47 pages • 1 hour read
Two Wolves
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Symbols & Motifs
Secrets
Secrets are a motif in Two Wolves as nearly every character keeps some form of secret. The biggest secret, central to the book’s plot, is Ray’s theft, which the parents conceal from their children. As Ben discovers more about his parents and their activities, he shares this information with Olive, but the two keep their knowledge secret from their parents. These forms of secret-sharing create recognizable units within the Silver family. Due to issues regarding trust, Ben and Olive form one unit while the parents form another, often in opposition to each other. However, by the end of the novel, new units are formed, primarily the unit of Ben, his mother, and Olive versus Ray. Secret-sharing also drives this bond, as Ben hides the money and the family agrees to keep its location secret from Ray.
Secrets bind characters together, but they also tear them apart. While the secret of the theft binds the two parents together, it also separates them from their kids, who are suspicious of them. This secret also causes the parents to mistreat their children out of a misplaced sense of protection, from roughly cutting Ben’s hair to locking them in the cabin without food. In addition, Ben’s secret regarding the location of the money drives the final confrontation at the end of the novel; the existence of the secret angers Ben’s father enough that he attacks his own son. As with the theme of The Two Wolves Inside Us, secrets in this novel operate in a contradictory binary; they can simultaneously strengthen and weaken relationships, just as a person can have two opposite “wolves” within them.
Nature
Within Two Wolves, the natural world is a motif that functions as an impediment to the Silver family’s actions—despite fleeing into nature, they have no mastery over it, representing their familial dysfunction. In the latter half of the novel, most of the difficulties that the family faces come from nature: the lack of food in the forest, the strength of the stream, the weather, the unforgiving terrain. As the family builds stronger bonds, they have an easier time managing nature. When Ben and Olive first arrive at the cabin, they construct a raft together that falls apart when they try to float downriver on it; however, the raft that they construct later works for a time. The early failure followed by a later success mimics the way the story is constructed; early on, the family continually fails at what they try to do, and the reader suspects that they’ll easily be caught by the police. However, they evade the police later on when Ben decides not to leave his parents behind. In Two Wolves, nature is a barrier, but one that can be overcome with intelligence, determination, and collaboration.
A contrast is also established between Ben and his father on the value of nature. Early on, we learn that “[n]ature wasn’t Ben’s favorite thing—freaky insects, animals, dirt. He preferred being in his room playing games, watching TV, eating” (11). Ben’s father, on the other hand, considers himself a man of the wilderness, happily attempting to hunt rabbits on their first day at the cabin. In Ben’s father’s conception, a willingness to be in nature equates to manliness, and he looks down on Ben for preferring to stay indoors. However, there is a difference between Ray’s self-perception and reality, as he is a poor hunter. Nature ends up revealing both characters’ true natures; as Ben endures, surviving all of the trials nature throws at him, he also conquers his father’s conception of masculinity and replaces it with his own.
Masculinity
One of the central conflicts and motifs in Two Wolves is the question of what defines masculinity. Ben’s father displays a rigid and traditionally masculine view of how men should act; he criticizes Ben for nearly everything he does in the novel, including talking, crying, being afraid of an abandoned isolated cabin, and complaining about being starved. In Ray’s view, Ben isn’t tough enough and acts like a girl. Ben has internalized these thoughts and constantly questions his own manhood. Ben’s desires, too, reflect his internalization of his father’s criticisms. He wishes to lose weight, even hoping while starving that “the physical work and the hunger [would make] him […] less fat” (87). He desires to be an outdoorsman and a police detective, two traditionally masculine identities, thinking he will earn his father’s respect and affection if he is sufficiently masculine.
However, as the novel goes on, Ben demonstrates resilience, creativity, and strength in the face of adversity, which he begins to associate with his own, more flexible definition of masculinity. The motif of masculinity therefore shifts as the novel continues from the rigid and authoritarian version evinced by Ben’s father to a more flexible, strong, and understanding version shown by Ben. By the end of the novel, Ben comes to understand who he is as a person and who he wants to be in the world by relinquishing his insecurities around his masculinity.
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