St. Sucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Book Review

Adjusting to a different culture is not easy. This is what takes place in the short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell. The story is about a pack of wolf girls who are forced to live in a new cultural society. These wolf girls will have to disregard their past cultures and adapt to the ways of regular humans, like their parents wanted them too. How the wolf girls react to their new surroundings by finding everything new, exciting, and interesting is what makes the epigraph in stage 1.

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 stage two of Karen Russell’s story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, the epigraph informs us that the girls will be working very hard and will experience stress which will cause emotional distress and periods of unhappiness. As well as that they must “..must work hard to adjust to the new culture”.The pack of girls felt as if they weren’t in their place or where they belonged. They didn’t find their purpose yet. The girls during this stage will experience feelings of being “isolated..,depressed, or generally uncomfortable” as they begin to adjust to their new environment.

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.

Claudette encounters cultural shock and struggles to assimilate, however, she also reaches many milestones on her journey to becoming human. One example of Claudette struggling finds Jeanette crying and says “Why you cry?”... instinctively reaching over

This work may be stressful, and students may experience a strong sense of dislocation. They may miss certain foods. They may spend a lot of time daydreaming during this period. Many students feel isolated, irritated, bewildered, depressed, or generally uncomfortable” (page 229). The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock states that once the wolf girls experience these negative sentiments, they have entered stage two. During stage two, Russell’s development of Claudette directly corresponds with the epigraph. Claudette found that she was always “irritated, bewildered, depressed… uncomfortable and between stages”(page 229). This lines up perfectly with the Handbook, which describes feelings of discomfort and dislocation among the pack. Claudette had even “begun to snarl at [her] own reflection as if it were a stranger,” showing that she is very uncomfortable with the changes that have happened to her, both physically and mentally. In Stage 2, when the girls had begun to drift apart, Claudette found where she fit in, explaining that she “was one of the good girls. Not great and not terrible, solidly middle of the pack” (Russell 232). This idea of Claudette being a good but imperfect character connects to her relation to the Handbook, as she mostly follows along with its expectations but occasionally lags

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.

People who endure dislocation feel out of place and have many mixed emotions. Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” tells the story of a group of girls who suffer from lycanthropy including Jeanette, Claudette, and Mirabella. The “pack” of girls go through many stages to rehabilitate to their human identity. The girls experience culture shock and have to work as they progress through the stage.

When Jeannette’s mom gives birth to her fourth child; named Maureen, Jeannette says to her, “I promised her I’d always take care of her” (46). She promises to take care of Maureen, and to take care of her Jeannette has to keep motivated and hope for the best, but also remain dedicated and try her hardest. Making that promise shows Jeannette is mature and she will accomplish whatever is possible for Maureen. As life moves on, Jeannette wants to feel like she knows what is going on in the world, “But a newspaper reporter… I decided I wanted to be one of the people who knew what was really going on” (204). When she talks about wanting to be “one of those people,” she uses diction. Furthermore, using those words Jeannette stresses her point about how reporters are different from everybody else in the world. She determines what she wants to be when she grows up. However, to become a reporter, Jeannette has to stay motivated and committed toward her goal. Having those qualities in life shows how Jeannette is mature. Shortly, Jeannette comes up with more goals in life and one of them is, “‘I want to go to college in New York,’ I said” (235). As soon as Jeannette made the decision that she wanted to live, and go to college in New York, she had to work hard toward her goal. She had to stay inclined to work hard so she can be accepted to a school in New York. During the novel, Jeannette manages to be motivated throughout her life and she exhibits that even through hard times shows she is

For example, instead of teacher Jeanette how to swim, Rex throws her into the Hot Springs and then Rex says to her, “You can't cling to the side your whole life...If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.”(Walls 66). Jeannette now learns that the only person that can help her is herself because she can't rely on others to save her. Another example is, Jeannette must find acceptance from her classmates at school and her neighbors in her new neighborhoods. At first the people at her new school think that she is a teachers pet because she won't stop raising her hand in class. Which she then got beat up after school. She tried again at Mary S. Black Elementary but the teacher didn't like her so that didn't turn out very well either. When she went to Welch Elementary she was put into special classes. People then started to whisper about the Walls kids all day. At the end of the day she is getting beat up again by some black girls. Jeannette even had to go dumpster diving for food at school. Her life trying to get along with her neighbors wasn't to great either. One of her neighboors she had, Billy Deal, who also has a drunk father like Jeannette's. Billy shows Jeannete his house and she laughs when she sees that his father pissed himself. Billy was not very happy about that and shouts “Aw, now, don't go get all high-and-mighty on me,”

This proves itself by how Claudette took on a large dose of self-confidence and independence. At the installation of the fourth section, Claudette ignored Jeanette’s need for help and continued with what she needed to accomplish for herself to be successful at the time. Claudette’s confidence and independence shows her understanding of situations and comfort in her new life. Further along in the fourth stage, when the Debutante Ball began, Claudette had her hair swept “back into high, bouffant hairstyles” and was “wearing a white organdy dress with orange polka dots” while eating fancy hors d’œuvres (Russell 242). This display of comportement further shows her confidence and acclimation to the human culture through her ability to stand the high class situation. Nearing the end of Stage Four when Mirabella must leave St.Lucy’s for her behavior at the ball, Claudette packed a “tin lunch bail for [Mirabella]: two jelly sandwiches on saltine crackers, a chloroformed squirrel, a gilt-edged placard of St.Bolio” and left it with a little note (Russell 245). This discernable care for Mirabella and ability to make a lunch and most importantly, write a note shows Claudette’s amnetity with her newly attainable

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.

There are many things that influence how one portrays or performs race. Race is something that cannot be easily, psychically changed, but it is such an important part of one’s identity and can be manipulated based on ever changing surrounding forces. People perform race even within their specified “race” because of the influences of other races around themselves.

The novel by Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale, was truly a remarkable and unbeatable story depicting two women who have taken extremely opposite stands in regards to Nazis occupation in France. Throughout the storyline, Hannah was able to weave the ink on a page into wondrous and thrilling narrations from these two sisters. Indeed, one almost feels as if they were completely submerged in the mind’s of these dynamic characters. In a way, Vianne and Isabelle can be compared to the actions of the natural elements of fire and water. One goes with the flow, not really pushing against the current; while the other blazes against everything in its path, not stopping for anything, or anyone. Yet, they both are a force of nature in their own right. Vianne and Isabelle both have their reasons for acting in their particular manner throughout the storyline.

Last Thursday I had a very interesting experience. Oh, sorry, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I am Maddie, and this is my slightly embarrassing story that is both wet, and wild!. It all began at Catalina when my group was going tide pooling…