In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” Karen Russell discusses how wolf girls develop and how nuns guided them. The girls are wolf like and their parents are wolves, their parents sent them for a better opportunity to have a better life. The nuns use The Jesuit Handbook On Lycanthropic Culture Shock to help develop the girls. The book helped them teach the girls and guide them throughout the stages the stages are the different ways that help the nuns when they use the handbook. Karen Russell explains how the girls developed in the stages. Russell specifically talks about how the narrator, Claudette has developed, which leads into being accepted into the human culture. After arriving at “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, …show more content…
This shows how she has lost all sense of getting back to her original home from her new home, “I couldn’t remember how to find the way back on my own” (Russell 246). Claudette would have struggled if it had not been for her company going to her old home, because the new home had become more of a home than the old cave. The cave where all the girls grew up is the starting point of the story and ending point when she gets back, “The cave looked so much smaller than [she] remembered it” (Russell 246). This explains how she has grown accustomed to big houses and the cave, which was once big is very small, leading to her own family to forget who she is. “My mother recoiled from me, as if [she] was a stranger” (Russell 246). This then leads to her mother clamping down on her ankle as a sense of seeing if it is her real daughter, her mother is proud yet said. She then told her first human lie, telling he mother the she was home (Russell 246). This is why Claudette can only sometimes
In the short story Doe Season, by David Michael Kaplan, the nine-year-old protagonist, Andrea, also known as Andy, the tomboy goes out on a hunting trip and endures many different experiences. The theme of coming of age and the struggle most children are forced to experience when faced with the reality of having to grow up and leave childhood behind is presented in this story. Many readers of this story only see a girl going hunting with her father, his friend Charlie, and son Mac, because she wants to be one of the guys. An important aspect of the story that is often overlooked is that Andy is going hunting because she doesn't want to become a woman because she is afraid of the changes that will occur in her body.
Jeannette and her siblings were all forced into completing tasks and taking on roles for themselves and their other siblings that are heartbreaking to read about and uncommon for most children to experience and tackle themselves. Much of this had to do with the lack of responsibility on their parents’ part and the ways they decided to live. As I have read the book, I have been amazed over and over again at the ways Jeannette handled the parental roles—both mother and father. She was very tough and never gave up, but you could tell there were other times she was just plain discouraged. One example we can see her using the roles to benefit her siblings was when her mom left to Charleston to “renew her teaching certificate” for 8 weeks and put Jeannette in charge of the money. She budgeted out $25 a week to provide the groceries and pay all of the bills that would need to be taken care of. Even though Jeannette gave her father (Rex) money when he asked, she
Jeannette is on a quest to better herself. Jeannette and her sister Lori always talked about growing up and escaping to New York City (Walls 222). They dream of making it big unlike their parents. Lori began to see New York as “this glowing, bustling place at the end of a long road where she could become the person she was meant to be” (Walls 222). This idea began to rub off on Jeannette so she too felt that way. By viewing the city this way, Jeannette created a goal for herself. She went off to seek the person she was meant to be. She had a purpose now and this gave her a quest. She never gave up because she wrote the memoir from New York City and even sees her homeless mother as she passes by in a taxi on her way to her city apartment (Walls 9). Jeannette was determined on her quest and persevered through it all to become the person she is
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 wolves being trained by nuns to be more human in character is a symbol for immigration, as the girls are forced to make major changes in their lives in order to fit in with their new environment and adapt to a new culture.
In the book The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley, the book is a twist to what readers would expect. In the story, a girl name Alette is chosen for a certain mission and she goes in not knowing what to expect. Alette goes on these journey and face with challenges that she must overcome, but it is more about the destination then than the journey itself. One of the important theme throughout the book is transformation.
A breathtaking saga of a young girl’s tragic memories of her childhood. As with Ellen, Gibbons’ parents both died before she was twelve-years-old, forming the family. basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and actions of Ellen. The simplistic and humble attitude that both Gibbons and Ellen epitomizes in the novel is portrayed through diction and dialogue.
Laura's mother and brother shared some of her fragile tendencies. Amanda, Laura's mother, continually lives in the past. Her reflection of her teenage years continually haunts Laura. To the point where she forces her to see a "Gentleman Caller" it is then that Tom reminds his mother not to "expect to much of Laura" she is unlike other girls. But Laura's mother has not allowed herself nor the rest of the family to see Laura as different from other girls. Amanda continually lives in the past when she was young a pretty and lived on the plantation. Laura must feel she can never live up to her mothers expectations. Her mother continually reminds her of her differences throughout the play.
There are many fictional elements that are important when it comes to short stories. These elements help the reader understand the story in more depth, and help to gain a better understanding of what the author’s purpose is. One of these elements is setting. Setting is the time and place in which a story takes place, it can help determine the mood, influence how characters’ act, change the dialog in the story and can reflect how the characters interact in society. In the short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” the setting is a very important element to show the development of the girls and how they changed throughout the story. There are two different places which we consider the setting. There is the church and the cave. With these two different settings we see different lessons being taught in each
This is an example of Jeannette’s parents trying to keep their children as optimistic as possible.They knew that their life would be rough and tough based on what they had gone through however if they always kept the positive mindset it would make things a lot easier for
Her family stayed three years at the camp. Jeanne did not enjoy living in these camps. The memories of the past still haunted her as she grew older. “Writing it has been a way of coming to terms with the impact these years have had on my entire life” (pg
One of her earliest memories came from when she was three years old. Jeannette had to go to the hospital because she burned herself cooking hot dogs. Her parents didn’t like hospitals, so for that reason after a few weeks they came and took her away. Jeannette and her family were constantly moving from place to place, sometimes staying no more than one night somewhere. Her father always lied to them saying that they had to keep moving because he was wanted by the FBI. Jeannette’s mother never took much interest in Jeannette or her siblings, because the mother didn’t want them and thought that they were bothersome and in the way.
Jeannette Walls was born into a poor family who often had to live homeless and without food. The environment in which she grew up in is what gave her the characteristics she possesses. One trait that describes Jeannette is that she is very adventurous. Since she was constantly exposed to new surroundings, she became curious of them. While she was homeless in the desert, she would play a game with her father called Monster Hunting. She grew to not be afraid of anything, since she could fight off these so called “monsters.” Also, Jeannette is very decisive. To get away from Welch, a poor town in West Virginia, she made sure that she would get enough money to move to New York. She did this by getting a job to save up money for a bus ticket and for college. Along with this, Jeannette is very ambitious. She worked very hard to get accepted into college by working for the school newspaper, since she wanted to become a journalist. On the other hand, Melba Patillo was born into a middle class family who lived in Lit...
“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, by Karen Russell is the story of a pack of human girls who were born of werewolves. They are taken from their families in the wilderness and brought to a St. Lucy’s. It was here that they were to be civilized. The process of civilization involved stripping them of their personal and cultural identities and retraining them in a manner that was acceptable to the human world. This is a close analogy to the Residential Schools of Cultural Assimilation for native Americans from 1887 to the early 1950’s.
From the very beginning of the narrator's vacation, the surroundings seem not right. There is "something queer" about the mansion where she resides it becomes obvious that her attempt to rest from her untold illness will not follow as planned. The house is an "ancestral" and "hereditary estate...long untenanted" invoking fanciful gothic images of a "haunted house" (3). The house they choose to reside in for the three...
In the short story, “Girl,” the narrator describes certain tasks a woman should be responsible for based on the narrator’s culture, time period, and social standing. This story also reflects the coming of age of this girl, her transition into a lady, and shows the age gap between the mother and the daughter. The mother has certain beliefs that she is trying to pass to her daughter for her well-being, but the daughter is confused by this regimented life style. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, uses various tones to show a second person point of view and repetition to demonstrate what these responsibilities felt like, how she had to behave based on her social standing, and how to follow traditional customs.