The loop door Nicholas Evans

Title: The Loop. (De wolvenlus)
Writer: Nicholas Evans
Date of publication: Thirst Edition August 1998

Resume of The Loop:

Helen Ross is a woman how likes wolfs. Her love life till now isn’t so good, her boyfriend left to Africa and there he met a woman and married her. But then Dan Prior, an old friend, offers her to look for wolfs in the village Hope because a wolf attacks a baby of the Calders family. The baby was safe but the wolf killed the dog. She has to track them, look what they are doing and protect them because everybody thinks they are bad animals. In the beginning of her research, she can’t find a wolf because Luke has damaged her work. He did those things because he thinks that Helen went to kill them or put them in cages but later he understood she wants to help the wolfs and so Luke is helping Helen.

All the inhabitants, ranchers, want to kill the wolfs because they eat from the cattle and try to oppose Helen. Buck Calder, a big rancher, is their leader. He’s so crazy that he want to hire somebody to kill the wolfs illegal. A man called Lovelace will help Buck and he used a loop, a rope to catch and kill the wolf successfully. But he was to old and died in the mountains. The youngest son of Buck Calder is in love with wolfs and the 10-year-older woman Helen. Because they both like wolfs they live to each other, know each other better and better and they start a relationship with each other. First Helen is a little uncertain but when she talked to her sister she knows she has to follow her hart.
On a party, just when it is quiet with the wolfs, a wolf attacks a cow. The inhabitants are so mad that they wants to kill the wolfs by them self. They meet each other in a cafe and then they drive to the woods. Helen, Ruth, Luke and Eleanor tried to safe them and go also to the mountains, to the place where the wolfs has there hole. A young wolf was stuck in the trap, in the loop. And then, Buck is coming with his group. They search for wolfs and see something move and shoot. But it was not a wolf…

Story Analysis:

Time:

The different seasons in the story makes the five parts of this novel, the lot of flashbacks makes it finish.
The time of the story could be now or last year, it starts in the summer and it lasts a year long, the last chapter ends in the next summer.

Space:

The story is set in Montana and the small city Hope. The most time of the story is outside or in the ranches, but most time outside in the forest, the place where the wolfs are living.

Personage:

The principal characters:
Helen Ross, I couldn’t find the exact outward of Helen Ross. But she is very nice, pretty and sensitive, she has a love for wolfs and is about 28 years old. She is a wolfbiologist and works on a thesis about wolfs. Her problem is that there are wolfs in Hope, and the people in Hope don’t like them because the wolfs kill sometimes the cattle, Helen had to take care of the wolfs.

The other important characters:
Luke Calder, son of Buck Calder, long, dark, beautiful green eyes, 18 years old, he stammers and is very sensitive. He loves animals and has an eye on Helen.
Buck Calder, the biggest rancher in the neighbourhood, he has a big mouth and is a big Casanova. He is for years unfaithful to his wife, and has in the village a lot of control.

Perspective:

The perspective that is used in The Loop is called a he/she- perspective or also called a secret storyteller. But also Nicholas Evans used an I-perspective. You can feel the story, like you’re in the story. That you are seeing the wolfs, Lovelace killing them and Luke and Helen helping them.

Style:

The style of Nicholas Evans book The Loop is that it wasn’t too difficult and he didn’t used to long or to short senses. There was a few times a space description and descriptions about the characters. He didn’t use a lot real conversations.

Tension:

There was lot of tension in the story, example when Luke has to take all of the wolfpups out off the hole, and than all the angry people are coming. Or when Luke wasn’t scared any more for his dad Buck Calder. Or when the male bear is coming after Helen and Luke, than they drop something and Luke can get it back just on time.

Title:

The title has to do with the story, the loop is a thing were the people killed the wolfs. In the end of the story Luke want to help the wolfs but one stuck on the loop. It goes around your throat and it stuck so you can’t get it out or you will hurt the throat and it will die as well.

Theme:

The theme goes about Nature and People. The wolfs play a big and important role in the story. The wolfs are protected but the people of Hope wants them out of there because the wolfs eat the cattle.

Opinion:

The Loop is a great story to my opinion. I love animals and this story has tension, romanticism and animals.
I think Helen is a great woman, she has a big perseverance and a big love for wolfs. She wants to do everything for them, her love life wasn’t so good till she met Luke and with him she felt so happy and so well known.
Luke is a good boy, he’s afraid of his father and that’s one of the reasons that he stammers. With Helen he feels himself so well known and he stammers a lot lesser.
The story isn’t so difficult and has everything what I want in a story.

Verwerkingsopdracht A8: