equal being better. All too often, being civilized automatically comes with an association of being greater than everyone, and anyone who is uncivilized is associated with being lesser or even unhuman. Russell’s goal in writing this short story is to throw away that bias and show that there is more than one way to live life. One of the main themes throughout this short story is the idea that what works for one person will not essentially work for another; there is no correct way to live life. A prime example of this theme is the obvious difference of standards of living between the nuns at St. Lucy’s and the pack of …show more content…

The nuns also hold being able to dress appropriately, while keeping up with hygiene to be very important just not to the extent of being civilized. One the other hand, the pack of girls’ places value on extremely different concepts, a main one being strength, both as individuals and as a group. Harmony and leadership are two other ideas that these girls place value on, “the main commandment of wolf life is Know Your Place, and that translated perfectly” (Russell 241). This concept of knowing one’s place is understood by these girls and helps them to cooperate with the nuns; however, the pack’s understanding and the nuns’ understanding is quite different. The girls are accustomed to having a hierarchy that comes with each individual knowing their role in the community, the nuns simply see themselves at the top and the girls beneath them; the same basic concept with two distinct interpretations. In the end, the nuns’ values end up triumphing over the girls’ values—all of the girls, with the exception of Mirabella, end up graduating from St. Lucy’s, meaning that they have all successfully become civilized. The girls were all forced to let go of their values and adapt to the values of the

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In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” author Karen Russell develops the narrator, Claudette, through the use of five “stages” to show her progression from her wolf identity to the human culture. This short story follows a group of girls raised by wolf parents through their journey at St. Lucy’s, which is a rehabilitation center for human children raised by wolf parents. Throughout their time at St. Lucy’s, the girls are expected to experience five distinct stages as they adapt. Each of these stages is described by a fictional text entitled The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. The nuns at St. Lucy’s use it as a guide for teaching their students.

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