Wolf Hollow

The wartime agrarian society of Wolk’s novel is a patriarchal one where men work the land and go to war while women tend to be homemakers who marry young and look after multiple generations. Still, the novel contains vibrant, headstrong female characters who emerge from their limited roles as self-defined individuals.

While the world is at war because of the impulses of a violent man, Hitler, the chief troublemaker in Annabelle’s hills is Betty, a 14-year-old girl. Blonde-haired blue-eyed Betty appears to be a “sweet, God-fearing girl” who conforms to patriarchal standards of feminine beauty and virtue (101). This enables her to appear as a victim when she disappears, as the hills’ residents contrast her alleged innocence with Toby’s mannerisms and appearance. However, in reality Betty is a daredevil who is able to “baffle” Andy, a tough older boy at school, and then lead him into a flirtation (46). Her boldness, as she seductively lays a hand on his bare arm, does not conform to contemporary ideals of feminine passivity.

Moreover, she is the first to aim an attack at Mr. Ansel’s person, where others have only damaged his property, and she declares all-out war on Toby when he tells her to leave Annabelle alone. Her campaign against Toby lasts until her hospital deathbed, when she is still insisting that he pushed her down the well. While Betty’s malice is evident, Wolk does not give the reader many clues about the motivation behind her actions, we know that Betty has been separated for her parents for bad behavior, and that her father is absent. The secrecy that shrouds Betty’s past means that we don’t know enough to feel sympathetic or understanding towards her.

Betty’s will to power and trouble-making ways, are shared by two minor characters in the novel. Unmarried, unattractive Aunt Lily tries to make up for not living up to patriarchal ideals by taking her work and religion very seriously, and denouncing Toby in the harshest terms. Similarly, widowed telephone operator Annie Gribble fights against ostracization from a society of families by listening in on phone calls and spreading incriminating gossip. As a result, Annie gains the power of a pest, as the hills’ residents must go out of their way to ensure that she does not eavesdrop on their private conversations.

Annabelle, the novel’s narrator, seeks self-definition as she becomes the counterforce to Betty. Annabelle’s short haircut—in the style of American female pilot, Amelia Earhart—is a symbol of her leadership qualities. Like the aviatrix, Annabelle pilots her own course without precedent. When Betty begins to threaten and beat her, Annabelle decides that “Betty was mine to fear […] and mine to disarm […] on my own” (20). She decides it is her personal mission to contain Betty’s malice. Later, when Betty disappears and becomes a victim in the community’s eyes, Annabelle once again finds herself alone in her campaign against her. As a still a very young girl, Annabelle gains the reputation for being a dissident when she defends outsider Toby and maintains that Betty is a liar. Remorseless in her path for justice, Annabelle goes to such lengths as lying to her family and setting up Andy to tell the truth about Betty in the wake of her death. Her break with her family to have an independent relationship with an outcast would have been a radical, rebellious act for a girl in wartime America and defies patriarchal norms.

Annabelle’s stubborn yet nurturing character resembles that of her mother, Sarah, who at the still young age of 28 is in command of three generations. However, Sarah, who is a homemaker and so defined mostly by her relations to others, also teaches Annabelle that there are limits to her heroic journey and that it is “arrogant” to think that she can “control” everything (260). Sarah thus teaches Annabelle to be humble and accept that she is part of an imperfect human schema. Her matriarchal wisdom aids Annabelle to be open and understanding when her schemes do not go to plan.

Finally, Annabelle is exposed to a different kind of female self-definition in the figure of her teacher, Mrs. Taylor. Mrs. Taylor has the status symbols of an education and a glamorous Ford car, which makes Annabelle feel “a little like a queen” when she rides in the back (111). Annabelle, who loves reading, also knows that an education will allow her to have a life of her own when her brothers inherit the farm. Nevertheless, both Mrs. Taylor and Annabelle must battle for that education in a rowdy, underfunded schoolhouse of 40 pupils. Mrs. Taylor, with her cultural capital of education, must compete with the community’s old-fashioned patriarchal devotion to cultivating the land. Ironically, the boys’ superior physical strength, which makes them more useful on the farm and causes them to not “see the point of going to a school” means that they miss out on the knowledge that could advance their situation (7). Instead, such knowledge will be the premise of less brawny, independent thinkers like Annabelle, who might follow Mrs. Taylor’s example.