St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves

Karen Russell’s St Lucy’s Home for Girl Raised by Wolves is about a pack of wolf girls that are taught how to act civilized at St Lucy’s. Over the course of the story, there are three main wolf girls, Claudette, Jeanette, and Mirabella. At St Lucy’s the girls go through five stages. Some of the girls will either be ahead, stay at the same pace as, or be behind the program. The epigraph for Stage One suggests that the girls will have a new-found curiosity and excitement. It also suggests that they will enjoy the new environment that they’re placed in.

The epigraphs in St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves are intended to give information as to what development the wolf-girls of the school will experience. The information they give us typically concerns the actions the girls may perform and the feelings they might experience by telling us the stage that they are at in their transition. With the exception of Mirabella, all the information we're given concerning the girls matches up with the quotes's corresponding epigraph. Epigraph two and it's sequential text is no different.

In the story We have always lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson, the reader is presented with only one perspective and that is Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood's point of view. While many aspect were present, the one that really stood out was that the Blackwood family does not appreciate change. Everything is preserved: objects, food, routines, rooms, etc. So, it is clear that when facing situations that cause change, both Mary Katherine and Constance Blackwood, the two sisters who survived the murder of the family, would react a certain way. Merricat's reaction is seen through different stages from non-verbal, to verbal, to violent. On the other hand, Constance seemed to welcome change for the most part

The second epigraph of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves refers to a “Stage 2” from the Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. According to the text, in this stage, the wolf-girl pack will realize that they are required to make an effort to adapt to their new environment and begin the stressful process of integrating themselves into the host culture. During this period, the epigraph explains, students may feel frustrated, depressed, confused, out-of place, or somewhat insecure, reminiscing about their old home and ways of life. Stage 2 marks an important phase in the development of the pack as a character, and of the wolf-girls as individuals.

In every good initiation story the protagonist experiences a range of changes. In Karen Russell 's story “St. Lucy 's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, the protagonist Claudette is quickly submersed in a new world. She and her pack go from living with their lycanthrope parents in the woods, to being raised by nuns and taught to act human. She has to learn a whole new way to exist. She learns what to do, how to think, and how to become an individual. Karen Russell effectively shapes Claudette as a dynamic character. Throughout the story Claudette experiences changes in her personality and behaviors, producing a stark contrast in the end.

In stage 1, Claudette was still a wolf-girl when she arrived at St. Lucy’s. She and the entire pack were acting indecorous when they first got there. “We tore through the austere rooms, overturning dresser drawers, pawing through the neat piles of the stage 3 girls’ starched underwear, smashing light bulbs with our bare fists...We remedied this by spraying exuberant yellow streams

Whether one would like to admit it or not, change is a difficult and not to mention uncomfortable experience which we all must endure at one point in our lives. A concept that everyone must understand is that change does not occur immediately, for it happens overtime. It is necessary for time to pass in order for a change to occur, be it days, weeks, months, or even years. The main character, who is also the narrator of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, realizing that “things felt less foreign in the dark” (Russell 225), knows that she will be subject to change very soon. The author makes it evident to readers that the narrator is in a brand new environment as the story begins. This strange short story about girls raised by

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell is the story of a girl named Claudette and her “pack” who are brought into wolf-girl to human-girl rehabilitation. Claudette has fully adapted to human culture physically, mentally, and emotionally by the end of stage 5 of the rehabilitation.

In the excerpt “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell the narrator speaks as a half wolf half human mind set. She discusses the improvements and difficulties of living in captivity after being free and wild their entire lives. There are three (3) main characters, Mirabella (youngest), Claudette who is the middle child of the three (3) sisters, and last but certainly not least, Jeanette. These girls are few of an entire “pack” of half human half wolf. The pack is referred to as a whole throughout the duration of this excerpt. They experience difficulty in the transition of the “wolf-identity” into more of a “human-identity”. This short story exemplifies how the difficulty of change after being exposed to ones “tradition” for so long differs for each “person” wolf or not.

First, a person has to accept the change itself. They have to willingly modify their life because in order for a person to change they need to want to change. In the beginning of the story, the pack accepts to adapt to this new life by sending their children to this special school: “Our Parents wanted something better for us; they wanted us to get braces, use towels, be fully bilingual.” (Russell 230). However, once the children left the pack and separate from their siblings, they realize how hard the process will be causing them not to accept the change anymore, but they stay to make sure that they do not disappoint their parents: “We had never wanted to run away so badly in our lives… Could we betray our parents by going back to

coexist with them. She learns to communicate with the wolves to receive food and water and over time

The wolves' habit of hunting in packs has resulted in the development of complex patterns of social behavior. Wolves are gregarious: they not only hunt in packs or groups but live most of their lives with other wolves. Studies in Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan , and parts of Canada show that a family made up of male, female, and pups is the basic pack unit. Other adults are pups of previous years or, more rarely, adults from other packs. Adolescent

Lucy first appears when David arrives at her farm in Salem, South Africa, after his sexual scandal in Cape Town. The daughter of two scholars - Lucy is a farmer by choice, an earthy woman who lives from her land. Lucy’s attitude implies satisfaction and happiness with the life she embraces, as a result of a heinous act in which she is raped, her character undergoes a visible shift in demeanor. Additionally, Lucy serves a vital role in David’s atonement. Lucy is a simple woman who lives in the country, she is not in tune with current fads or her appearance, her land is her entire source of income, an independent, courageous woman determined to live with the consequences of a hateful act.

“Never Cry Wolf”, by Farley Mowat, uses a lot of anthropomorphism. We see wolves as bloodthirsty savages that prey on the weak, cause havoc, and kill just to attack or to start a fight. Quite the opposite, the wolves only kill for food or when under attack. Their actions are based on their needs. Contrary to the wolves, humans hunt for food but they also do so for pleasure. In reality, the wolves just do what is needed to survive. The author studied the wolves to further document the truths about the lives of wolves and his use of anthropomorphism bring this book to life. It is ironic at times as the similarities between the wolves and humans are few yet the contrasts are many.

The grey wolf has been transformed into what we, today, call a dog. After years of traveling with humans, the wolf began to change and became adapted and tame enough to socialize with humans. The environment it was placed into was one of the causes for change, and another was the role it played for humans.