St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves By Karen Russel

In St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, a short story by Karen Russel, Claudette and her sisters are sent to a catholic boarding school to become more like humans. In the end, Claudette is able to adapt to human society, versus continuing her initial life as a daughter to werewolves. One of her sisters was not fully able to reform, however, Claudette was able to talk, eat, and do things on her own. She was able to sit normally and make her own decisions, be them right or wrong. Because of this, Claudette was eventually able to successfully adapt to human society in the end.

Although Claudette is able to fully adapt to human society, she runs into struggles all throughout the beginning of the story. One example of this would be in

She is able to achieve this in Stage One when she says that “[their] own scent had become foreign in this strange place,”(Russell 228). This displays that the longer she has to stay here, the more she is going to start acting and looking more human. Although she is struggling in the beginning, she is also showing growth in her changing process.Another example would be in Stage two, when she says that she had to go with Mirabella and “feed the ducks,”' (Russell 233). This tells the readers that not only was she able to take the hectic Mirabella to the pond and feed them bread, but also was able to talk in English to the nuns to reply. This shows her growth from not being able to talk at all, to being able to hold a conversation, even if it was slow and prolonged. A final example of her accomplishments would be in Stage 3 when she asked Jeanette “‘Why do you cry'’” (239)? Here, she is able to console and try to talk to Jeanette , who is basically her enemy. Whether or not she succeeds is another story, but she was able to connect to her for a bit, which might lead her to act more human and normal in the future. Even though she had some struggle, the accomplishments and things she did definitely outweigh the

Stage 3 where Claudette “played checkers with [the purebred girls]” (Russell 237). This Depicts her growth because before, she was hardly able to even talk, and now, she is able to play checkers. This also symbolizes her losing her culture and gaining human culture. Since she has been exposed to all of these things, she is starting to understand how to work and how to learn, and get better at human things. Another example of Claudette being adapted into human society would be in Stage 4 when Claudette says she “ignored [Jeanette] and continued down the hall” (Russell 241). Not only was Claudette able to learn the Sausalito (even if she did forget part of it and needed Mirabella to crash the ball) she was able to learn, and somewhat comprehend the steps. She was even able to ignore a human trait. Whether or not she actually remembered the steps was one thing, but all humans make mistakes, especially since Claudette is now considered a human. Even though Claudette had some failures along the way, it was all a work-in-progress to adapt her to human society and fit into the