Preview

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

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
595 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis
We’d heard rumors about former wolf-girls who never adapted to their new culture. It was assumed that they were returned to our native country, the vanishing woods. We liked to speculate about this before bedtime, scaring ourselves with stories of catastrophic bliss. It was the disgrace, the failure that we all guiltily hoped for in our hard beds. Twitching with the shadow question: Whatever will become of me?

***

At the insistence of Dr. Carney, I chose to start my semester by reading one of Karen Russell’s short stories, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” The story is the title tale in her collection of short stories. Russell is coming to TCNJ in December for an installment of the Visiting Writers Series, and I always find it to be a good idea to familiarize myself with authors’ works before attending their readings – Considering I’m in the class hosting the event, this is no longer an option, but a (happy!) obligation. …show more content…
It is, in a word, incredible. I spent my summer reading what I like to call “mind-melters” – you know, the books that take very little effort and are easy to read between naps at the beach. If those books were intended to give my mind a much-needed break (and they were), than this was just the short story I needed to get those thinking muscles working again. Which is totally hypocritical, considering I just said I regret reading the story so early in the semester, but if Walt Whitman can contradict himself, so can I, right?
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Book Report: the Bright Forever
    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Book Report: the Bright Forever

    On a sleepy summer evening in a tiny Indiana town on July 5, nine-year-old girl Katie Mackey hops on her bike and rushes out to return overdue books to the library. This girl was never to return. Mr. Henry Dees, a tutor to Katie Mackey, teaches Katie summer…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Book Report on Dear America Series- Diary of Hattie Campbell
    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Book Report on Dear America Series- Diary of Hattie Campbell

    This book, written by Kristiana Gregory, is about a thirteen year old girl from Pennsylvania, Hattie Campbell. On her birthday, she was given a diary by her mother and her Aunt June. In the first entry, she mentions her Uncle Milton’s death three days ago while fixing her family’s barn and his funeral the eve of her birthday. At the funeral, the coffin fell out of their cart and was washed into the nearby river. Her father tried to save it but was almost sucked into the paddles of a riverboat. As a sign of apology, the riverboat captain agreed to give Mr Campbell and his family free tickets on his riverboat to go anywhere they wanted. That night, he announced that the family would be heading to the untamed West, at that time occupied by the Indians who were known to be violent. Mrs Campbell was very angry and initiated a “cold war” with her husband. Two days later, she relents and agrees to head out West.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolf Analysis
    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages

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

    “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell is a short story about a “pack” of girls raised by werewolves that are severely lycanthropic. Their parents send them to a home called St. Lucy’s run by Jesuit nuns that’s goal is to eradicate all traces of wolf culture and behavior from the girls, and assimilate them into human culture. To help them, the nuns have a handbook called “The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock”. The handbook divides each part of the “packs” development into human culture into 5 stages. The main character, Claudette, develops a lot throughout each of the 5 stages, but still has some struggles. By the end of the story, Claudette is very close to fully adapting, but still has some wolf like tendencies.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Analyze the Effects That the Wealthiest Individuals of the Gilded Age Had on America
    • 2538 Words
    • 73 Pages

    Analyze the Effects That the Wealthiest Individuals of the Gilded Age Had on America

    Reilly, Deborah. The Cairns Collection of American Women Writers, 1620-1900: A Guide and Working List. [Madison]: University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. 8+. Print.…

    • 2538 Words
    • 73 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis of Karen Russell
    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis of Karen Russell

    St. Lucy’s Home for girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell’s collection of fantastical short stories take all that is mundane and fractures it into a fantastical world with humor, dramatic tone, or cultural/religious undertones. Russell whirls a reader into her stories with her capability to encase a reader in the story with her repetition of one’s senses. Constantly brining in the senses of a reader brought in the smells of a surrounding from the protagonist or in this case the narrator. In St. Lucy’s Home for girls Raised by Wolves, our narrator, Claudette, speaks from the mind of a half human half wolf in transition. Of the pack’s reaction to the nuns, how Sister Josephine “tasted like sweat and freckles” (226) after Claudette bit her ankle, which she “smelled easy to kill” (226); how the mousy social worker was “nervous smelling” (226), eventually Claudette herself “smelled like a purebred girl, easy to kill” (242). When the sisters were reunited with the brothers they no longer smelt as of family they knew but of “pomade and cold, sterile sweat” (241). Russell creates such realistic imagery in a non-realistic world. Not just with scents but with a sense of touch sensory. How the girls went “knuckling along” (224) the floors when they first arrived; even when speaking, their ineptitude to force their tongues to “curl around our false new names” (229) creates such realistic imagery you sense your tongue running across your own teeth.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Walt Whitman's 'When I Heard The Learn' D Astronomer
    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Walt Whitman's 'When I Heard The Learn' D Astronomer

    found the poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman interesting. The poem was straightforward for the most part so I found it easier to read than many of the other poems. First, I found the use of the word gliding in the poem very strange. The speaker was in an astronomy lecture hall and he stood up and left in the middle of the lecture. When I imagine an individual standing up in the middle of a hall, I think of it being disturbing, loud and annoying. The choice of the words rising and gliding made it sound like the writer stood up smoothly and gracefully which I found strange in the context. Also, the line that says “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick.” I understood unaccountable as in the author wasn’t feeling…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis
    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages

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

    St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is a magical realism story about a group of girls, whose parents are wolves, being rehabilitated to live like human girls. They are taken to a Catholic school and are taught how to speak and act by nuns. It is about the action in the story but it can be interpreted to be about outcasts. One of the girls, Mirabella, is left out of things and doesn’t fit in, eventually she gets abandoned. This story shows us how an outcast might feel. Karen Russell’s style creates a memorable lesson.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis
    • 208 Words
    • 1 Page

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

    In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” Jeannette was the most successful girl of the pack. She adapted to the St. Lucy’s home for girls, where she lives and learn how to live like a human being. The Werewolves were similar to the Native Americans since they were savage and uncivilized. Jeannette who struggled to adapt to her new life learned that once people adapt to something, they lose their old lives not wanting to go back.…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis
    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages

    St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

    The story “St, Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by author Karen Russell is a story a pack of girls (raised by wolves) that are taken out of the woods and into a home to make them into proper humans. The main character, Claudette develops throughout this story and reacts in different ways to the rehabilitation. The nuns training them are following the “Jesuit Handbook for Lycanthropic Culture Shock” and the different epigraphs in the story are based off of this book, and the epigraphs predict how they will react to the rehabilitations in each section. In every section, Claudette reacts to the training as predicted, and this develops her as a functioning human throughout the story.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Poem Analysis: Lying in a Hammock
    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Poem Analysis: Lying in a Hammock

    This poem is really cool. I like it a lot. From the title all the way until the second to last line of the poem, one may think that this piece is a simplistically vivid description of a man and his farm. With such beautiful imagery, the reader anticipates an enjoyable conclusion; however, they are treated to a harsh wake-up call in the last line. I needed to read this poem multiple times before I could fully interpret it. Although they just seem like just beautiful descriptions, every line in this poem contains hidden negative symbolism about the speaker’s life.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Close Reading: Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself
    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Close Reading: Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

    In Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of Myself, I found different key pieces of Whitman’s diction and language to be more in depth and not so cut, black and white. This poem really makes you think by giving you different perspectives of life to wonder about through the use of his words. I have gotten the impression that Whitman really values himself and his beliefs of a good world and being alive in the present is worthwhile to him. His words are very powerful, thoughtful and even strong enough to change somebodies view of how they see the world. Whitman includes inspirational, yet erotic views of how he feels for his soul and the life around him.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Native Americans and Colonists
    • 1621 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Native Americans and Colonists

    Rowlandson Mary, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” The Norton Anthology American Literature. Shorter 7th ed. Ed. Reidhead Julia. New York, NY: Norton & Company, Inc, 2008. Pg. 118-134. Print.…

    • 1621 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Native and European Relations in Early America
    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Native and European Relations in Early America

    Rowlandson, Mary. “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayem et al. 2nd ed. Vol 1. New York: Norton, 1979. 245.…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    St Kucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis
    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages

    St Kucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves Analysis

    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.…

    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Haunting Of Hill House Analysis
    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Haunting Of Hill House Analysis

    In a gothic novel, or story, the setting is exclusive to the plot. If a gothic story doesn’t have a great setting, the plot will not be as enthralling with a weak setting. A gothic setting must have dark elements and horrifying twists and turns to drive the story.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics