American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

Given the primal rivalry between humans and wolves, Blakeslee intentionally draws parallels between the two species. This may be a way to add more dimension to their relationship (a competition born of similarity), but it also creates empathy for the wolves, showing that on some level the irrational hatred of them is misplaced.

Blakeslee draws the comparison between humans and wolves in several ways. Sometimes, a character like Rick will make the case explicitly. For example, at one point Rick thinks, “[wolves] were more like humans than they were given credit for, in their tribal ways and territoriality; in their tendency to mate for life; and in the way male wolves provided food and care for their offspring, so unusual in the animal world” (139). Rick returns to this comparison in the Epilogue when he argues that wolves experience emotions very similar to human ones (albeit via their sense of smell).

Elsewhere, Blakeslee lets readers draw the comparison between the species for themselves, by portraying the behavior outlined by Rick above, behavior readers can recognize as similar to humans’. For example, Blakeslee thoroughly details both how O-Six raises her pups and what roles 755 and 754 play in the pack. The latter thrives even as a doting uncle, demonstrating considerable patience with his nieces and nephews who make a game of jumping all over him. This scene will be familiar to any reader who has jumped on a put-upon parent or relative, and it enables them to see themselves in the Lamars.

More subtle is Blakeslee’s juxtaposition of human behavior with the wolves, drawing the comparison in the other direction. This begins in earnest in Chapter 3. Between Pages 56 and 59, Blakeslee shows the formation of O-Six’s pack, the way she draws her two male suitors away from the Druids. On the following page, though, Blakeslee turns his attention to the humans watching her. He tells the reader about “Rick Radio,” the group of wolf-watchers that has formed around Rick (notably, its members have named it just as they do the wolf packs). Blakeslee introduces Laurie Lyman, Doug McLaughlin, and others, and shows the different roles they perform. This creates a sense of the human wolf-spotters as a pack. Just as in a wolf pack, the Rick Radio members complement each other through their blend of personalities and skills. And if this might seem subtle, notice what Blakeslee does on Page 65: “Inevitably they spent a lot of time watching, just as the wolves did.” The community might watch elk in lieu of the wolves when they are not there, or in the hope the elk will attract wolf predators. The image of the spotters observing the exact same prey as the wolves cements their characterization as a pack.

While wolves and humans are certainly similar, there are key differences, too, and this is where the book’s second epigraph comes into play. The couplet from Shakespeare’s Richard III turns easy assumptions about bestial cruelty on their head. Richard seems to be saying that, whatever the similarities between human and beast, humans distinguish themselves by their cruelty. Beasts are more noble. Perhaps it is notable, then, that there are zero incidents of wolves attacking humans in Blakeslee’s book, despite their depiction as formidable hunters. Not even when Turnbull kills O-Six do the wolves attack him.

Instead, when the wolves in the story attack each other, hunt, or kill, they are acting on instinct in their bid to survive. The same cannot be said of the story’s humans, who kill by choice. This is the distinguishing factor for Shakespeare’s Richard. The calculating king sees beasts as nobler than humans because they at least are capable of pity. Time and again, the humans in American Wolf show they are not. Recall how the story starts in the Prologue: Turnbull lines up two wolves in his rifle scope. These are not animals he needs to feed himself, clothe himself, or otherwise survive. He pauses as the wolves watch him, but he does not show them “a touch of pity.” After a moment’s hesitation, he guns down O-Six. Similarly, John Tester does not hesitate at the thought of throwing the Yellowstone wolves to the humans to save his job. State officials show no pity as they draw up sweeping plans for their hunting seasons. And yet, as humans who are uniquely gifted with consciousness, they could show pity if they chose to. Blakeslee seems to suggest, both with his story and this epigraph, that humans willfully commit violence against the natural world—and this is the decisive difference in his comparison of them and wolves.