Julie Of The Wolves

Part 3 depicts the collision of the two worlds the novel describes: civilization and wilderness. The section builds on the conflicts Miyax had when living in Alaskan villages, as described in Part 2. In Part 3, civilization takes on a new level of danger when her life is at stake as the hunters fly above her, shooting at wolves from their plane. Despite this danger and the continued challenges of living in the wilderness (ranging from extreme cold, to scarce food, to an angry grizzly bear), Miyax grows in her confidence.

Miyax also gains a new appreciation for the value of things. When Jello steals Miyax’s knife and other supplies, Miyax sheds a tear, calling it her “tombstone” (120). She soon recovers the tools but realizes just how important those simple items are to her survival. Because these items are also traditional parts of her culture, her appreciation for them deepens her love for that culture. As a result, she begins to question her plan of making her way to San Francisco and reentering the civilized world: “Reaching Point Hope,” the first stop on her journey out of Alaska, “seemed less important, now that she had come to truly understand the value of her ulo and needles” (122), the narrator notes. Likewise, she is taught a lesson when she does a traditional dance while making caribou stew. She marvels at how she warms up while cooking her stew, noting that “[t]he old Eskimo customs are not so foolish—they have a purpose” (126). Earlier in the novel, she felt foolish for praising the spirit of the caribou, but by this later point, she has gained a greater appreciation for her cultural traditions.

Part 3 is about Miyax and the evolution in her thinking about herself and her world, as well as the fate of the wolves that have accompanied her during her travels on the North Slope of Alaska. Miyax has come to see the wolves like family, even calling Amaroq her “adopted father” (122). The wolves accept her, and Miyax finds a common bond with them, realizing “[w]olves did not like civilization” (133) either. When Amaroq kills Jello as punishment for stealing from Miyax, she realizes that she has been accepted as a member of the pack, and she understands the wolves’ behavior and social system.

While the wolves show that Miyax belongs among them, her reaction to the death of Amaroq and to Kapu’s injuries proves how deeply her emotional attachment to them has become. She speaks of her rage and sadness “in Eskimo, for she could not recall any English” (142). By taking care of Kapu as his injuries heal, Miyax reciprocates the help the wolves have provided her. This emphasizes her mutual bond with the animals. Though she struggled to fit in among people and in civilization, Miyax finds her place among the wolves.

The realization of this bond makes Miyax’s profound disappointment when reunited with her father all the more bitter. When she first hears from the traveling hunters that Kapugen is still alive, Miyax is overjoyed. Yet after she changes her plans and goes to see him, she is plunged into conflict. Her father once seemed to her like the epitome of what she valued most about her culture, with his skills in hunting, his independence, and his deep knowledge of nature. Now, however, Kapugen represents what Miyax is escaping. He lives with a gussak (non-Inuit woman), in a city, in a modernized house, and wears an “American-made” jacket (168). Above all, it pains Miyax to hear that Kapugen hunts from an airplane, just like the hunters who killed Amaroq. Miyax once again reconsiders her world, deciding that she cannot belong to the world Kapugen now represents.

However, the end of the novel is more ambiguous. Miyax decides she will live on her own on the Alaskan North Slope rather than going to San Francisco: “She knew what she had to do. Live like an Eskimo” (152). Yet after the death of the bird named Tornait that she has been carrying around as a pet, Miyax feels more alone than ever. The last line of the novel states, “Julie pointed her boots toward Kapugen” (170). By calling her by the Americanized name Julie, a name Miyax previously rejected, the conclusion implies that she is both going back to her father after all and attempting to find a way to accept a change in her identity. Miyax will live in modernized, Americanized society, but she has not forgotten her love of her native culture, its traditions, and above all the wolves, as suggested by a final song she sings about them before presumably heading back to Kapugen.