Two Wolves

“Ben shook his head, still looking at the officer through a six-inch gap between door and frame. Ben was pleased to see that being slightly overweight didn’t stop you from getting into the force. Ben was slightly overweight himself. His nan said it was from the rotten dinners his parents fed him from the burger chain on the corner.”

This passage grants readers a deeper knowledge of Ben’s character and his parents’ economic situation, background information that will prove to be very important moving forward. The reader finds out here that Ben physically does not match the sort of person he perceives himself to be, which will be a source of insecurity for him and a source of conflict with his father. The mention of the burger chain demonstrates that the family struggles financially, providing motivation for his parents’ theft.

“It felt weird to hear Mum saying ‘family vacation.’ They weren’t really one of those family-movie-night, camp-in-the-backyard, let’s-discuss-this-and-get-everyone’s-opinion kind of families. They were more of a dinner-in-front-of-the-TV, key’s-under-the-mat, if-you-want-breakfast-make-it-yourself kind of family.”

While the previous quotation established the family’s financial situation, this quote characterizes the family’s dynamics. In Ben’s understanding, his is not a close family that spends a lot of time together. This becomes important in understanding Ben’s motivations later on when he decides to go against his parents. In addition, the reader is shown a much healthier dynamic later on at Ben’s grandmother’s house, which contrasts with this earlier description, bolstering his character arc.

“‘I’m hungry,’ Ben said.

‘Well, we don’t have anything. It won’t hurt you to skip a few meals.’

Ben looked at her in the mirror. She knew he was paranoid about his weight because he’d told her the things kids said at school. She gave him an apologetic look and kept cutting.

‘Ow!’ he said, grabbing his ear. He looked at his hand. Blood.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Let me look at it.’”

This passage demonstrates one of the first instances of how Ben’s parents treat him. Early on in the narrative, the mockery and criticism come from both parents; however, his mother is always a little nicer to Ben and becomes more sympathetic and kind as the narrative continues. Ben’s father, on the other hand, travels in the other direction, becoming more and more strict. This section implies that Ben’s treatment by his mother is mostly due to distraction and stress rather than malice—unlike his father, Ben’s mother apologizes for hurting him.

“Ben liked the words. He liked that they were from Pop, who had died when Ben was two. Nan said that, up until then, the two of them had been inseparable. Pop had taken him everywhere, always repeating a rhyme that Ben had loved: ‘Ben Silver is no good. Chop him up for firewood. If he is no good for that, feed him to the old tomcat.’”

This passage shows Ben’s emotional connection with his grandfather. However, the rhyme that he remembers contains the line “Ben Silver is no good,” which foreshadows Ben’s worry that his grandfather’s criminality will be passed down to him through his genes. While Ben remains unaware at this point of his grandfather’s relative “badness,” this poem demonstrates that his grandfather was more aware of his influence than Ben, which highlights the theme of The Relationship Between Fathers and Sons.

“‘What are you doing?’ Mum asked. ‘Shouldn’t you pull over?’

Dad shrugged. ‘We haven’t done anything.’

‘Ray, it’s the police.’

Dad wiped his nose on the back of his hand and kept driving. ‘I haven’t done anything.’

They drove on.

‘If we haven’t done anything, won’t they let us go?’ Ben said helpfully. Surely that made sense to his father. When Ben became a police officer, if he pulled someone over and they hadn’t done anything, he would let them go, for sure.”

This conversation between Ben and his parents demonstrates Differing Concepts of Justice. Ben, unaware of his family’s wrongdoing, understands that if they have done nothing wrong, then they should pull over for the police; in Ben’s understanding of the world, the police pursue justice, while criminals try to avoid it. Ben’s father, however, has a different understanding; Ray Silver believes that he deserves the money he stole, so justice is him escaping the police.

“I’m me, he thought. Not this again, said another voice inside him. But if I’m me, then who is everybody else? Ben often had these ‘I’m me’ sessions. It was usually when he was walking home from school or before he went to sleep. What does that mean—‘me’? he wondered. He sometimes drove himself crazy with these thoughts. He tried to concentrate on the road, the headlight beams, the flattened animal carcasses. Cane toads sitting up, tall and proud, then bam. Tires. Pancake.”

Ben wonders about who he is and what distinguishes him from other people. This mimics Ben’s arc throughout the story, in which he tries to figure out who he is in relation to his parents. In recognizing that he is himself, Ben demonstrates a capacity for introspection and self-awareness, both of which will serve him well as he tries to survive later in the book.

“Dad took the corner too fast, and the back of the car slipped toward the drop, then corrected. Soon, bushes bunched in on either side of them. Screeeeek. Branches scratching. Dad growled. The screeeeek went on, digging its claws into the paintwork, before a clearing appeared ahead and the bushes opened up on either side.”

As the family drives toward the isolated cabin, they begin to descend deeper and deeper into the wilderness. This passage embodies the dangers of nature, using chaotic imagery and onomatopoeia to portray the stressful situation. Just as the Silver family will be tested and scratched by nature throughout their ordeal, their car receives the same treatment. Ben’s father growls against nature hampering his progress, in the same way that he will try to defy nature later on.

“‘We’ll stay in the car,’ Mum said.

Ben was quiet.

Dad looked at him. ‘Big girl,’ he said under his breath. ‘Y’scared?’

Dad knew that Ben didn’t like being called a ‘girl’ or ‘scared.’

Dad opened his door.

Ben opened his.”

This dialogue highlights the tension between the way Ben’s father treats him and the way that Ben wants to be treated. Throughout the story, Ben’s father is characterized as a bully, constantly making fun of Ben and putting him down to shame him into obedience. In this passage early on in the narrative, this mockery still works—Ben feels upset by what his father says and listens to him. However, his father’s tactic will work less and less as the narrative continues and Ben gains more confidence and independence.

“The cabin had a sickening stench of mold and dead things. He pulled the neck of his school shirt up over his nose. He wanted to be back in his bedroom with the comforting smell of his own dirty clothes and discarded cereal bowls. But Ben knew that when he was a police officer he might be called to places like this every night of the week. He needed to practice. He needed to ‘man up,’ like Dad always said. He took a step forward.”

Ben, in this internal monologue, demonstrates that he has internalized his father’s criticisms. Ben thinks of himself as less than a man because of his fear, which becomes a motivating factor for his actions for the rest of the narrative. Much of the reason why Ben acts the way he does is because of his desire to prove himself to his father, which is shown in this passage as well.

“Ben looked into his father’s eyes, deciding whether or not to challenge him. Dad was still a good foot taller than him—thin but strong, lean arm muscles tanned dark.”

Early in Ben’s transformation, he believes the only way to challenge his father is a physical confrontation. This sentence is a good representation of the text’s perspective on The Relationship Between Fathers and Sons; Ben understands instinctively that his father is a stubborn man who can’t be convinced with words, and he knows in his desperation that the only way he could get through to his father is by fighting him. This also foreshadows Ben and his father’s fight at the end of the novel.

“Ben recognized the bag as soon as he saw it. It was gray nylon with black handles. He positioned his toes on the very edge of the workbench and reached for the stars, pinching a corner of the nylon. He steadied himself and pulled at the tiny corner of material […] Ben was holding money. A lot of money. He had never in his life seen a single one-hundred-dollar bill. Now he clutched a wad of the green bills.”

For the first time in the narrative, Ben is putting his investigative skills into practice. The positive aspects of Ben’s character—his intelligence, tenacity, and bravery—are finally coming to the surface since earlier, Ben acted more passively in fear of his father. These aspects of Ben’s personality become more and more tangible as the novel goes on, and this passage is an early indication of their upcoming importance.

“‘What do you think I should do?’ he said, letting go of Ben’s collar. Ben stood up straight, avoiding eye contact with his father. There was no correct answer to this question. Ben would either suggest a punishment worse than Dad had in mind or he would suggest something easier, nicer, and his father would erupt.”

This section demonstrates one of Ben’s father’s more frequent and manipulative tactics in bullying his son. In the narrative, Ben is frequently put into difficult “lose-lose” situations in which either choice is negative—for instance, to either run from the police or turn in his own family. The reader sees here that Ben is used to making difficult decisions that result in him being abused regardless of his choice. Ben’s rejection of this dynamic takes a large part of the narrative moving forward.

“There were all these missing parts of the story. Adults never told kids anything. Nothing worth hearing anyway. Ben felt as though he spent his entire life trying to work out things that adults knew but wouldn’t tell him. He would do some detective work, search for clues, put the puzzle together.”

At this point in the story, Ben is desperate and scared, so he leans on his investigative skills to save himself and his family. This is a subtle piece of characterization, demonstrating that Ben is a person who relies on logic, rationality, and accurate information to make the correct decision. However, in this passage, he realizes that perfect decision-making might be impossible as long as his family is keeping secrets from him.

“‘What can we build?’

Ben stopped and looked at their haul.

A fort?

Another cabin?

A tepee?

A raft.

The branches were almost laid out like a raft already.

‘A raft,’ he said.

‘Yes!’ Olive said. ‘You’re so smart. And we can take off and go discovering! And we’ll be bushrangers! I’ll be Olive Thunderbolt, pretend sister of Captain Thunderbolt, one of the most famous bushrangers of all time, and you can be Captain Thunderbolt and…’”

Until this point in the story, Ben and his sister Olive were fairly disconnected from each other, acting as young siblings typically do with accusations and teasing. However, in this scene, Ben and Olive become a team, a dynamic that remains for the rest of the story. Part of Ben’s character growth is his realization of his sister’s intelligence and spunk, which he previously dismissed as annoying. In helping his sister build a raft, he’s demonstrating the connection that the two of them share.

“‘Detective,’ Ben whispered, reminding himself.

‘What?’ Olive asked as they headed toward the cabin.

‘Nothing. Don’t tell them about the raft, okay?’

‘Why not?’

‘It’s our secret.’ He stopped outside the cabin. Olive grinned. He knew that this would make her feel big and special. He didn’t know why he needed it to be a secret, but he did. She probably wouldn’t keep the secret, but he could hope.”

This passage demonstrates a change in Ben and Olive’s characters. Rather than bickering with each other, they instead keep secrets from their parents. This makes them a unit in opposition to their parents, a construction that continues for the rest of the narrative. In having his sister keep the secret, Ben decides that she’s worthy of his trust.

“Ben lay still, watching, feeling, listening. He couldn’t count the number of nights in his life that he had gone to sleep with his parents fighting. Too many. Even after all these years, he still got that feeling in his belly, waiting for Dad to get into the car and drive off, wheels spinning on the road. Ben wasn’t a churchgoer, but on those nights he prayed that his dad would be okay.”

The dysfunctional relationship between Ben’s parents did not begin with the theft; rather, as Ben remembers here, their conflicts have been going on for a while. Despite his contentious relationship with his father, Ben still prays for his safety. This sets up a contrast with his father, who never demonstrates much concern for Ben. This shows the varying ways The Relationship Between Fathers and Sons is portrayed in the text.

“Ben had done well to record their conversation, but now he needed to discover where the money came from, why they needed passports, where they were going. He needed to interrogate his father, to pry and uncover more evidence. He had somehow become a detective years before he ever expected to. It was scarier and less fun than he had imagined.”

Even throughout the difficult experience of the novel, Ben still dreams of becoming a detective and works toward this goal. This innocence—of a child practicing life skills they desire to have—is quickly shattered by the responsibility foisted upon Ben when he’s left to care for Olive. Ben’s character arc throughout the novel partially involves the accepting of responsibility, and this passage is an early instance of those pressures within Ben.

“Dad looked out over the bumpy bark of the fallen tree in front of them, dirty blue cap with the gas company logo sitting limply on his head. He had creases and blackheads around the edges of his eyes. He looked more like a dog than a rat today, Ben thought. He wondered if dogs had hair growing out of their noses like Dad did. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a dog with nasal hair.”

In contrast to the affectionate tones with which Ben describes his mother, he describes his father using more negative, animalistic language. Ben’s father is compared to a rat and a dog, but he is judged to be more physically repulsive since animals don’t have nose hair. Ben’s negative opinion of his father is demonstrated by the prose itself, which shifts its mood to match Ben’s thoughts and feelings.

“Dad snorted. He had always acted strange when Pop’s name was mentioned, even though Pop had been dead for years. He had died when he was fifty-six and had become a mythical figure, frozen in time. The stories about him became bigger each year: the way he helped people and gave his money away to friends who needed it. And how he did electrical work but didn’t bother charging his customers. Nan said the only people that Pop had never had enough time for were his sons.”

This passage can be read as ironic foreshadowing for the revelations about Ben’s grandfather that occur later on in the narrative. The text here explores the Relationship Between Fathers and Sons. Just as Ben’s father seems to have gained the worst aspects of Ben’s grandfather’s personality, Ben seems to have gained the best: generosity and kindness. This presents another model for how fathers might pass on traits to their sons and how sons might reject their fathers’ values.

“Ben ground his teeth as the dream thundered through him. In his mind’s eye he was at the river floating on his raft. He looked across the smooth water to find something watching him from the bank. He kept his eye on the face of the thing as he bobbed gently up and down. The wolf had his father’s eyes, and it stole quickly into the water.”

Ben’s dream directly connects his father, nature, and the two wolves metaphor. He dreams of his father as a literal wolf, watching him struggle against nature. Ray, in his wolf form, attacks Ben in the dream, demonstrating how Ben conceives of his father: dangerous and an impediment to his progress.

“Ben used the piece of floorboard to scrape away the twisted mass of spiderwebs beneath and reached his arm down into the outside world, laughing for the first time that day. Breeze. He could almost touch bare earth.”

Ben finally manages to create a trapdoor in the floor of the cabin to allow himself and Olive to escape. This scene demonstrates Ben’s resourcefulness and intelligence, as well as showing one of the first moments of triumph in the novel. However, Ben’s excitement about succeeding is quickly undermined, as their parents arrive home just as the two of them are leaving. Notably, while nature is often portrayed as scary or dangerous in the novel, here it represents freedom, in contrast to the stifling confines of the cabin.

“Ben thought about it. She was only seven but she was smart, and Ben often wondered if she knew more than him. Maybe we should get ourselves rescued, he thought. I mean, how will we survive out here alone? Could we make it back to the cabin? Where else would we go?”

After escaping from the police, Ben has a moment of doubt as to whether he did the right thing by putting Olive in danger by not surrendering. As with all Differing Concepts of Justice, Ben faces a dilemma in values: Is it more important to stick with your family or make sure that you are safe? In his consideration, Ben also gives Olive a rare compliment, demonstrating how far their relationship has evolved.

“There was a twelve-inch gap between the coop and the rear fence.

‘We won’t fit,’ Ben whispered. Dad squeezed in, grabbing Ben by the T-shirt and dragging him into the narrow space. Ben ate a mouthful of spiderwebs. Two or three police officers ran past in the alley, shadows flickering by in the gaps between fence railings.

‘Ray. It’s over,’ Mum whispered.

‘Stop saying that. Get in here. Now.’

‘I don’t want to,’ Olive complained.

‘Shhh. Do it!’ he whispered fiercely.”

As the Silver family is escaping from the police for the final time, Ben’s father tries to control the situation, only to be met with pushback from all three family members. This is the first time in the novel that Ray’s whole family has decided to disobey him, demonstrating the growth of their characters. Ben’s father, however, does not demonstrate much change across the course of the novel, and all he can do is demand that his family obey him.