What We Lose to Win: A Close Reading of Karen Russell’s "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves"
In Karen’s Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” the protagonist, Claudette (Originally “TRRR”), and her wolf sisters are brought to St. Lucy’s to shed their wolf identities and fully integrate into the human world. The girls undergo five Stages of Development, displaying varying degrees of willful assimilation: from the ill-adjusted Mirabella to the near “human” Jeanette (Originally “GWARR”). The battle for dominance between belonging and holding true to self is beautifully expressed in the author’s word choices like ‘disgrace’, ‘guiltily hoped,’ and ‘twitching’ when Claudette muses that “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?” (242). In the end, Claudette’s desire to belong wins out, as she consistently abandons the true self at ever higher levels. Russell steadily moves the reader through the telling by carefully manipulating the character development, behavioral interactions, and pacing to emphasize that you risk losing yourself on the road to that ever-elusive feeling of belonging.
The author deepens the central characters by colorfully contrasting the least willing to assimilate, Mirabella, and most willing to assimilate, Jeanette. The reader is consistently aware of Mirabella’s stubborn fidelity to self through Russel’s repetitive, wolf-oriented descriptions of Mirabella “still loping around on all fours” (241), “battling [racoons]”, and “doing belly-flops into compost” (244). While the human descriptions assigned to Jeanette as she “[spiffs] her penny loafers” and “[extends] her former paws” (241) illustrate the coveted end-goal through outward signs of social acceptance and fitting in. Claudette is caught in the middle, becoming the focal point of this struggle as she “[snarls at her] own reflection as if it were a stranger” (242). Chekhov’s Gun (the idea that if an element within a plot is given adequate attention, it must be to some ultimate purpose) is personified as Jeanette, whose near-perfect assimilation, though detested by the others, is eventually manifested in Claudette.
Her complete transformation gathers strength throughout the piece by her continual and final rejection of Mirabella, who represents the wholly realized and true self. From beginning to end, the reader sees interactions between the two sisters where Mirabella tries to connect, and Claudette turns her away. The resulting impact and implication of her rejection builds throughout the telling, as Claudette moves further away from her true self in her efforts to belong. The reader is first clued into the impending rift when Claudette admits that “The pack hated Jeanette, but we hated Mirabella more” (242). The author’s choice of the word “pack” powerfully illustrates that though the narrator wants to belong, she is still mentally thinking in “wolf-terms.” The reader sees increasingly forceful rejections as Claudette refuses to playfully engage her, “[snarling] at her, pushing [her] ears back from [her] head… ‘Get away’ [She] screamed’’ (243). Next, she tells Mirabella to “‘Lick your own wounds’” (244) instead of helping her. She even deliberately fails to warn Mirabella that she was in danger of expulsion; admitting that she “wanted her gone” (245). As Claudette distances herself, she gradually kills who she really is. The final and most impactful interaction between Claudette and Mirabella happens at the ball, when despite a surge of immense love for her sister’s attempt to defend her, Claudette spits out “‘I wasn’t talking to you’... ‘I didn’t want your help’” (250). She says this because everyone is watching, and it is everyone else’s approval that she ultimately seeks.
Russell primes the reader for such a heartbreaking interaction by pacing the telling of the piece with “Stages of Development”. The five behavioral “Stages” that break up the narrative provide momentum as Claudette’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors confirm what each stage foretells will happen; either by verbatim confirmation, as in Stage 1 when Claudette reminisces that “Everything was new, exciting and interesting” (238), or by explicitly displaying these assertions, as when she wonders in Stage 3 “How can people live like they do?” (244). The reader is drawn further in, wondering if the girls will fulfill those even higher stages of behavioral “progress”. Russell artfully integrates wolf-like instinct, behavior, and both the human and wolf perspectives at each Stage to reiterate the feeling of separatism between the girls and the nuns, wolves and humans, and anyone who’s ever found themselves in a foreign land. This tension is powerfully illustrated as the wolf-girls lament that “Someone was coming in and erasing us...We couldn’t make our scent stick here” (240). The author employs these subtle double-entendres throughout the telling, using these phrases to increase the tension. Russell does this again when a nun chastises Mirabella, asking her “‘What are you holding on to? Nothing, little one. Nothing’” (241).
“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” is an insightful reflection of humanity’s struggle to reconcile the desire to belong and the subconscious call to remain true to oneself. Russell’s authorial choice to enhance character development, behavioral interactions, and pacing through careful wording enable the reader to closely examine how the narrator’s decisions gradually propel her towards a final rejection of self; culminating in her first “human lie” that she tells to her parents: “‘I’m home’” (252).
Works Cited
Russell, Karen. St. Lucys Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Vintage, 2008.
Photo Credit: Ray Hennessy @rayhennessy
