St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves Analysis Essay

Three sisters, Mirabella, Claudette, and Jeanette materialize in the story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” and they learn to adjust to a new way of life. St. Lucy’s is almost an orphanage for the half-werewolf-half-human girls and boys they come about in the forest. The werewolf gene always skips a generation, so though the girls are human, they do not act like it. The girls were raised by their werewolf parents that want more for them in life. As a result of that, the nuns from St Lucy take them away from what they know to teach them what they need to know about being human. The three girls go about different ways to develop and grapple with new obstacles as they learn to adapt to their new environment and learn to reshape their lives to become more civilized. 

As the passage progresses, the youngest of the three sisters, Mirabella finds a hard time letting go of her werewolf past. Though everyone may be slowly moving on, Mirabella refuses to let her roots fade. For example, Mirabella shows that she’s harshly declining her new environment when in stage 1 Russell states, “She backed towards the far corner of the garden, snarling in the most menacing register that an eight-year-old world-girl can muster.” This illustrates that when they arrived at St. Lucy’s Home, Mirabella became scared and unhappy with the change, and wasn’t afraid to show it. In addition to that, Mirabella developed rebellious tendencies. In stage 2 and 3, Russell reveals that the pack is worried about her and says, “Mirabella would rip foamy chunks out of the church pews and replace them with ham bones and girl dander...Mirabella’s inability to adapt was taking a toll.” This precisely shows that Mirabella’s development to a human life was uneasy to say the least. Throughout the rest of the story, Mirabella doesn’t come close to developing in the way that the other girls have, which makes her so much more different than her other two sisters. 

Furthermore, the eldest of the three sisters, Jeanette adapts way differently to her new environment than Mirabella as well as similarly to Claudette. Jeanette is the perfect example of a flawless person. Meaning, Jeanette became more civilized much faster than any other member of their pack, she made no mistakes and was also the nuns’ favorite girl. For instance, in stage 2 Russell depicts, “The pack hated Jeanette. She was the most successful of us, the one furthest removed from her origins.” This conveys that though she was the most successful, she was also hated by everyone due to her evolution. Jeanette didn’t let the pack decipher how she was going to behave, even if that meant hating her. Not to mention in stage 3 and 4, Jeanette began to excel at bike riding, dancing and even golf. Towards the end of stage 3 Jeanette notices that things are starting to make more sense. Jeanette states, “ Have you noticed that everything’s beginning to make sense?” This statement shows Jeanette’s improvement throughout the story; she started off happy but confused and now she is okay with the change. That’s one of the most distinctive things about Jeanette and it's what makes her different from the others. 

Finally, the middle of the three sisters, Claudette is very similar to Jeanette and is surely different enough from Mirabella. Claudette is the sister that seems the most relatable due to her position in the story; she not only adapts pretty well to her new surroundings, but she also stays relatively in touch with her origins. Similarly to Jeanette, Claudette is mature and has mature thoughts. Towards the end of stage 2 Claudette internally states, “How can people live like they do? I wondered. Then I congratulated myself. This was a stage 3 thought.” This shows maturity in Claudette’s character even in the beginning stages of adaptation. Secondly, in stage 3, Claudette shapes the understanding that she may seem to be adapting well, but it may be harder than she lets everyone see. The text expresses, “...pretending felt almost as natural as nature.” This illustrates that though things may be hard for Claudette, she puts on a good face for everyone else. That specifically makes her different from both Mirabella and Jeanette as they both are either adapting well or not at all. This also makes her the most relatable character as she resides in the middle of being perfect and staying close to her origins. She has her own ways of learning to grapple with adapting to a whole new environment. 

To conclude, the three sisters; Mirabella, Claudette, and Jeanette all go through numerous modifications in their newly found life. As they learn to adjust to their new surroundings and restructure their lives to become more civilized, the three girls pursue distinct paths to development and overcome new challenges.