The wife's story

A very surprising science fiction story that reverses the werewolf idea. A wolf turns into a man and scares the living daylights out of his wolf wife and wolf children. What makes this story amazing is that LeGuin tricks us, throughout much of the story, into believing that the tale is about humans. She teases us with issues of child abuse, male-female relationships, life in a small town, and sisterly devotion, but she upsets our expectations, forces us to ask questions, re-read the story, and come to see that man is just as frightening as beast.I have to admit I had to read this story 2 times before I could really understand the meaning of it but when it finally came to me I was just amazed. This story is great.
It is twisted and unexpected in so many ways and that is what makes it so interesting and fascinating, unlike anything else I've ever read.At the beginning Twain retells a positive situation linked to his experiences with the river. He describes a beautiful sunset and how this situation was full of magic for him. His very detailed description includes “graceful circles” (13) and a “trail that shone like silver” (15-16). With these words he describes an entirely positive experience which showed him the positive side of the river. But as I looked closer I noticed that in this overall positive passage there are negative words included. In his description of the beautiful sunset Twain incorporated words like “blood” (8), “broken” (11) and “dead” (16). These words are already a structural hint to the negative side Twain is about to describe. Since they are a part of the overall positive part of his description it is a structural contrast which refers to the main idea of two contrasting sides.
With the next paragraph Twain explains the unpleasant characteristics of the river. He does that by describing the same situation but seeing it and interpreting it in a different light.Again his word choice creates a negative tone. Words like “kill” (31) and