Wolf at the Door

“I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!”

Don't you just hate it when you hear that and look outside only to find that the big bad wolf is at your door again?

Throughout history, wolves have often been associated with being the bad guys. Whether they're trying to eat you, or trying to trick you and then eat you, or are trying to trick you, blow your house down, and then eat you, it seems that in the vast majority of our stories, wolves are usually seen as evil. We see this every single day in our various forms of media and entertainment. How many times have you seen a wolf attack someone on a TV movie, or a werewolf devour an unsuspecting actress that always seems to have a dearth of talent (and of clothes)? Seriously, watch the Syfy channel sometime. We sing about wolves, we tell stories about them, and we watch them on television. Our imaginations run wild with the thought of wolves, for whatever reason. Our literature is a reflection of us during the time in which it was written. Our thoughts, values, emotions, current events, etc are all captured in one form or another via literature. One of my favorite examples of this involving a wolf is a little song by a favorite band of mine. You can check it out here. 

The song “Wolf at the Door” off the album Hail to the Thief by Radiohead features lyrics such as

“I keep the wolf from the door

But he calls me up

Calls me on the phone

Tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up

Steal all my children

If I don't pay the ransom

But I'll never see him again

If I squeal to the cops”

As with anything, this can be interpreted in a number of ways. There is certainly symbolism to be found in these lyrics though, and there is no mistaking that the “wolf at the door” represents bad and scary things. It represents everything we are afraid of, from violence, to losing what is most precious to us, to being harassed, etc. The wolf represents misfortune in our lives. Humans tend to fear what they do not understand. In this case we associated evil with wolves, because for a long time we really didn't understand them (we did the same thing with snakes and other so-called beasts). This didn't help us to cope with the unknown though, and if anything, all it did was make us fear wolves.

It's said that having fear is a sign of intelligence. After all, an intelligent person would not dive off of a cliff onto jagged rocks because they understand that they would be greeted at the bottom by a most unfortunate fate. This is something that is in us from birth. We don't have to be taught to be afraid of something, although in this case, we were. Certainly wolves have been known to attack humans, but that's merely one side of the story. We see this on television and hear stories about it, but let's talk about the facts.

Wolves are carnivores, and as such they will eat a human if it comes to it, but they certainly do not hunt us. Attacks on humans are out of desperation. They often occur in the winter when food is scarce and a pack of wolves are starving to death. Even then, it's really only likely to occur if you come upon a starving pack by yourself. Wolves are naturally afraid of humans (as are other animals) and will never ordinarily seek a human out. It has to be a perfect storm really, for a wolf to attack a person. Predators don't want a challenge; they want something easy and risk-free. The most realistic danger that wolves pose to man is if someone were to leave a baby unattended to outside. Of course that would be a different story than those above. Even then though, wolves don't go into neighborhoods looking for humans to feast upon. In fact, if they still had access to the forests that they once did, this would come up even less.

Our fear of wolves led to a massive campaign to have them exterminated. It was even the federal government's job for some time. Eventually, thousands upon thousands of these animals had been killed. North America, an area once home to a thriving population of various species of wolves, had almost lost all of them be the end of the 19^th century going into the 20^th. Many areas are still virtually barren when it comes to wolves. They were hunted to near extinction.

They have been reintroduced in different areas though, and they seem to be doing OK. The government has been doing quite a lot to help the wolves take to their surroundings again. They are treated as endangered animals and are largely protected. In recent years we've seen the truth about wolves begin to come out. They aren't bloodthirsty beasts who skulk around looking for their next human to eat, they are animals who play an important role in the land we call ours, and in the environment in general. They help keep the number of pests such as deer, ground squirrels, and other rodents down.

It's time we stop killing the things we don't understand. We need to accept the fact that we don't always have the answers to the questions posed to us, even in our 21^st century world. Wolves are not to be feared, but admired.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get the door.