Wolfsong

“My mom said I was just fine. My daddy thought I was slow. My mom said it wasn’t a race. He was deep in his whiskey at that point and started yelling and breaking things. He didn’t hit her. Not that night, anyway. Mom cried a lot, but he didn’t hit her. I made sure of it.”

This passage establishes Ox’s early understanding of masculinity and violence through fragmented syntax and emotional understatement. The juxtaposition of his parents’ voices—his mother’s gentle reassurance and his father’s cruelty—illustrates a child torn between nurture and destruction. The final line, “I made sure of it,” reveals the quiet heroism at the heart of Ox’s character. Even as a boy, he takes responsibility for protecting others from harm, foreshadowing his leadership role in the future.

“Ox, the work shirt read. Like I mattered. Like I meant something. Like I was important. Men don’t cry. My daddy taught me that. Men don’t cry because they don’t have time to cry. I must not have been a man yet, because I cried. I bowed my head and cried.”

The recurring motif of the shirt shifts from representing Ox’s father’s status as an isolated man to Ox’s communal belonging. This highlights the novel’s theme of The Transformative Power of Loyalty and Belonging. The simple declarative repetition “Like I mattered. Like I meant something. Like I was important” mirrors Ox’s realization of his own worth. The tears that follow break his father’s script of masculinity and mark Ox’s rejection of it.

“I was going to tell him it was too much. That he needed to take it back. That there was nothing I could ever give him that would be so beautiful because the only things I owned that were beautiful were not mine to give away. My mother. Gordo. Rico, Tanner, and Chris. They were the only things I had. But he was waiting for that. I could see it. He was waiting for me to say no. To give it back, to tell him I couldn’t accept it. His hands were twitching and his knees were shaking. He was pale and he gnawed on his lip. I didn’t know what else to say, so I said, ‘It’s probably the nicest thing anyone has ever given me. Thank you.’”

Joe’s gift of the stone wolf functions both as a symbol of identity and a request for reciprocity, introducing the theme of Queer Love as Liberation. Ox’s inner monologue reveals his deep humility and his belief that his loved ones are not owned by him.