Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

The Company of Wolves Key Quotations

- “carnivore incarnate” - (embodiment of carnivorous activity, emphasises violence and primality)
- “it is winter and cold weather” - (threatening and harsh setting)
- “ghosts, hobgoblins, ogres … witches” - (supernatural links showing religious nature of the
-

village)
“the wicked trees go fishing on behalf of their friends” - (personification of the forest)
“their knives are half as big as they are, the blades are sharpened daily” - (lacking innocence
and childhood, the children are thrust into the dangerous environment)
“eaten up a mad old man who used to … sing to Jesus all day” - (religion will not help you)
“the beasts would love to be less beastly if only they knew how” - (natural instinct takes over
emotions/feelings - don't know anything else as society shapes you)
“tore off the eldest boy’s left foot” - (horrific imagery)
“he was chopped up with a hatchet” - (horrific imagery)
“she wept and her second husband beat her” - (patriarchy is unreasonable and unforgiving)
“she lays a carving knife in the basket her mother has packed” - (maternal image + violence
together shows the danger of the environment)
“children do not stay young for long in this savage country” - (thrust into the dangerous setting,
forced to grow up and gain experience, forgetting innocence)
“the forest closed upon her like a pair of jaws” - (simile shows the supernatural qualities of the
forest)
“her practised hand sprung to the handle of the knife” - (independent woman, versed in knife
use transgresses the gender boundary)
“laden with carcasses of game birds” - (all of the things dead which the girl was admiring just a
moment ago)
“remarkable object in his pocket” “his rifle would protect them” - (phallic object and
euphemism - criticism of the way men run society, competing for power with each other not for
good of people)
“there is a feint trace of blood on his chin; he has been snacking on his catch” - (foreshadows)
“you can hurl your Bible at him … you thought that was a sure prophylactic” - (religious belief is
futile)
“snow that melted in tears on the tiles” - (nature’s rebellion)
“not even an indentation of a head on the smooth cheek of the pillow” - (the young girl is not
being passive as some were expected to be in Carter’s time of writing and just laying in bed)
“the Bible lay closed” - (the youth are rejecting religion so are making progress for society, as
opposed to the Bible being open when the grandmother was there)
“the tick of the clock cracked like a whip” - (idea of the clock not simply “eroding time” it
should measure productivity in the working world - crack the whip - showing women can gain
independence and work in the ‘man’s world’)
“then went directly to the man … she stood up on tiptoe and unbuttoned the collar” - (the girl
takes charge without the wolf’s directions, corrupting her in the eyes of the reader)
“she freely gave the kiss she owed him” - (acts freely showing it is not the wolf’s fault entirely)
“she knew she was nobody’s meat” - (independent woman, does as she pleases, reinforcing ^)
“the old bones under the bed set up a terrible clattering” - (protest of older generation being
replaced by the new independent woman to challenge patriarchy rather than conform)
“sweet and sound she sleeps … between the paws of the tender wolf” - (wolf redeemed
somewhat as he has not killed her, bestiality implied? - we look down on the girl)



---