Blog Post #3

Angela Carter’s short story, “Wolf Alice” is my new favorite read of the semester! I enjoyed a variety of the unique themes throughout the story, but one stood out to me in particular. I found Wolf Alice’s encounter with the mirror to be one of Carter’s strongest themes. It is not until Wolf Alice discovers the mirror in the Dukes castle that she is faced with her human-like characteristics. At first she is unable to make the connection that the figure in the mirror is a reflection of herself.  So much so that, “She was lonely enough to ask this creature to try and play with her, barring her teeth and grinning; at once she received a reciprocal invitation.” At that moment she realized what she is capable of. The mirror unlocked her true identity, an identity that was always there but at the same time hidden. It is sad to think that if Wolf Alice had not had this encounter how different her existence would have been. She feels complete after she comes to the realization that she is able to embrace both her wolf-like and human-like characteristics simultaneously. In the story “she perceived an essential difference between herself and her surroundings that you might say she could not put her finger on-only the trees and grass of the meadows outside no longer seemed the emanation of her questing nose and erect ears, and yet sufficient to itself, but a kind of backdrop for her.” She is continuously learning from her new identity, which is an important lesson, I took from the story. I think we all underestimate how much we can learn from our own selves, such as our personal identity.  At a point we all struggle with our personal identity but what this story tells us is that to begin searching for it, all it takes is a good look in the mirror.

My favorite quote from the reading “In the mirror she saw how this white dress made her shine.”