Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves were raised in an environment that dictated their futures. To them, “things felt less foreign in the dark.” (Russell 237) However, at St. Lucy’s, they were trying to stifle their desire to revert back to their wolf behavior. Claudette kept repeating to herself “[m]outh shut, shoes on feet” because she wanted to conform to the nuns’ teachings (240). During Stage 2 of their teachings, when Mirabella was not deserting her wolfish ways and was still travelling on all fours, the girls “could barely believe it… the shame of it, that [they] used to locomote like that.” (241) However, the wolf girls could not understand the purebred human girls they met. Claudette wondered what it would be like to be “always homesick for a dimly sensed forest, the trees you’ve never seen.” (245) The wolf girls adapted quickly to their new way of life but were still treading carefully. They did not want to regress back into their old ways. Like Sonny reverting back to heroin when life got difficult, the girls would revert back to wolf behavior when they felt nervous or scared. There were rumors about other wolf girls who hadn’t conformed to human society. There was pressure from the nuns not to slip up. They would threaten the girls by asking them “do you want to end up shunned by both species?” (243) When Claudette forgot the steps to the Sausalito, she felt “a howl clawing its way up [her] throat” (250) because the only thing she could manage to
Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves were raised in an environment that dictated their futures. To them, “things felt less foreign in the dark.” (Russell 237) However, at St. Lucy’s, they were trying to stifle their desire to revert back to their wolf behavior. Claudette kept repeating to herself “[m]outh shut, shoes on feet” because she wanted to conform to the nuns’ teachings (240). During Stage 2 of their teachings, when Mirabella was not deserting her wolfish ways and was still travelling on all fours, the girls “could barely believe it… the shame of it, that [they] used to locomote like that.” (241) However, the wolf girls could not understand the purebred human girls they met. Claudette wondered what it would be like to be “always homesick for a dimly sensed forest, the trees you’ve never seen.” (245) The wolf girls adapted quickly to their new way of life but were still treading carefully. They did not want to regress back into their old ways. Like Sonny reverting back to heroin when life got difficult, the girls would revert back to wolf behavior when they felt nervous or scared. There were rumors about other wolf girls who hadn’t conformed to human society. There was pressure from the nuns not to slip up. They would threaten the girls by asking them “do you want to end up shunned by both species?” (243) When Claudette forgot the steps to the Sausalito, she felt “a howl clawing its way up [her] throat” (250) because the only thing she could manage to