St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Many of the stories in this collection feature the ocean.

• What is one symbolic use of the ocean in this collection? (topic sentence)
• Give three pieces of evidence that support your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this symbolic use of the ocean supports meaning in one or more stories.

2. Most of the characters in this collection are dealing with some kind of fear.

• What relationship does the characters’ fear have to prior traumas? (topic sentence)
• Give examples from at least three stories that demonstrate the relationship between trauma and fear.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how the characters’ traumas and fears are related to the theme of Growing Up.

3. A recurring motif in this collection is colonialism.

• What is the purpose of including this motif in the collection? (topic sentence)
• Give examples from more than one story that support your assertion about the purpose of the colonialism motif.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how the motif of colonialism is related to the theme of Trauma.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Many of the stories in this collection feature the motif of fathers and sons. What messages about this relationship do the stories convey? Given the traditional gendered expectations of this relationship, how might these stories be changed by featuring a mother and daughter, a father and daughter, or a mother and son? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about what St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is saying about fathers and sons. Show how this message is related to one or more of the book’s themes of Growing Up, Broken Homes, and Trauma. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection.

2. What messages about Growing Up does Russell convey through her frequent use of child narrators? How might these stories change if they were narrated by adults or by a third-person narrator? Are the child narrators reliable? How old are they? What is unique about the perceptions of a person of this age? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about what Russell’s child narrators bring to the reader’s understanding of themes related to Growing Up. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection.

3. Throughout the collection, animals are depicted with unusual abilities and characteristics. Which animals are featured? Are there patterns in the animals Russell chooses to play different roles in these stories? How do their relationships to the human characters differ? Is there anything consistent about all of the animals and/or their relationships to the human characters? Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the symbolic value of animals in this collection. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection.