38 pages • 1 hour read
Ryan GraudinWolf by Wolf
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Tattoos
Yael’s most disturbing early memories involve Geyer’s needles injecting poison into her system and the changes to her skin that these injections create. Yael relives her concentration camp experience with a twist by choosing to receive tattoos years later. Needles are essential to creating tattoo art, and they are injected under the skin to change physical appearance. Initially, Yael’s perception of tattoos is anything but positive. A number is inked into her arm when she first arrives at the concentration camp. For years following her escape, she can barely stand to look at the tattoo because it reminds her of what she became. The camp tattoo is a symbol of weakness and victimization. Yael’s mentor, Vlad, teaches her to face her past without flinching.
Once she stops running from her painful memories, Yael is able to master the experience. The external symbol of this mastery is another set of tattoos inked over the original. While she might have chosen to erase the original camp tattoo, her decision to ink over it is an acknowledgment that the scars of the past will never go away. Yael chooses a wolf pack as the image to place over her camp ID number, thereby superimposing strength over weakness. She also uses the wolf tattoo as a visual reminder of the people from her past who meant the most to her. These individuals anchor her to a core identity. Each one represents a mnemonic device to remind her of her objective in life: “Babushka—the one who gave her purpose. Mama—the one who gave her life. Miriam—the one who gave her freedom. Aaron-Klaus—the one who gave her a mission. Vlad—the one who gave her pain” (358).
Wolves
Although wolves are a prominent feature of the tattoo motif, they also crop up in various other contexts throughout the book. Yael’s childhood experience as prey of the Nazis hardens her resolve to become a predator, which causes her to admire the fierceness and pack loyalty of the wolf. Even as a child, Babushka gives her the Russian nickname of Volchitsa or she-wolf. When Yael grows up to become a resistance fighter, she uses Volchitsa as her code name.
Yael’s fascination with wolves extends to the Valkyrie named Gunnr, who rides a wolf onto the battlefield. When Felix asks Yael if she’s named her motorcycle, she chooses to call it Fenrir—a giant wolf from Norse mythology. Yael has been tasked with assuming the identity of a girl named Adele Wolfe. The association is obvious, but the entire Wolfe clan recognizes its similarity to its namesake. As Felix reminds his sister, “Remember what Papa said to us the morning of Martin’s funeral? ‘There is iron in our blood, and it binds us together. We are Wolfes. We are stronger than this’” (223).
When the tattoo artist asks Yael what design she wants to use to cover her camp ink, she doesn’t hesitate to answer, “‘I want wolves.’ The animal that carried the Valkyrie Gunnr into battle. Creatures made of freedom and fierce. Who could survive alone, but howled—always cried for their pack” (357). When Yael prepares to assassinate Hitler, she makes the conscious association between the animals on her arm and her mission in life. She will ride wolves into war.
Pocket Talismans
Because Yael has such difficulty maintaining a distinct identity that is separate from her appearance, she uses several methods to keep her core self alive. Tattoos are grafted to her skin in the form of wolves. These connect her to people from her past, but she collects other objects along the way as well. When Yael first leaves the concentration camp, she wants to take the set of nested dolls that Babushka crafted for her. Miriam points out that these are too big but allows Yael to take the pea-sized smallest doll in the set. She carries this in her pocket as she escapes.
Later, after Aaron makes his abortive assassination attempt, Yael takes the thumbtack from the map that Henryka keeps to track agents in the field and places it in her pocket beside the nested doll. During the Axis Tour, Yael finds little paper sculptures hidden under her pillow. One is a star and the other a crane. Although she doesn’t yet know the gifter is Ryoko, she keeps these and adds them to her collection. The paper sculptures achieve an added significance once Yael learns that Ryoko was hiding messages inside to warn her of danger.
In each case, the object she keeps tethers Yael emotionally to the person represented by the memento. It becomes a talisman when she touches it. The positive feelings generated by the doll, the pin, and the paper sculptures help Yael counteract the rage and hatred that drive so much of her behavior and turn her into the perfect assassin to bring down Hitler.
