St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Summary

In the story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell there is a clear tone present through the whole reading. The tone in this story is the desire to be successful. The wolf girls are taken to St. Lucy’s so they can successfully be trained on how to be civilized. Their families have sent them away so they can make a better life for themselves. The parents of the girls were not accepted by the locals because of they are unable to act civilized. Therefore, sending the girls away was an offer the parents could not pass up. However, most of the girls seem to do very well at this school while others seem to not do so well. The story is being told through Claudette who the middle aged sister. Claudette watches her sisters’ struggle

Lucy’s they realize they have no choice but to shape up and learn how to be civilized. Claudette watches herself proceed through the stages, and she watches her younger sister Mirabella struggle the most. Through the whole story the tone of desire is seen. In the text it says “…students may experience a strong sense of dislocation.” (Russell, 231) The girls feeling uncomfortable and confused was the mood in the beginning of the short story. In the beginning they run wild and destroy the rooms, and dig holes out on the grounds of St. Lucy’s. They soon realize what they are doing is not appropriate anymore, and that they have no choice but to follow what the Sisters’ tell them to do. As they progress through the five stages they begin to question why they acted like they did previously, and how much better their new civilized culture is. The wolf girls begin to try and impress the Sisters and show them how they can be civilized, and that they can change unlike Mirabella. Claudette watches Jeanette succeed the best out of everyone, and hates her for doing so well so fast after arriving at their new home. Later in the story Claudette tries to be better than Jeanette when she practices her dancing late at night. Claudette desires to be the best and show that she can change her ways, and function properly like the St. Lucy’s Sisters want them

She watches her younger sister struggle to adapt to the new changes and lifestyle. The group of girls begin to ostracize their youngest sister because they do not want to fail like her too. By watching their sister be unsuccessful it makes them want to succeed that much more. Jeanette, the oldest sister, does well right from the start. She is obviously the favorite, but she also takes the whole process seriously. The other sisters hate Jeanette because she does so well with changing who she is, and how she was raised.Another big motivation for the girls is because they do not know what happens if they do not make it successfully through all five stages to civilization. The unknown scares all of the girls, and drives them to do better. This motivation is seen in all of the fifteen sisters. At the end of the story when Mirabella is no longer at St. Lucy’s the girls know they probably will never see their sister again, and this makes them sad, but also relieved at the same time they will not have to deal with their failing sister