Are we “Raised in Captivity”? Pt. 3
The third short story from Chuck Klosterman’s book “Raised in Captivity”, that I want to talk about is called “Trial and Error”.
Trial and Error
The story is about a woman who knew that she had to kill a wolf. “There was simply no escape from the life she had assembled by accident”. A life she didn’t like and by killing a wolf, she hoped that this changed. She got that advice from a friend of her’s. Her friend already killed a wolf when he just lost his wife and failed a business. He then found a new wife and a new job, after killing a wolf. He talked to the woman about how to best kill a wolf but she wanted to know how this seemingly strange and cruel action actually helped to get a better life? Her friend couldn’t scientifically tie the killing of the wolf to anything that happened for the better in his life. But for him, that didn’t matter. He would do it again. “I don’t want to die by myself. I wanted a certain type of life, and it seems like the wolf killers get that life”. After the conversation the woman returns home, still being dissatisfied with her life. But now she has decided to kill a wolf. Someday she will do it. “It would take a long time, and it would take even longer before she’d quit wondering why she was no longer miserable”.
I read “Killing a wolf” as a metaphor for doing something extreme. It could be one of the actions that lead to a “perception shift” as mentioned in The Secret (read the review here). There is a certain lure to doing something extreme in order to improve or change your life. Go on a meditation trip, change your circle of friends, write a blog etc. Why not kill a wolf?
Similar as we see with the woman in the story, there are stages to go through. At the start, you need to be dissatisfied with your current life. Then your search for improvement leads you to people who have done something extreme and their lives improved. But at that moment, the actions might seem extreme and you’re asking yourself whether or not you really want to do it. With time, the thought changes to where the woman was in the story: deciding to do it eventually. Not now, but sometime in the future. And at some point, the pressure builds up enough to then make the drastic move. For someone outside the action might seem erratic. But knowing how long it boiled inside, it’s not all that surprising.