The Company of Wolves

In the excerpt The Company of Wolves, the women are displayed as the submissive role toward man from the beginning. Although it shows that women are independent among each other, the mother of the story cannot tell her daughter not to go to her grandmother’s house, a man, her father, can "her father can forbid her, if he were home, but he is away in the forest, gathering wood, and her mother cannot deny her. Along with that they Carter categorized the child into a pure, virginal innocent role, which is usually associated with the female sex. But as opposition to this, the child was also associated with the maturation into a woman and the likelihood of the change of her status by describing the maturation of her body. As she walks to her grandmother’s house, there is again the depiction of the innocence and submission of the stereotypical feminine role. This is shown by the child who follows the huntsman, who she was dependent on him for his compass and the rifle, but also comply with his bet with the reward of a kiss if he was to win. She also comply with his wishes at the end of the story when he told her to remove her cloths. This and other stereotypical elements that is usually associated with the masculinity and femininity. The female is weak and innocent, shown when she is described as the virgin, the youngest in the family, and her bashfulness when he requested a kiss, her dependence of the man who would protect her with the rifle. The man shows his stereotypical role by being a hunter, a typically male role, the stronger of the child and himself, being more knowledgeable then the female, and his obvious advance for his sexual desire.
Dependence of a woman on the man and the stereotypes are also display through the less substantial elements of the story. One part of the story can be when the grandma depend on the boy from the village to build the hearth for the night. Or the mother who was at home, being the caretaker, while the father was out gathering wood, being the breadwinner.