Summary Of St. Lucy's Home

Claudette the teller of the story attends St. Lucy’s home along with her pack of sisters. They go through five main stages of how to integrate and adapt their way into the new environment. Throughout these five stages there are specific changes the girls have went through in each stage, such as walking, self confidence, independence, and talents. In the end of the story Claudette returns to the cave as she had passed the test and has become fully prepared and able to go between both cultures. I have come to the assumption that Claudette has not been fully integrated by the end of the story.
Beginning with Stage One, the stage where the girls were first introduced to St. Lucy’s home. An exciting new establishment that the girls destroyed by lubricating on the beds, smashing light bulbs, and pawing at neat underwear piles (Russell, pg. 237). Afterwards the nuns took the girls outside, where they explored more and dug around and by the end of the stage paragraph they received their very first human name. During the first stage the girls began to adjust into their new environment by making it like their own, a dark and dirty.
Stage Two, the stage of daydreams and mental darkness as they notice the effort they have to put to adapt.
The girls, all except Mirabella had focused on keeping their mouths shut and eyes on their feet. Daydreaming about home, running away, their past how they missed it so. Knowing they would be rejected by both cultures (Lycanthropic and human) if they were to return to their homes. So they stayed, obedient to most orders given and depressed, holding back the desires to act as they naturally would their former werewolf selves. Claudette was paired with her sister Mirabella who got her in trouble earning her a private slideshow of women that haven’t adapted into the human world (Russell, pg.243). By the end of Stage Two Claudette sped her way into Stage
Three.
The stage to where they begin to lose the desire to wag invisible tails, find it strange and appalling to be around. The new environment has begun to kick in for the girls, learning new things such as how to play checkers, how to ride a bicycle, dance, and play golf. Their great improvements on adjusting into the human world earned them the award of hosting a debutant ball, to include invitations the brothers and a few more guests making her ‘invisible tail go limp.’(Russell, pg.246) Claudette still thinks in wolf ways, such as her invisible tail and how things are simpler in the woods than in the human world, in the stage where the new culture is supposed to be superior to their host culture. Stage three is the stage where Claudette is tied between both cultures. In the end the girls were howling along with the choir.
Stage Four, the stage where everything is beginning to make sense to the girls. The debutant approaching, Claudette took her extra time practicing the Sausalito in her spare time. So stuck in her own business that when her own sister needed help, ending up with karma hitting her later during the Sausalito as she forgot the steps, only receiving help from Mirabella by being tackled. Even though she was yelling at her little sister for ruining the dance she still had the greatest desire to roll over and lick her ears (Russell, pg. 250). Claudette may have become familiar with her new environment but she is still developing in stage for. If her greatest desire was expressed on Mirabella, she would’ve had points taken away from her overall score of improvement at St. Lucy’s.
Finally stage five, the time she should be fully developed and returns to the cave where she was raised. Even though she speaks her first ‘human lie, claiming she was home. She isn’t home either way, even though the stages and training was fully finished, Claudette still isn’t fully developed. She hasn’t fully developed into the human life, still much more to learn from the world than what has been taught at St. Lucy’s. The only one who was near fully developing was Jeanette because she knew how to properly speak to people and adjusted into the human life the best of all her sisters. Even though Claudette did advance in reading she hasn’t really talked a lot to anyone in the story, when she did speak it was usually barking orders at Mirabella. Claudette didn’t fully develop in the story, though she did develop in the story, she isn’t finished developing by the end of the story. Some might say she is just beginning development as if it were a simple introduction into the human world.