The Role Of Survival In Sam Roth's Shiver

The novel Shiver is a book written about a select group of people who are werewolves. These people turn into wolves during the winter due to the cold, and remain human in the summer. No one in this group has been able to discover a cure, and they have all had to eventually give up their lives to fully become wolves in the end. Few of them wish to lead this life. Sam Roth especially hates the “curse” he has been given. He is the one that finally discovers a way to end the transformations. Many people have had to succumb to their destined fate, but Sam finds a way to prevent this. Unlike the other werewolves in his life, he had a few advantages. Sam had people around to stop him from becoming a wolf during the winter, he desperately clung to

These friends are aware of what he is, and they want to keep him human. Grace, his girlfriend, is there when he gets shot and immediately does everything possible to keep him alive and keep him from changing back into a wolf. On page 62, Grace even proclaims her dedication. “But whatever he was, he was here now, and I wasn’t about to lose him.” Later, Sam is hidden outside in the cold, and if he isn’t found and brought inside soon, he will shift. Grace and Sam’s friend Isabelle makes a point to go outside and search for her on his property. When she locates him, on page 330, she tells Sam, “Sam, I said, look at me, you bastard, you’re not turning into a wolf right now.” These people make great effort to keep Sam safe, but he also refuses to give up his humanity and shift into an animal. On page 237, he forces himself to stay human and not shift. “Grace. If I held on to that one name. If I kept that in my head, I would be okay.” He holds on to the one thing in his human life that matters most to him to prevent his shift. Later, his father figure Beck informs Grace on page 357 that Sam absolutely hates being a wolf. He tells her that “he needs that sort of self-awareness to feel alive, and when he loses that and becomes a wolf… it’s hell.” Sam has the desire to become fully human. This is what spurs him into trying to the cure when Grace and Isabelle discover it, even though it could easily end his life.