Tell The Wolves Im Home Themes

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Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a beautifully crafted novel by Carol Rifka Brunt. This novel discusses a serious outbreak during the 1980s in the United States, AIDS. Brunt uses this tragic ‘illness’ to create the story of June Elbus, protagonist. Tell the Wolves I’m Home is based the 1987’s Elbus household, where June Elbus, age fourteen, Greta Elbus, age sixteen, and their mother and father live. Although, that isn’t where this story takes place. It begins with Greta and June visiting their uncle Finn, who has been diagnosed with AIDS. June has a special connection with Finn and the reader can thoroughly understand that through June’s narration. Sadly, Finn does pass away later in the novel, but this allows for a new character to develop, Toby. Toby was the partner of Finn. Now that Finn has passed, June feels a special connection with Toby. Once Toby and June are united, they share stories of Finn and together learn to heal from the passing of Finn. Throughout the novel there is a recurring theme, acceptance. In order for the reader to connect …show more content…

The main symbol that strongly corresponds with the theme in Finn’s coat. At the beginning of the novel, June is scared of catching AIDS, but, once Finn passes, June sees Toby wearing Finn’s coat. At this point in the novel, June was angry with Toby for ‘killing’ Finn, but she is able to quickly get over it because Toby is wearing Finn’s coat because she learns that Finn meant as much to him as he did to her. The more impactful moment with this theme is when June and Toby are crying over the loss of Finn. “I didn’t know if you could catch AIDS from tears, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t afraid of things like that anymore.” (Brunt 274) June gets over her fear of getting AIDS. This shows the growth of June and how she learned to accepted Toby as a person and not an

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