Julie of the Wolves

by

Jean Craighead George

Kapugen/Charlie Edwards Character Analysis

Kapugen is Miyax’s father. His English name is Charlie Edwards. He is a legendary hunter known for his wisdom, bravery, and respect for traditional Inuit culture. After Miyax’s mother dies, Kapugen and Miyax move to an Inuit seal camp to reconnect with their heritage. Kapugen teaches Miyax valuable lessons about nature and traditional Inuit culture, and they see themselves as kindred spirits, both better suited to the old way of life than to modernized society. Miyax is heartbroken when she eventually must leave the seal camp to attend a Bureau of Indian Affairs school back in Mekoryuk. Shortly after this, she learns that Kapugen failed to return to from a seal hunt and is presumed dead. Years later, Miyax relies on Kapugen’s teachings when she becomes lost in the Arctic tundra. In fact, it’s Kapugen who teaches her that wolves are “brotherly” and affectionate rather than vicious, which allows her to befriend a wolf pack that helps her survive. Kapugen is a constant presence in Miyax’s memories, but it eventually becomes clear that there are really two versions of Kapugen: the idolized legend who exists in Miyax’s mind and the flawed Kapugen who fails to live up to Miyax’s expectations. At the end of the book, Miyax learns that Kapugen is alive, after all, and living in a different village. But when Miyax reunites with him, she finds that he’s married to a white woman named Ellen and has distanced himself from Inuit culture. Worst of all, Kapugen now uses an airplane to hunt, just like the gussak hunters who killed Miyax’s wolf friend Amaroq. Kapugen’s assimilation into non-indigenous society destroys the image of him that Miyax used to have, transforming him from a brave Inuk hunter into a hypocrite who is destroying their Inuit culture.

Kapugen/Charlie Edwards Quotes in Julie of the Wolves

The Julie of the Wolves quotes below are all either spoken by Kapugen/Charlie Edwards or refer to Kapugen/Charlie Edwards. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Amaroq, the wolf Quotes

Here she was, watching wolves—she, Miyax, daughter of Kapugen, adopted child of Martha, citizen of the United States, pupil at the Bureau of Indian Affairs School in Barrow, Alaska, and thirteen-year-old wife of the boy Daniel. She shivered at the thought of Daniel, for it was he who had driven her to this fate. She had run away from him exactly seven sleeps ago, and because of this she had one more title by gussak standards—the child divorcée.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Daniel, Martha
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:

With the passing of the lemmings, however, the grasses had grown high again and the hour of the caribou was upon the land. Healthy fat caribou cows gave birth to many calves. The caribou population increased, and this in turn increased the number of wolves who prey on the caribou.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:

Amaroq got to his feet, and as he slowly arose he seemed to fill the sky and blot out the sun. He was enormous. He could swallow her without even chewing. “But he won’t,” she reminded herself. “Wolves do not eat people. That’s gussak talk. Kapugen said wolves are gentle brothers.”

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards (speaker), Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

The signal went off. It sped through his body and triggered emotions of love. Amaroq’s ears flattened and his tail wagged in friendship. He could not react in any other way to the chin pat, for the roots of this signal lay deep in wolf history. It was inherited from generations and generations of leaders before him. As his eyes softened, the sweet odor of ambrosia arose from the gland on the top of his tail and she was drenched lightly in wolf scent. Miyax was one of the pack.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq
Page Number: 24-25
Explanation and Analysis:

“Change your ways when fear seizes,” he had said, “for it usually means you are doing something wrong.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq, Daniel
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

Miyax at last was sure of what had happened to Jello. He was the low man on the totem pole, the bottom of the ladder. She recalled the day Amaroq had put him down and forced him to surrender, the many times Silver had made him go back and sit with the pups, and the times that Kapu had ignored his calls to come home to the den. He was indeed a lowly wolf—a poor spirit, with fears and without friends.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Kapu, Jello, Silver
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Miyax, the girl Quotes

Later, Kapugen’s Aunt Martha told her that he had lost his mind the day her mother died. He had grabbed Miyax up and walked out of his fine house in Mekoryuk. He had left his important job as manager of the reindeer herd, and he had left all his possessions. “He walked you all the way to seal camp,” Martha told her. “And he never did anything good after that.”

Related Characters: Martha (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Miyax’s Mother
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

To Miyax the years at seal camp were infinitely good. The scenes and events were beautiful color spots in her memory.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

“Wolves are brotherly,” he said. “They love each other, and if you learn to speak to them, they will love you too.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes, you are Eskimo,” he had said. “And never forget it. We live as no other people can, for we truly understand the earth.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:

Gradually Julie pushed Kapugen out of her heart and accepted the people of Mekoryuk. The many years in seal camp alone with Kapugen had been dear and wonderful, but she realized now that she had lived a strange life. The girls her age could speak and write English and they knew the names of presidents, astronauts, and radio and movie personalities who lived below the top of the world. Maybe the Europeans once thought the earth was flat, but the Eskimos always knew it was round. One only needed to look at the earth’s relatives, the sun and the moon, to know that.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 84-85
Explanation and Analysis:

“What a lovely i’noGo tied!” Julie said politely. “A what?” asked Judith. Julie repeated the Eskimo word for the house of the spirits. Judith snickered. “That’s a charm bracelet,” she said. Rose giggled and both laughed derisively. Julie felt the blood rush to her face as she met, for the first but not the last time, the new attitudes of the Americanized Eskimos. She had much to learn besides reading. That night she threw her i’noGo tied away.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards (speaker), Judith (speaker), Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Martha, Rose
Related Symbols: I’noGo Tied
Page Number: 85-86
Explanation and Analysis:

“Julie is gone,” she said. “I am Miyax now.”

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards (speaker), Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amy Pollock, Tornait , Daniel, Naka
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Kapugen, the Hunter Quotes

Instantly she knew what had happened; Amaroq had turned on him. Once Kapugen had told her that some wolves had tolerated a lone wolf until the day he stole meat from the pups. With that, the leader gave a signal and his pack turned, struck, and tore the lone wolf to pieces. “There is no room in the wolf society for an animal who cannot contribute,” he had said.

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq, Jello
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:

And she liked the simplicity of that world. It was easy to understand. Out here she understood how she fitted into the scheme of the moon and stars and the constant rise and fall of life on the earth. Even the snow was part of her, she melted it and drank it.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Daniel
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:

The gussaks were paid to shoot them. A man who brought in the left ear of a wolf to the warden was rewarded with a bounty of fifty dollars. The bounty was evil to the old men at seal camp, for it encouraged killing for money, rather than need. Kapugen considered the bounty the gussaks’ way of deciding that the amaroqs could not live on this earth anymore. “And no men have that right,” he would say. “When the wolves are gone there will be too many caribou grazing the grass and the lemmings will starve. Without the lemmings the foxes and birds and weasels will die. Their passing will end smaller lives upon which even man depends, whether he knows it or not, and the top of the world will pass into silence.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq
Page Number: 133-134
Explanation and Analysis:

She would be very useful to him and they would live as they were meant to live—with the cold and the birds and the beasts.

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:

“Come in. I’ve never seen such a bird.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Tornait
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:

Kapugen, after all, was dead to her.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:

Julie pointed her boots toward Kapugen.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Tornait , Daniel
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:
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Julie of the Wolves PDF

Kapugen/Charlie Edwards Quotes in Julie of the Wolves

The Julie of the Wolves quotes below are all either spoken by Kapugen/Charlie Edwards or refer to Kapugen/Charlie Edwards. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Amaroq, the wolf Quotes

Here she was, watching wolves—she, Miyax, daughter of Kapugen, adopted child of Martha, citizen of the United States, pupil at the Bureau of Indian Affairs School in Barrow, Alaska, and thirteen-year-old wife of the boy Daniel. She shivered at the thought of Daniel, for it was he who had driven her to this fate. She had run away from him exactly seven sleeps ago, and because of this she had one more title by gussak standards—the child divorcée.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Daniel, Martha
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:

With the passing of the lemmings, however, the grasses had grown high again and the hour of the caribou was upon the land. Healthy fat caribou cows gave birth to many calves. The caribou population increased, and this in turn increased the number of wolves who prey on the caribou.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:

Amaroq got to his feet, and as he slowly arose he seemed to fill the sky and blot out the sun. He was enormous. He could swallow her without even chewing. “But he won’t,” she reminded herself. “Wolves do not eat people. That’s gussak talk. Kapugen said wolves are gentle brothers.”

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards (speaker), Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

The signal went off. It sped through his body and triggered emotions of love. Amaroq’s ears flattened and his tail wagged in friendship. He could not react in any other way to the chin pat, for the roots of this signal lay deep in wolf history. It was inherited from generations and generations of leaders before him. As his eyes softened, the sweet odor of ambrosia arose from the gland on the top of his tail and she was drenched lightly in wolf scent. Miyax was one of the pack.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq
Page Number: 24-25
Explanation and Analysis:

“Change your ways when fear seizes,” he had said, “for it usually means you are doing something wrong.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq, Daniel
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

Miyax at last was sure of what had happened to Jello. He was the low man on the totem pole, the bottom of the ladder. She recalled the day Amaroq had put him down and forced him to surrender, the many times Silver had made him go back and sit with the pups, and the times that Kapu had ignored his calls to come home to the den. He was indeed a lowly wolf—a poor spirit, with fears and without friends.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Kapu, Jello, Silver
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Miyax, the girl Quotes

Later, Kapugen’s Aunt Martha told her that he had lost his mind the day her mother died. He had grabbed Miyax up and walked out of his fine house in Mekoryuk. He had left his important job as manager of the reindeer herd, and he had left all his possessions. “He walked you all the way to seal camp,” Martha told her. “And he never did anything good after that.”

Related Characters: Martha (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Miyax’s Mother
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

To Miyax the years at seal camp were infinitely good. The scenes and events were beautiful color spots in her memory.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

“Wolves are brotherly,” he said. “They love each other, and if you learn to speak to them, they will love you too.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes, you are Eskimo,” he had said. “And never forget it. We live as no other people can, for we truly understand the earth.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:

Gradually Julie pushed Kapugen out of her heart and accepted the people of Mekoryuk. The many years in seal camp alone with Kapugen had been dear and wonderful, but she realized now that she had lived a strange life. The girls her age could speak and write English and they knew the names of presidents, astronauts, and radio and movie personalities who lived below the top of the world. Maybe the Europeans once thought the earth was flat, but the Eskimos always knew it was round. One only needed to look at the earth’s relatives, the sun and the moon, to know that.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 84-85
Explanation and Analysis:

“What a lovely i’noGo tied!” Julie said politely. “A what?” asked Judith. Julie repeated the Eskimo word for the house of the spirits. Judith snickered. “That’s a charm bracelet,” she said. Rose giggled and both laughed derisively. Julie felt the blood rush to her face as she met, for the first but not the last time, the new attitudes of the Americanized Eskimos. She had much to learn besides reading. That night she threw her i’noGo tied away.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards (speaker), Judith (speaker), Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Martha, Rose
Related Symbols: I’noGo Tied
Page Number: 85-86
Explanation and Analysis:

“Julie is gone,” she said. “I am Miyax now.”

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards (speaker), Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amy Pollock, Tornait , Daniel, Naka
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Kapugen, the Hunter Quotes

Instantly she knew what had happened; Amaroq had turned on him. Once Kapugen had told her that some wolves had tolerated a lone wolf until the day he stole meat from the pups. With that, the leader gave a signal and his pack turned, struck, and tore the lone wolf to pieces. “There is no room in the wolf society for an animal who cannot contribute,” he had said.

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq, Jello
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:

And she liked the simplicity of that world. It was easy to understand. Out here she understood how she fitted into the scheme of the moon and stars and the constant rise and fall of life on the earth. Even the snow was part of her, she melted it and drank it.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Daniel
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:

The gussaks were paid to shoot them. A man who brought in the left ear of a wolf to the warden was rewarded with a bounty of fifty dollars. The bounty was evil to the old men at seal camp, for it encouraged killing for money, rather than need. Kapugen considered the bounty the gussaks’ way of deciding that the amaroqs could not live on this earth anymore. “And no men have that right,” he would say. “When the wolves are gone there will be too many caribou grazing the grass and the lemmings will starve. Without the lemmings the foxes and birds and weasels will die. Their passing will end smaller lives upon which even man depends, whether he knows it or not, and the top of the world will pass into silence.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amaroq
Page Number: 133-134
Explanation and Analysis:

She would be very useful to him and they would live as they were meant to live—with the cold and the birds and the beasts.

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:

“Come in. I’ve never seen such a bird.”

Related Characters: Kapugen/Charlie Edwards (speaker), Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Tornait
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:

Kapugen, after all, was dead to her.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:

Julie pointed her boots toward Kapugen.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Kapugen/Charlie Edwards, Amaroq, Tornait , Daniel
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis: