St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
It was very lucky for me to be able to read this short story while I was abroad, which made me think more than just being a stranger. This short story suggest us that the adaptation of social norm are arbitrarily made or constructed by dominant culture.
I was thinking that this title was a kind of metaphor, but actually, this story depicts the process of adaptation for human beings from wolves. It is a science fiction story and it was written in a way that causes universal feeling to readers’ mind. The girls were trained by the external environment and they have been modified irreversibly. The narrator (Claudette) and other girls struggle the training for human beings. That process takes 5 stages, then the story follows each stage to show the difference from being wolves. To consider the title literary, this story represents some sort of evolution (I don’t think that human beings hold a higher position in a hierarchy than wolves, but I could not figure it out which word is appropriate for the change of girls’ behaviors), then the girls are adapted to the “better” life of human beings. Personally, I feel all of the environment in the US is “St.Lucy’s home” and “the nans.” I do not think the US is better than Japan and vice versa. However, to live in a foreign country, it is challenging for me to imitate the appropriate behavior and life of the US. The use of cutlery, the custom of the tip, etc. Many little factors make a major difference. In the last paragraph, the narrator tells a first “human lie” to parents by saying “I’m home.” As I mentioned above, girls have been trained in St.Lucy’s home step by step taking 5 stages and they become humanized. Their transitions were implied in various way such as awkward English when they translate wolves’ language
and the attitude to “strange” girl Mirabella while the narrator also changes her mindset and gradually become “girl” than “wolf.” However, in my opinion, Mirabella should be admired because she adheres her custom and she resists the enforced “evolution.”