The Grey Wolf

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

As the title The Grey Wolf indicates, wolves play a significant symbolic role in the novel. There are literal wolves in Three Pines and the monastery Saint-Gilbert-Entres-les-Loups, or Saint Gilbert Between the Wolves. When Armand and Reine-Marie sit outside in their small village, “they [can] hear the far-off howling of a wolf in pursuit” (111). This is a neutral wolf, or a symbol of nature outside human conceptions of good and evil. Armand encounters a wolf when walking around the lake by the monastery. It threatens him, but Jean-Guy intervenes before the wolf attacks. This moment symbolizes how Armand’s friends save him, foreshadowing how Jeanne saves Armand at the novel’s end.

The monastery’s name comes from a Cree legend about two wolves. The gray wolf represents goodness, and the black wolf represents evil. During the case, Armand and his associates wonder who is evil, or who is involved in the plan to attack the drinking water: “Were they really so sure who was the grey wolf, and who was the black?” (237). Armand thinks that Jeanne is the black wolf. However, Jeanne’s boss, Lauzon, and David are the black wolves in this case.