The Son of the Wolf · Chapter
Chapter II explained
Malemute Kid, Prince, and Harrington train Madeline in the ways of white women, focusing on her carriage, stride, and social graces in preparation for a masquerade ball where she will confront her husband, Cal Galbraith.
What happens
Malemute Kid, Prince, and Harrington train Madeline in the ways of white women, focusing on her carriage, stride, and social graces in preparation for a masquerade ball where she will confront her husband, Cal Galbraith. Madeline undergoes a transformation, gaining confidence and pride, while the men grapple with their own feelings and the complexities of gender and race in the Northland.
Themes in this chapter
Race and Cultural Clash
Madeline's training to adopt white women's manners highlights the racial and cultural divide, as she seeks to elevate herself from her perceived inferior status.
Gender Roles and Relationships
The chapter explores gender dynamics, with men training a woman to assert power, and Madeline learning to manipulate male weaknesses.
Loneliness and Longing
Madeline's longing for her husband and her isolation as an Indian woman in a white-dominated society are central to her emotional journey.
Characters to notice
- Malemute Kid
Leads Madeline's training, coaching her in white women's mannerisms and later giving her stern advice on how to assert herself.
- Madeline
The Indian wife of Cal Galbraith, undergoing a transformation in confidence and social skills, preparing to meet her husband at the ball.
- Cal Galbraith
Madeline's husband, the Circle City King, who visits the cabin and later departs, unaware of the plot.
- Stanley Prince
One of Madeline's trainers, dances with her and participates in the coaching sessions.
- Mr. Harrington
Another trainer, focused on the commercial aspects of Madeline's transformation, playing fiddle during practice.
- Mrs. Eppingwell
A white woman who helps outfit Madeline for the ball, providing feminine fripperies and guidance.
Key passages
“This girl comes of a small-footed race. Moccasins just broadened her feet healthily, while she did not misshape them by running with the dogs in her childhood.”
The girl's feet are naturally small because her people have small feet, and wearing moccasins only made them healthier without deforming them from running with dogs as a child.
Prince explains why Madeline's feet are so dainty despite her rugged upbringing.
“She judged herself by their standards till the divinity of her white sisters was shattered. After all, they were only women, and why should she not exalt herself to their midst?”
She compared herself to white women and realized they were not goddesses but just women, so she decided she could rise to their level.
Madeline's epiphany about her own worth and the fallibility of white women.
“To him who hears for the first time this weird song, is told the first and greatest secret of the Northland; to him who has heard it often, it is the solemn knell of lost endeavor.”
For a first-time listener, the dogs' howling reveals the North's deepest mystery; for those who have heard it many times, it is a mournful reminder of failed efforts.
The narrator reflects on the symbolic meaning of the dogs' chorus in the North.