Never Cry Wolf | Literary Qualities

Never Cry Wolf Literary Qualities

Because Mowat wishes to impart an important message in Never Cry Wolf, he presents his true story in a simple and direct manner. Despite its simplicity, the carefully crafted book displays Mowat's eye for details that reveal character.

Never Cry Wolf is structured as a tale of initiation, a story in which a young person grows up and learns valuable lessons. Mowat learns how to live in the wild and in the process finds, often through humorous mishaps, that much he has been told by the government authorities is false. Mowat also uses humor to teach lessons about outdoor survival and wolf behavior. Myths prove educational as well and provide a crosscultural perspective. Ootek's tale of the creation of the caribou and the wolf illustrates the different ways that the wolf is perceived in Eskimo and Western cultures. The contrasts between the wolf's role in these two cultures...
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