Preview

Symbolism In St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
393 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Symbolism In St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves
Being pressured to conform to a culture or society that is foreign is difficult while constantly being judged by others. In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell a pack of girls raised by werewolves are brought to a home run by nuns where they are taught how to act more like humans. From a young age, we learn a set of “rules” on how to act in a society. The author uses characterization and symbolism to express this theme.
Throughout the story, symbolism is used to show how we conform to certain standards. The nuns represent society trying to force people into acting a certain way while the girls symbolize people who are different. When the girls are beginning to adjust to the new environment they start
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • 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
  • Good Essays

    St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolf Analysis
    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages

    St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolf Analysis

    Throughout the short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell, Claudette displays how she has not fully adapted to human society and reverts back to her origin of the wolf. When Claudette gets anxious, there were numerous times when she turns to wolf behavior for comfort. She narrows her eyes at Kyle and flattens her ears, (Russell 242) and when the time comes to do Sausalito, Claudette panics and can only remember how to the “pump and pump” (Russell, 243). Claudette advances through the stages as necessary, but in desperate times she forgets everything the nuns have taught her.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good 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

    Ap Lit- Function on Foil Character in the Scarlet Letter
    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ap Lit- Function on Foil Character in the Scarlet Letter

    As time goes by and Pearl grows up, she begins to become her own person, similar and different from her mother. She begins to be as beautiful and unordinary as her mother, they are both portrayed as opposite of those in the Puritan society who are gray and dull. As Hester is portrayed as a strong, religious, and very human, Pearl however, is illustrated as a mythical creature who is a symbol of nature. Hester longs to be able to be free and glowing the way her daughter is; the way she once was as a child. This highlights Hester’s weakness of guilt and shame for her sins.…

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

    Symbolism In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Symbolism In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

    As someone reads, it is likely that they witness symbolism. Whether they notice or not is to be determined. Symbolism may serve a greater propose then it seem and it might even foreshadow a certain feeling or event. In the play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there are many examples of symbolism. In this play, sunshine, Mama’s “raggedy-looking” plant, and the new house represent the characters’ happiness, relationship, and hope.…

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

    Eng 125, Week 2
    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Eng 125, Week 2

    “A symbol is something that has a literal identity but also strands for something else,” (Clugston, R., 2010). With the information that was already given about a girl losing their virginity and seeing the wolf, this is the most obvious form of symbolism in the story of the Little Red Riding Hood. In this story, it may be…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rehearsal Techniques to Explore Relationships between Women
    • 323 Words
    • 1 Page

    Rehearsal Techniques to Explore Relationships between Women

    To explore the relationships between the women in this scene, the status of each character at different points could be considered. Looking at the extract from page 9 to 19, I would ask the performers to pick a section and read through the lines, deciding the order of each characters’ status. To do this, they could use levels to assert their character’s dominance in the scene. For example, the women of the lowest rank could kneel on the floor and the highest could stand on a chair. This would benefit the performers as the exploration of status would indicate the differences in the character’s personalities and how the position of status changes throughout the scene.…

    • 323 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In How To Read Like A Professor
    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Symbolism In How To Read Like A Professor

    It should be understood that symbolism can have meaning outside the story. The author could be relating to him or herself, which means that symbolism could mean anything to the author. But, that means it can be hard understand, as you don’t have the same experience as the author but there will probably be something in the passage that hints to the authors meaning, queuing you to understand the…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Wolves Among Christian Youth Analysis
    • 1343 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Wolves Among Christian Youth Analysis

    Using this book as a guide, the nuns usher this pack of female werewolves through a series of stages to adapt them to human culture. While conformity to human customs is repulsive to her instincts, as time goes on Claudette begins to admire (or at least envy) her older sister Jeanette’s ability to adapt to human culture so quickly. This breeds resentment, as their pack assumes Jeanette feels superior to her sisters. In a hypocritical fashion, when Claudette does finally begin to adapt as Jeanette did, Claudette turns around and takes pity on her younger sister Mirabella, who is unable to adapt to the nun’s teachings. Her inability to conform to the nun’s teachings brings the pack to worry about, and subsequently despise Mirabella. As Claudette explains it, “The pack hated Jeanette, but we hated Mirabella more. We began to avoid her… It was scary to be ambushed by your sister. I’d bristle and growl, the way that I’d begun to snarl at my own reflection as if it were a stranger” (Russell 271). This thin line of duality Claudette walks is much like the one presented to those being forcefully educated in their ancestors’ religion to appease their parents. While a part of such a…

    • 1343 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In The Bell Jar
    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Symbolism In The Bell Jar

    Towards the beginning, there is not much symbolism, but one starts to see small symbols placed in chapters as Esther leaves New York; when Esther lets her clothes drift out of the window, it symbolizes her busy, occupied life drifting out of her hands, and succumbing to a lesser state of mental health. Even in the beginning of the novel, Esther is mentally ill, but her illness intensifies as the novel progresses because during the summer, Esther is no longer required to do anything- she is not in New York, she does not have a job, and she is not accepted into the writing class that she intended to go to, so she could no longer defer her thoughts. A more notable use of symbolism in The Bell Jar happens to be the name of the novel. Esther sees herself in a “bell jar”, an enclosed jar blocking off her surroundings; she cannot reach the rest of the outside world, and is trapped in a tight space of her own depression. A final use of symbolism, perhaps the most powerful, is the character Joan Gilling. Joan is, symbolically, Esther’s mental illness. As Esther prepares to check out of her residential mental hospital, Joan hangs herself in the woods, symbolizing the death of Esther’s mental illness, and her recovery; “the bell jar would never descend on [her]…

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

    A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Paper
    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Paper

    In the piece, literary symbols are used to convey the overall theme of being a lady in the story. Specifically, the grandmother’s hat is a symbol. In the beginning of the story, she says that she wears the navy blue straw sailor hat with cloth violets on it only so people could identify that she is a lady in case she is lying dead in a ditch on the side of the road as a result of an automobile accident. The hat represents her selfishness and self-entitlement in regard to being a lady.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Taming Of The Shrew Comparison
    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Taming Of The Shrew Comparison

    The play shows a lot of gender dominance, loyalty and obedience and the importance it plays in relationships and how to treat females. The story of Kat and Patrick’s relationship shows that you shouldn’t judge people on appearances. Patrick thinks there is no way he could actually like Kat but in the end she turns out to be the girl he falls in love with. The idea of not judging on appearances relates to real life. At the beginning of the film Michael walks through the courtyard with Cameron and informs him about the different social groups at Padua High School. The examples of Kat and Patrick show us that people can be different compared to how they first appeared to you. The movie wants us to learn that we should get to know someone, because if we judge on appearance only we could miss out on a great friendship or…

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

    Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Henry David Thoreau
    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Henry David Thoreau

    Through the culture of youth, so rampant among all, there is an aura of almost strict defiance from all modern social norms. Whether it be due to a yearning for greater unknown freedoms akin to solidarity, or even manipulation by archaic idealists, the loss of needed human companionship to some is quite appealing. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakuer and Walden by Henry David Thoreau, the main protagonist’s under a strict transformation with their eventual attempts to live a native sapien lifestyle.…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    YGB vs. ARAby
    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    YGB vs. ARAby

    him and do the work of true religious belief for the whole family was a…

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

    The Bluest Eye Close Reading
    • 1246 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Bluest Eye Close Reading

    Although Claudia and Frieda are embarrassed and hurt for Pecola, their sorrow is intensified by the fact that none of the adults seem to share the same feelings of grief and their hopefulness tries to heal their disjointed society. In the passage Claudia begins to describe how she can see the baby, the living human that everyone else wanted dead. The baby that is still in the womb, she pictures the baby, in a dark place this could symbolize death of the baby later. She paints a picture for the reader saying that the baby’s hair like great O’s of wool as in sheep leading us to think that the baby might be a Jesus figure. She describes the baby’s eyes as clean, pure because it hasn’t yet seen the evil of the world. The flared nose, as if the baby is mad or out of breathe again symbolizes death. She says kissing-thick lips, shining a light on the more sexual side making it seem like thats all your lips should be used for. She concludes by saying “the living, breathing silk of black skin”, to express that this baby is living, it is a human, it is taking a breath just like everyone else. Silk is an expensive fabric, something of worth just like this baby’s life. “No synthetic yellow bangs suspended over marble-blue eyes, no pinched nose and bowline mouth.” Claudia goes on to describe the baby as a doll, saying that they are nothing alike, dolls are fake in fact worse they are “synthetic”, and they are far from perfect, they have pinched noses, pinched towards the sky like a snooty white girl. But not like this baby, Claudia felt a yearning, a burning for someone to care for this baby to love it and want it to live. “Just to counteract the universal love of white baby dolls,” she wanted this baby to come into the world to change it, to change how the world viewed black babies, to “counteract” set off the balance, of the whole universe meaning everybody and the love it had for a doll rather…

    • 1246 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics