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

In the story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell, the characters, Claudette, Jeanette and Mirabella are humans living with a wolf family. The girls were sent to St. Lucy’s to learn human behaviors. “The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock” is used to show how the girls will react to their development. Claudette, by the end of the story, has fully adapted to human society.
In stage 1, Claudette was exploring her new, exciting environment. The girls tore through stage 3 girls’ clothes and shattered light bulbs. “The deacon handed out some stale cupcakes” ( Russell, 237), which shows the girls eat human food. Claudette realized she needed to change when she saw Mirabella get tranquilized for not listening.

Claudette wore shoes and started walking on two feet instead of four in stage 2, this shows she adjusting to her new culture.

She was now reading at a 5th grade level and followed the nuns instructions. Claudette would remind herself “mouth shut, shoes on feet” ( Russell, 240). This also shows she’s trying to change for her parents sake and to be better than Jeanette.
Stage 3, Claudette separates herself from Mirabella so that she doesn’t get held back. She also struggles to remember her mother, “struggling to conjure up a picture” ( Russell, 247). She begun to have human habits like “taking dainty bites of peas and borscht” ( Russell, 244). Claudette also learned how to ride a bike and it made her enjoy biking when the nuns said “being human is like riding a bicycle” ( Russell, 246). “Mirabella would run after the bicycles, growling old names. We pedaled faster.” ( Russell, 246), this shows the Claudette wants to become human.
Stage 4 was when the girls had their first dance and their first interaction with the brothers since being wolf. Claudette being worried about the sausalito shows she wants to make a good impression on the nuns and the brothers. When Claudette became nervous and messed up, “Mirabella had intercepted my eye-cry for help. She chewed through her restraints and tackled me from behind.” ( Russell, 250). Claudette acted mad at Mirabella so the nuns would approve. In this stage, like said in the epigraph, Claudette’s confidence

grows.
During stage 5, Claudette went visit her family after graduating from St. Lucy's. She had a woodsman take her to the cave because she had forgotten where it was. She dressed up nice and took human food, "prosciutto and dill pickles in picnic basket," ( Russell, 251). When she arrived the cave seemed smaller because instead of being on all fours, she was on two feet.
Claudette has gone through the process of adapting to human society. She has had some struggles because she misses her family and her family would be disappointed in her if she didn’t follow through with the good life they tried giving her. By the end, Claudette has fully adapted to human society.