The Grey Wolf

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

The Grey Wolf explores two different kinds of water in Canada: the natural lakes and the water-treatment plants. The government can control freshwater lakes through allowing, or not allowing, them to be polluted or sold. In addition, the government can intervene in any attack on the drinking water. Power over water is power over the people who need it to survive.

Charles’s two notebooks and map tracked the different kinds of Canadian water. He added dates to the map of “applications for certain companies to exceed pollution limits. And not just applications, those are approvals […] permission to exceed their pollution limits by thirty times. Not percent, but times” (208). Companies are repeatedly allowed to pollute natural sources of freshwater. The government prioritizes the money that the companies make over the health of the land and its inhabitants. Greed leads to misusing power, thus compromising the well-being of humans, animals, and plants.

Furthermore, government officials are selling Canadian sources of freshwater to Americans. The novel highlights concerns about this issue: “Power was shifting from weapons to resources. And Canada was resource-rich. Which was tipping the balance of power […] Canada had plenty of wood to hew and fresh water to draw.