Wolves had always had negative connotation associated with them. Even President Theodore Roosevelt once said: "The wolf is the archetype of ravin, the beast of waste and desolation. It is still found scattered thinly throughout all the wilder portions of the United States, but has everywhere retreated from the advance of civilization. (Cascadia)”
From stories like Little Red Riding Hood, The Three little Pigs, and of course, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the wolf is the antagonist and is always looked at as a bad thing, a sort of poison of the land, however Mowat’s book Never Cry Wolf took a large step in improving the image of the wolf. Opinions vary greatly on the factual nature of the novel, but its positive impact on the improvement of the …show more content…
Alexander William Francis Blainfield, a superior to Mowat in the Canadian Wildlife Service, pointed out that Mowat was not left alone in the wilderness to fend for himself as claimed by mowat in the book, but was part of a well organized three-man team of scientists (The Canadian Field Naturalist). Mowat did defend himself, however, claiming: “I never let facts get in the way of a good story, I was writing subjective non-fiction the whole time. (Toronto Public Library)” That being said, Blainfield also accused Mowat of directly stealing many of his own observations of wolves and using them in the book. Mowat has not commented on this accusation and the matter remains in deep controversy (Toronto Public …show more content…
After the book published, public opinions of wolves changed from that of thinking of them as dumb, blood thirsty killers, to realizing that wolves are actually very socially intelligent and are actually not especially aggressive to humans or even big game in general. In fact, the wolves seemed to almost prefer the small mice and ground squirrels to big game like caribou. The reaction to this book was monumental. The public opinion of wolves was clearly shifting from ignorant hate to curious respect. After the release of Never Cry Wolf, Thousands of letters poured into the Canadian Wildlife Service demanding wolves stop being killed and more research be done on both wolf behavior, and benefits of wolves on an ecosystem (Toronto Public Library). Karen Jones wrote in her essay on the response to Mowat’s book Never Cry Wolf that "Modern Canadians roused to defend a species that their predecessors sought to eradicate....Never Cry Wolf played a key role in fostering that change. (Never Cry Wolf: Science, Sentiment, and the Literary Rehabilitation of Canis
From stories like Little Red Riding Hood, The Three little Pigs, and of course, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the wolf is the antagonist and is always looked at as a bad thing, a sort of poison of the land, however Mowat’s book Never Cry Wolf took a large step in improving the image of the wolf. Opinions vary greatly on the factual nature of the novel, but its positive impact on the improvement of the …show more content…
Alexander William Francis Blainfield, a superior to Mowat in the Canadian Wildlife Service, pointed out that Mowat was not left alone in the wilderness to fend for himself as claimed by mowat in the book, but was part of a well organized three-man team of scientists (The Canadian Field Naturalist). Mowat did defend himself, however, claiming: “I never let facts get in the way of a good story, I was writing subjective non-fiction the whole time. (Toronto Public Library)” That being said, Blainfield also accused Mowat of directly stealing many of his own observations of wolves and using them in the book. Mowat has not commented on this accusation and the matter remains in deep controversy (Toronto Public …show more content…
After the book published, public opinions of wolves changed from that of thinking of them as dumb, blood thirsty killers, to realizing that wolves are actually very socially intelligent and are actually not especially aggressive to humans or even big game in general. In fact, the wolves seemed to almost prefer the small mice and ground squirrels to big game like caribou. The reaction to this book was monumental. The public opinion of wolves was clearly shifting from ignorant hate to curious respect. After the release of Never Cry Wolf, Thousands of letters poured into the Canadian Wildlife Service demanding wolves stop being killed and more research be done on both wolf behavior, and benefits of wolves on an ecosystem (Toronto Public Library). Karen Jones wrote in her essay on the response to Mowat’s book Never Cry Wolf that "Modern Canadians roused to defend a species that their predecessors sought to eradicate....Never Cry Wolf played a key role in fostering that change. (Never Cry Wolf: Science, Sentiment, and the Literary Rehabilitation of Canis