The Humanized Wolf in Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf (1963)

Mohammad Sh’aban Ahmad Deyab

Abstract


The wolf’s conception has been altered significantly in modern times as a result of the emergence of Ecocriticism. The old conceptions of the wolf as sly, vicious, and terrifying have largely replaced by a humanizing attitude. The paper deals in details with how Mowat humanizes the wolves and shows them having “individual impersonalities” by the following techniques: giving them names; acknowledging their social life; assigning them emotions; talking; imitating them; and finally animalizing humans. By assigning human features to those wolves, Mowat believes that humans can understand wolves’ true behavior; and increase people’s chance to properly help wolves to live well with them.

Keywords


Farley Mowat; Never cry wolf; Anthropomorphism; Humanized wolf; Ecocriticism

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/8728

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