As much as Claudette dreamed of rivers and meat, it was disorienting to look down at shoes than her own two feet. “It was impossible to make the blank, chilly bedroom feel like home. In the beginning, we drank gallons of bathwater as part of a collaborative effort to mark our territory.” (Russell, 240) Claudette is trying to keep her ways, which is not much of an improvement “The advances girls could already alternate between two speeds, ‘slouch and ‘amble’. Almost everybody was fully bipedal.” (Russell, 240) Even though Jeanette during this period was the most successful does not make Claudette any less behind. “I was one of the good girls. Not great and not terrible, solidly middle-of-the-pack. But I had an ear for languages, and I could read before I could adequately wash myself” (Russell, 242) Claudette is taking interest in human things which is an improvement. She is ignoring Mirabella, who is the least successful to keep her focus on becoming a civilized person which shows she cares. “I spent less time with Mirabella. One night she came to me, holding her hand out. She was covered with splinters, keening a high, whining noise through her nostrils. ‘Lick your own wounds,’ I said, not unkindly. It was what the nuns had instructed us to say; wound-licking was not something you did in polite company.” (Russell, …show more content…
“Hey, Claudette, Jeanette growled to me on the day before the ball, ‘Have you noticed that everything’s beginning to make sense?” (Russell, 247) The day of the ball is basically the final test for Claudette. Even though she couldn’t remember the steps to the dance, she never actually performed it to show she passed. This however was when Mirabella was released after she attacked Claudette during her dance. “Hooray!” the pack crowed. ‘Something has been done!” (Russell, 251) It was obvious that it was harder to learn with Mirabella around. So without the distraction of someone trying to get her to go back to her ways, she could focus on her work better and eventually integrate into human