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Analysis Of The Story ' La Lupa '

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Of all the short stories that we were assigned to read, I would have to say that Giovanni Verga 's short story, "La Lupa," was my favorite as I found it to be the most interesting and entertaining of them all. "La Lupa," latin for 'she-wolf, ' is named after the main character of ,Verga 's short story, a woman, who was often called a she-wolf ' by the people in her village due to her extremely strong sexual desires, which remains unmatched by any other in the village. Moreover, la Lupa was often regarded as a promiscuous woman who "was never satisfied" and was known to aggressively chase after men that she found attractive in an almost predatory-like manner("La Lupa," p.3). In fact, la Lupa 's reputation within her community got so bad to the point that whenever any other woman would encounter la Lupa, they would make the sign of a cross as they walked past her as a way voicing their displeasure towards her and her promiscuity. Furthermore, many women feared that la Lupa would "bewitch" their sons or their husbands by seducing them and causing them to fall deeply in love with her as she had done with many other men, including the 'holy ' priest (p.4). Verga 's description of la Lupa here, as well as in the first few paragraphs of the story, sounds eerily similar to how one would describe or attribute to an evil witch, which seems to be one of the main themes of the story.

One day, La Lupa falls in love with a very attractive young man named Nanni, whom she meets while

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