Julie of the Wolves Themes

Julie of the Wolves Themes

Tradition and Customs

Whether she knows it or not, Miyax is smack dab in the middle of a battle between old traditions and new customs. In many ways, Julie of the Wolves is about the loss of Eskimo traditions and the co...

Man and the Natural World

Okay, by man, we mean girl. Miyax, to be precise. In Julie of the Wolves, the bulk of the action takes place in the wilderness, and the only human around is Miyax. She comes up against just about e...

Identity

Miyax or Julie. Well, which is it, for Pete's sake? It's clear that the heroine of Julie of the Wolves is less than sure about her own identity. She literally has two names, and switches between th...

Language and Communication

In just the first few pages of Julie of the Wolves, it's clear that Miyax won't get far without learning the language of the wolf pack she seeks to join. But this book isn't just about learning the...

The Home

What does it mean to be home in the world of Julie of the Wolves? Miyax moves around so much, her home changes on practically every page. She moves from the seal camp, to Mekoryuk, to Barrow, to a...

Family

In Julie of the Wolves, Miyax's family is small, to say the least. Not counting strict Aunt Martha, it's really just the father-daughter pair of Miyax and Kapugen that makes up the central family o...

Isolation

Julie of the Wolves hands us one of the most isolated characters in all of young adult fiction. For page after page, Miyax is literally the only human being within hundreds of miles. But even in he...

Fear

Julie of the Wolves is a survival story, so it makes sense that fear plays a big role. Miyax has to face all kinds of scary creatures and frightening challenges while trying to stay alive on the tu...

Admiration

In Julie of the Wolves, our heroine has two heroes: Kapugen and Amaroq. Her father, Kapugen is a great Eskimo hunter, whom she admires for his faithfulness to Eskimo culture and his wisdom about su...