In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” author Karen Russell uses short epigraphs to provide a reference for characters’ progress throughout the 5 “stages” present in the story. The story follows a pack of wolf-girls who have been sent to St. Lucy’s, a facility dedicated to helping human children raised by wolf parents adapt to human culture. These “stages” represent the five chapters in the process of adapting, each of which begin with an excerpt, or epigraph, from The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. These epigraphs describe the emotions and difficulties that the wolf-girls are likely to experience, as well as how they are likely to act during the stage. In Stage One, the girls still acted as a pack, …show more content…
Jeanette “was the most successful of [the pack], the one furthest removed from her origins” (232). Because of her progress, she differed from the epigraph, not reacting as negatively to the new environment as the rest of the pack. For example, most of the wolves cringed at the new smells they experienced, but “Jeanette smiled and pretended like she couldn’t smell a thing” (232). This has both a literal and figurative meaning in the text, as it represents how well Jeanette was able to adapt in most circumstances, not just to new smells. However, there were times when even Jeanette suffered the trials described in the epigraph. One of the many trials the epigraphs describes is daydreaming. All of the wolves “spent a lot of time daydreaming during this period. Even Jeanette” (233). This reinforces that in Stage 2, while Jeanette was certainly ahead of the pack, she still had her own problems in adapting to human culture. While she made herself seem ahead, she was still really just a “wolf, disguised in sheep’s clothing,” and the contrast with the epigraph supports this distinction (232). These similarities and differences to the epigraph develop Jeanette as a hard working character who tries her best to cover up her wolf background, but still sometimes has
Throughout her narrative, Rowlandson employs the use of harsh diction in order to paint the Natives as barbarous and uncivilized. For example, upon the death of her child, Weetamoo, Rowlandson’s captor’s wife, is described as “howling (Rowlandson 274).” The use of this particular word alludes to the howl of an animal,
There are many literary devices used across stories. Color imagery is one of these literary devices that is used when colors give objects a symbolic meaning. In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell, girls who have been raised as wolves are thrust into the unknown as they are forced to adapt to human society. Their childhood was spent living with wolves, however they are taken in by nuns of St. Lucy’s who attempt to assimilate them into the human world through different phases. Throughout the story, color imagery is used to emphasize the key theme of unity, establish the conflicted tone, and metaphorically develop Claudette’s character.
In Stage One the wolf pack first arrives at St. Lucy’s. Stage One tells the reader that the environment for the wolf-girls will be intriguing and exciting. They will
From the first stage to last in, “St.Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, Claudette’s actions and ways of progression remain true and consistent to what the text of Lycanthropic Culture Shock discusses. Claudette follows the path of becoming fully human and comfortable being so, as the handbook describes through her advancing efforts towards personal change, her actions and reactions to situations, and what she ponders about through the stages. Claudette’s unequivocal adaptation to human society being in precise comparison to each of the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock, ascertains the fact that Claudette’s development through each stage of the St.Lucy’s text is directly parallel to the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock rendered from The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture
Parental Influence Parents are the biggest influence upon their children. From the time a child is born to the time they leave the household, the values that the parents hold are instilled into their children. Parents are required to make crucial decisions about how to raise their children in order to guide them through the inevitable obstacles and hardships of life. In The Glass Castle, many would argue the lack of care and responsibility the Walls had for their children. The author, Jeannette Walls, uses Rex and Mary Walls to demonstrate that their strong traits of non-conformity, self-sufficiency and perseverance are passed on to their children, allowing them to develop to their full potential.
The way Louise Erdrich uses symbolism in her story “I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy” portrays a quest of a native american for love. From the repetition the symbols it gives the story a more unified feel and adds a deeper meaning. The narrator has come from a rough and neglectful life, saying, “My parents. It’s not like I hate them or anything. I just can’t see them.
In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, Claudette, Mirabella, and Jeanette is taken to a foreign place to adapt to human nature. They are taken through the process of 5 stages of becoming human. Claudette, the speaker of the story, is stuck between two faces, the human and the wolf face. While Claudette is in between these two worlds, she has fully conformed from wolf to human. She has completed the transformation from wolf to human because her own mother doesn 't recognize her, trying to make herself seem more like human, and not even caring about her own fellow wolf mates anymore.
“I narrowed my eyes at Kyle and flattened my ears, something I hadn’t done for months” (Russell 243). Even though Claudette is almost at the end of stage four, she still fails to deminish her wolf instincts. Having the wrong mindset forces Claudette to forget what she has previously learned and return back to her wolf instincts. As much as Claudette wishes to adapt to the human culture, instinctive habits and hopes cause her to not
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.
Jeanette wanted to escape Welch because of her unstable lifestyle, but she had fully given up on her parents. As she created her plan to escape, she said: “I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own” (Walls 221). She had finally realized that she could not rely on
In the story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, the author, Karen Russell, uses feral diction to establish that although people strive for perfectionism in their lives, people cannot become someone or something that they are not, thus causing a loss of identity. Russell uses feral diction in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” to prove that people cannot change who the are. For example, Kyle tried to talk to Claudette, but just succeeded in annoying her instead. Claudette immediately reacted and, according to the story, “I narrowed my eyes at Kyle and flattened my ears, something I hadn’t done for months” (249).
She struggled with how the society and her family shaped who she was. She was exposed to her family first which made her behave the way she did under her family’s house. Jeanette struggled with her family by taking care of the house, beings told bending the rules is okay and the acceptance of her Mom’s and Dad’s homelessness. When Jeannette left her family and went to live in New York, she becomes an individual. She fends for herself and gets her life together.
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.
In the short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” written by Karen Russell, a pack of wolf girls leave their home in the woods for St. Lucy’s in order to be able to live in human society. Within the story, Russell has included epigraphs before each stage from The Jesuit Handbook for Lycanthropic Culture Shock. This handbook was for the nuns at St. Lucy’s to help guide their students. Karen Russell included the epigraphs, short quotations at the beginning of a chapter intended to suggest a theme, from the handbook to help the reader understand what the characters might be feeling or how they will act in a certain stage. In Stage One, the epigraph closely relates to the characters’ development, yet doesn’t consider that the girls could be fearful in their new home due to interactions with the nuns.
In Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, she develops the progression of the characters in relation to The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. The characters, young girls raised as if they were wolves, are compared to the handbook with optimism that they will adapt to the host culture. The girls’ progression in the five set stages are critical to their development at St. Lucy’s. The author compares Claudette, the narrator, to the clear expectations the handbook sets for the girls’ development. Claudette’s actions align well with the five stages, but she has outbursts that remind her of her former self.