Literary Letter
In Wolf Brother, it starts when Torak and his father are in deep woods in a shelter they made. A demon bear tracks them and kills Torak’s father. Before his father dies, he makes an oath that he would find the world spirit mountain and kill the demon bear no matter how hard it is. Torak then encounters humans which think that he “stole” there kill so he has to fight for his life from these humans who think he’s a criminal. Torak then escapes and goes off with one of the other humans and his wolf pet to find the mountain the girl who went with him helps a lot since he’s an expert tracker and she’s and expert shooter with a bow and arrow. With Toraks guiding spirit leading the way they are pretty confident that they will find the mountain of the world spirit. They travel very far encountering many obstacles on there way. Then they need to solve a puzzle no one has solved before. Torak finds the first piece of the three at the bottom of a river, when they encounter an old man he tells them where to find the next piece of the puzzle. When they go into the cave there are bat guardians waiting and they try to kill him while he gets the stone tooth. When he’s traveling across an ice river he finds a shelter and in the hands of a dead man is a stone lamp the last piece of the puzzle. When Torak gets to the mountain he has to present the three pieces of the puzzle and sacrifice his guiding spirit to kill the demon bear.
I think the big idea is when you make a promise you should fulfill it. Torak made a promise to his father saying “I will find the world spirit mountain or die trying.” It’s talking about Torak making an oath to his father and no matter what finding the mountain of the world spirit to destroy the bear or die trying. Next it talks about Torak going through a ton of effort and work that may get him killed. It’s for his wolf cub “brother” that he needs to find the mountain of the world spirit. He has to go through life threatening experiences and tons of chances where he gambles with his life. This, therefore, supports my thesis in him fulfilling a promise he made to his father and his persistence with it.
He then has to find the three pieces of the nanuak while trying to find that he risks his life for all three. The first one, he is almost drowning in a river but he goes to the bottom to get the first piece of the puzzle. Next he has to find the stone tooth, he is about to get devoured by man eating bats and is close to slipping into the underworld, but he manages to get the tooth. Then he has to cross an ice river with little supplies. He gets half way across the ice river easily but then he runs into a dangerous blizzard and he has to find shelter. Torak and Renn find an ice shelter and in that shelter was a dead man who was holding the third piece of the nanuak. He gets the stone lamp and crosses the river safely for the rest of the way.
He then manages to make it to the mountain of the world spirit to sacrifice his wolf cub to fulfill his oath to his father and save the forest from the demon bear. On his way to the mountain, he gets followed by the bear and one of his captures and his capture went down with the bear. Torak was so close to dying also, but this supports my thesis by showing that Torak came so close to death to fulfill his promise to his father and save the forest.
I liked the book because it is a thrilling, packed with a ton of action, and is an adventure you don’t usually find in books. Wolf Brother never lets you stop reading, and it keeps a ton of suspense. I think Wolf Brother is a great book club read and should be in the selection of books next year for book clubs. It’s one of those books that you dream of finding, and almost never do.