Julie of the Wolves Characters

She's got a lot of names, our Miyax. Four to be exact. Why so many? Well, Miyax is a girl torn between two worlds: the old world and the new one. Which will she choose? Before we answer that, let's...

For most of the novel we, like Miyax, believe Kapugen is dead. So everything we know about Kapugen comes from Miyax's memories of him. We don't even meet him in person until she flashes back to her...

Amaroq, the wolf. Yep, a wolf is one of the main characters in this novel. And not a talking wolf, or a cartoon wolf: just a real-life wild wolf. This guy is like Miyax's adopted father. In Kapugen...

More wolves with personality. Kapu, Amaroq's son and eventual leader of the pack, is like a brother to Miyax. When we first meet him, he seems playful, fun, and curious about Miyax: "The black pupp...

Poor Jello. This wolf just can't win. He's Miyax's main rival when it comes to getting food, and because Miyax is accepted as a pup in the pack, Jello is doomed to lose that battle. The UnderwolfFr...

Nice Amy Pollock, and her nice father, Mr. Pollock, live in San Francisco. But Mr. Pollock has business interests in Alaska, which is what brings these two into the story. Amy wants an Alaskan pen...

Atik, his wife Uma, and their baby Sorqaq are an Eskimo family who visit Miyax in her ice house toward the end of Part 3. They aren't there for long, and they aren't very developed as characters. B...

The bent woman is merely a nickname for a shaman, or priestess, who lives at the seal camp where Miyax spends her childhood. During the Bladder Feast, she dances in costume, and later, she tells Mi...

Daniel is Julie's husband. Yep, that's right – husband. He's the same age as Julie, and his mother promises that he'll be just like a brother to our young heroine. Unfortunately, this prediction...

Ellen is Kapugen's new, loud-talking, gussak wife (gussak means white woman). She's a teacher in the school in Kangik, and tries to be kind to Miyax by suggesting that they can enroll her in the sc...

Judith and Rose are Julie's schoolmates in Mekoryuk. They're "Americanized Eskimos" (2.47), which means that they speak English and have modern things in their houses like a gas cooking stove and c...

Aunt Martha is Kapugen's aunt, which makes her Miyax's great aunt. Although she's mentioned beforehand, she first turns up at the seal camp, where she insists that Miyax come with her back to Mekor...

Naka is Kapugen's "serious partner" (2.8), or best friend with whom Kapugen can "work and think" (1.120). Miyax has fond memories of him from seal camp, but the man she remembers is not the man he...

In a lot of ways, aside from the wolves, Pearl is the only true friend our heroine has in the novel. Julie meets Pearl just after her wedding to Daniel, when Pearl finds Julie moping on an oil drum...

All we ever learn about Russell is that he is "the young man who had been campaigning around the village, begging the Eskimos to vote 'No' on requests for liquor licenses by the local restaurants"...

The two other adults of the wolf pack aren't all that interesting, but they fill key roles within the pack. Silver is the mother. She's Amaroq's mate, and raises all the pups. She's stern, but ulti...

These other four wolves are the pups of the pack (besides Kapu, of course). Sister is seen playing with her brother Kapu, but beyond that she doesn't have much of a personality. As for the others,...

Honestly, it's a bit hard for us to call Tornait a character, because he can't really communicate with Miyax. Birds have languages, sure, but Miyax doesn't quite put in the same amount of effort ta...