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

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In the short story St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, the author, Karen Russell, develops the main protagonist, Claudette, throughout a total of five stages. The story starts when Claudette, who is not yet named, is starting the Lycanthropic Culture Shock to become civilized because, at the time, she was wild and uncivilized. She learns that she needs to become civilized quickly, and learns many skills. However, she also has a lot of trouble and almost fails on numerous occasions. At the end, she is finally described as a civilized person with a human personality, and no longer uncivilized and lycanthropic. Claudette is a lycanthropic wolf-girl who develops in the story by attempting to leave behind her wolf culture and become a civilized…show more content…
248). This shows that Claudette is now only worried about herself and “no longer certain how the pack felt about anything” (p. 248). The Debutante Ball is the main setting of the stage, and Claudette is nervous and does not recognize her own brothers. Her description of her brothers is “they smelled like pomade and cold, sterile sweat (p. 248)”. When she dances with the wolf-boy named “Kyle”, she becomes nervous and angry with him, so she “narrows her eyes” and “flattens her ears”, which shows that she still has a lycanthropic side of her personality (p. 249). She becomes nervous when Sister Maria announces “the time has come to do the Sausalito”, and her “feet start to wiggle out of [her] shoes” (p. 249). She forgets how to do the Sausalito, and sends Jeanette an “eye-cry” for help, but is ignored by the latter (p. 250). However, Mirabella, who is tied in the corner, intercepts this “eye-cry” just as Claudette is about to fail at the Lycanthropic Culture Shock by howling, and tackles Claudette, “barking at unseen cougars, trying to protect [Claudette] with her tiny body” (p.250). Claudette acts angry and upset with Mirabella, while she is really grateful and wants to “roll over and lick her ears” and “kill a dozen spotted fawns and let her eat first” (p. 250). This results in Claudette’s success and…show more content…
In Stage 1, she receives a name tag with a new name and an orange jumpsuit. In Stage 2, her name is revealed and she can now walk on two feet on “two-square toed shoes” (p. 240). In Stage 3, Claudette can now ride a bicycle, read, sing, and meets her first “purebred” girls (p. 244-247). In Stage 4, Claudette almost fails at the Lycanthropic Culture Shock, but is saved by Mirabella and is successfully rehabilitated. In Stage 5, she has left the lycanthropic culture behind, and does not feel comfortable near her old home and can no longer call it “home” (p. 252). Over these five stages, Claudette learns many human skills and characteristics, leaving behind the lycanthropic
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