Goldie (Susan Phelan) does not fulfil the image or role of a mother. The meeting between Goldie and Cassy is an odd reversal. This is shown the description of Goldie’s voice ‘giggly and excited’ already the reader gets a sense of immaturity. Also the way she behaves when she is excited or enthusiastic is an interpretation of a child.
Mick Phelan is Cassy’s father, although she has not seen him since she was a baby. Mick has a ghostly dark character, Gillian Cross links the wolf’s likeness to the character of Mick, describing him as ‘agile and fast’. He is very determined to get what he wants this is depicted in the novel ‘he never gives up. He never goes away until he gets what he wants’ Mick seems to have a connection with wolves Goldie told Cassy ‘they would look at him, and he would look at them -on and on and on‘
In traditional tales, wolves are represented to be evil cunning, greedy and devious creatures this is supported by the evidence from the novel the “Little Red Riding Hood” the wolf was greedy, not only did he want to eat the little girl but the grand mother as well he was cunning to take the shortcut and devious to trick the girl into believing he was little old grandma but his greed got the better of him and in turn lost out.
Also in the three little pigs the wolf was devious to blow the first of the pigs’ house down, he began to get greedy when blowing the second pigs’ house down. The wolf was unable to blow the third house down and was cunning to climb down the chimney into a fire. Once again his greed caught up with him and the wolf lost out.
Altogether, this creates a picture of the wolves as being evil creatures that are harmful and really don’t have any morals like the character Mick (although we do not realise this at the beginning of the book). Mick also shows great similarities between himself and mythical wolves. For instance when mick climbed onto the roof of the house and tried to enter in from the skylight window this is a comparison to the 3 little pigs.
However, we gradually discover some evidence which shows that real wolves are in fact brave and clever animals and take pride in raising there pack and looking after and protecting one another the same way as we do with our families.
For instance ‘adult wolves all respond readily to the cubs. When a cub approaches an adult who has just fed, the adult will regurgitate it’s own food for the cub to eat….’ This shows that a wolf will look out for others and really isn’t greedy as like the fictional myth. This is a connection with the character Lyall to the wolf. As the story continues we start to see Lyall in a different light we don’t see him as angry and threatening but caring to it’s young like the way he acts with Cassy.
Some other information which changes our opinion of wolves ‘there are twenty thousand wolves in N. America and Canada. In isolated places where the winter is bitter and men go out hunting alone.’ How many people do wolves kill each year? ‘There is no reliable record of any attack by a wolf on a human being in N. America. EVER.’ This proves wolves aren’t dangerous or harmful creatures they are just protectors of their pack and territory just like any other human being feels about their family and home.
In my opinion we all think different about the ‘wolf’ but if we take the time to discover what wolves are actually like we realise they are really decent creatures.
This has relevance to the character in novel. We meet two characters that seem ‘wolfish’. The first of these is Lyall Cornelius. In Cassy’s first meeting with him, His first words to Cassy were ‘hallo little red riding hood’. This associates with fictional stories of the ‘Wolf’’ already Lyall give the impression of the big bad wolf!
Lyall had many similar characteristics of the ‘wolf’ - ‘black face, and a fringe of a grizzled beard. And thin. Bony ankles and bare, long-toed feet, long, long fingers’. ‘Narrow lips were taut round the dark cave of his mouth and his body was as tense as a hunting animal’
We gradually discover during the novel many interpretations of mick he is described of having a tracksuit hood tied around his neck hiding his face. And floppy dark hair. He tends to move fast with a strange, loping gait as if ‘one moment he there the next he’s gone’.
In the novel Lyall told a story of a bzou the werewolf, there was a girl who being troubled by a werewolf, hid a pistol with a silver bullet underneath her pillow. The next full moon she heard heavy footsteps that padded along her window and there was a signal on the door two taps a pause and two more taps. This story had a huge resemblance to Cassy’s situation firstly’ the night before Cassy was sent away she had been woken by footsteps and the same knock ‘two short taps, then a pause, and another two taps’ secondly by Cassy’s ‘sixth sense’ that if she had found out who had knocked on the door she might have found out the same thing as in the story (the girl had shot the werewolf which turned out to be her father)
We begin to realise that out of the two men mick is more like the ‘big bad wolf‘ of such myths because mick is cruel just like the fictional character of the ‘wolf’ he seems to reflect all there unkindness.
Evidence to corroborate with this is mick is willing to sacrifice not only his mother but to terrorise his daughter to get something, which is evidently destroy many innocent lives.
Cassy suddenly realises that Lyall isn’t the ‘big bad wolf’ but acts like a true wolf a ‘protector of its cub’
When Cassy first met her father in her Nan’s flat which is portrayed as being the grandmothers cottage ‘In the Little Red Riding Hood’ he was sat on a chair holding a gun his first words to Cassy were ‘come on then, if your coming in. come in’ this links to the story of the little red riding hood, which uses mick as the big bad wolf that puts on the grandmothers ninety and sits on the grandmothers bed lying in wait of the little red riding hood.
Gillian cross has used many different angles to portray the wolf through the three main characters animal, myth, and figment of our imagination, protector and predator.
