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.
Themes
Appearance Equals Survival
In the alternative world of Wolf by Wolf, the values of the Third Reich reign supreme in the world. These values place a heavy emphasis on appearance. Yael and her family are singled out for extermination because they are Jews. In the mind of Hitler, Jewish physique and coloring is a degeneration of the Aryan ideal. When Yael is first subjected to Geyer’s experiments, her purpose is to shed her Jewish appearance and mimic the blond hair and blue eyes that are so prized by the Reich. Geyer suggests that some members of the ruling elite might want to acquire these traits themselves. Although their bloodlines might be pure, they don’t fit the physical ideal.
Because appearance means everything to the Nazi regime, looking a certain way carries survival value. Dark-skinned foreigners and people with obviously Semitic features are immediately suspect while the Aryan ideal goes unchallenged. If a person can look a certain way in the Nazi world, that appearance offers freedom, economic advantage, and even life itself. Once Yael learns how to control her shapeshifting abilities, she realizes she can exploit this trait to her advantage. It allows her to avoid certain death on a number of occasions. She escapes the concentration camp and finds a way to survive on the streets as a pickpocket. Although Yael seems to be running toward death by mimicking the appearance of Adele, she eludes capture after the assassination by blending into a crowd of identical strangers.
Yael isn’t the only character who exploits appearance for its survival value. As Geyer continues his experiments, he realizes that test subjects can shapeshift at will. This ability offers a unique opportunity for Hitler to plant body doubles for all his public appearances. The survival of the man who started a reign of terror depends upon his ability to use others to deflect attacks upon himself.
Defining Identity
The second major theme of Wolf by Wolf lies in direct opposition to the first. If appearance can be manipulated at will, what becomes of identity? Yael struggles with this concept throughout the story. She shapeshifts not simply into the skin of others but into their psyches as well. In order to stay in character, she needs to match the emotional resonance of the role she plays. As a consequence, Yael faces the very real danger of getting lost in the part.
To prevent complete immersion in her multiple personas, Yael uses physical devices to ground her. She carries objects from her childhood in her pockets to remind her of who she once was. Of course, who she was isn’t an entirely comfortable identity either. The concentration camp tattoo on her arm is a constant reminder of what Geyer made her become, and she can barely look at it. The very sight paralyzes her until Vlad teaches her how to look her ghosts in the eye without being overwhelmed by them. The wolf tattoos that cover the identity ink are the most obvious reminder of her mission in life.
Despite all her memory devices, Yael has a hard time understanding who she is at the core. She can’t even recall the original appearance of her six-year-old self before the experiments began. Ironically, the one person who sees the truth about her nature is Geyer. Yael confesses that she never understood why he chose her as a test subject on the day she first appeared in the camp. Geyer reveals his reasons years later as he watches Yael shoot Hitler’s double. The doctor saw an indomitable nature that would not be broken no matter how painful his experiments became. He notes, “She’d always been one of his favorites. Strong, hard to break, unwilling to die. It was a quality he never really could define until he saw it. Iron will, iron soul” (374). Yael has yet to see these qualities in herself by the end of the book.
Becoming the Enemy
Yael treads a fine line in her work as a resistance fighter. Her anger at the abuse suffered by concentration camp victims fuels her desire to end everyone’s suffering by assassinating Hitler. However, over the course of the story, she is required to commit many actions that seem to fly in the face of truth and justice. At many points, she runs a real danger of becoming the enemy herself and resorting to tactics that she would condemn in others.
As a child alone in the world, Yael becomes a thief. This is hardly admirable behavior in a would-be hero, but she does it to survive. The same excuse will be used in later episodes when she resorts to far more brutal tactics. When Felix tries to prevent her from racing, she pistol-whips him and abandons him in the desert. Although a supply truck eventually comes to pick him up, he might have died of exposure and dehydration. She uses nearly the same tactic to quell him at the end of the story when she knocks him unconscious before binding and gagging him in her room at the palace.
Although Yael generally believes the end justifies the means, she can’t quite bring herself to abandon an injured racer when the group is escaping a Soviet military camp. Risking her own life, she rescues her competitor and provides cover fire so that Luka can escape. This seems like a heroic move, but Yael resorts to morally questionable behavior a few short chapters later when Katsuo takes the lead in the race. Yael agrees to help Luka take Katsuo out of the running by using a pincer move. The result proves fatal for the Japanese biker. Though Yael feels the pangs of conscience afterward, the novel suggests that, to defeat the enemy, she must compromise her principles and become just like them. The fact that doing so costs her a certain amount of regret is the only sign that her appearance as a Nazi hasn’t penetrated the final layer of her psyche.
