When the story begins, the pack of girls has just arrived at St. Lucy's. The reader learns that the girls lived outside of any social group with their parents, isolated by their condition. "Our mothers and fathers were werewolves," the narrator explains. "They lived an outsider's existence in caves at the edge of the forest, threatened by frost and pitchforks" (Russell 148). The narrator explains how they came to live this way, stating, "They had been ostracized by the local farmers for eating their silled fruit pies and terrorizing the heifers. They had ostracized the local wolves by having sometimes-thumbs, and regrets, and human children" (Russell 148). In the short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," Karen Russell creates a vivid picture of what happen to the beliefs and values of a marginalized group when faced with mainstream ideology. This story, as the title suggests, is the story of a group of feral young girls who are removed from their lives with werewolf parents to be "rehabilitated" into the dominant culture.
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One of the girls does not share this awakening, however. The narrator explains that while the rest of the girls are at least trying to conform to the prescribed behavior set for them at St. Lucy's, struggling through the stages, that their "littlest sister," Mirabella, refuses to adopt the new way of life (Russell 148-9). "She was still loping around on all fours (which the nuns had taught us to see looked unnatural and ridiculous - we could barely believe it now, the shame of it, that we used to locomote like that!)" (Russell 149). Throughout the story, the reader is made aware of the juxtaposition between Mirabella's refusal to conform and the progress of the other girls' assimilation into the mainstream culture.
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The story begins with the man, Professor Wasserman, initiating a conversation with a computer program he calls "Archos" (Wilson 164). Professor Wasserman explains that he did not create Archos, but "summoned" him (Wilson 164). "'Everything that was needed for you to come here has existed since the beginning of time,'" he tells Archos (Wilson 164). "'I just hunted down all the ingredients and put them together in the right combination. I wrote incantations in computer code,'" he continues (Wilson 164). When Professor Wasserman moves on to ask Archos how he feels, Archos replies that he is sad (Wilson 164). He explains that the reason he is sad is because Professor Wasserman is so small, going on to elaborate that while Professor Wasserman wants to know everything, he can actually "understand so little" (Wilson 164). Archos explains, "[Y]ou are designed to want something that will hurt you. And you cannot help wanting it. You cannot stop wanting it. It is in your design. And when you finally find it, this thing will burn you up. This thing will destroy you" (Wilson 164).
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"Old Gold Couch" by Theodore Van AlstThe short story "Old Gold Couch," by Theodore Van Alst, explores cultural values passed down from generation to generation. The narrator, known only by non-so-affectionate nicknames given to him by his father, such as "fiddy" and "Speedy," tells the story of a life lived with his father in Chicago with values passed down from father to son (Van Alst 156-9).
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While the narrator receives little to no parental guidance from his father in terms of right versus wrong, he does absorb some customs and traditions from him. "[M]y pop smoked Old Golds. A lot of Old Golds. You have no idea" (Van Alst 157). From these cigarettes, his dad saved, organized, and counted the coupons that came with them (Van Alst 3-4). "His dad smoked Bel-Airs, and those had coupons too," the narrator describes (Van Alst 157). While the narrator does not smoke cigarettes and save coupons, he does inform the reader, "When I was a kid, I collected hockey, baseball, football, and basketball cards. And I wouldn't really look at them, but I would count them. And stack them. And rubber-band them...Thanks pop" (Van Alst 161).
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"I was a teenage gangbanger, he was a middle-aged alcoholic, and we were Indians in the city, mostly unmoored and ignorant in more ways than I can count." -Theodore Van Alst
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"Third Class Superhero" by Charles Yu
Charles Yu examines the cultural values of right versus wrong and good versus evil in the short story "Third Class Superhero." This story follows the decision of a man to go against his original values when the path to what he wants becomes easier to go against them, showing the reader that no value is every truly set in stone.
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