why do the sisters treat mirabella like an outcast? cite specific evidence from the text to support your answer.

The sisters treat Mirabella like an outcast because her behavior stays “wolf- like” and refuses to change, which makes her a threat to their progress and acceptance into human society. Their rejection is not just emotional; it is also strategic, because staying close to Mirabella could pull them backward in St. Lucy’s program.

Key reasons the sisters treat Mirabella as an outcast

1. She refuses to assimilate

Mirabella keeps acting like a wolf instead of a “proper” girl, breaking the rules that are supposed to civilize them.

• She bites, howls, and eats off the floor instead of using utensils and manners.
• She ignores the handbook’s rules and does not follow the nuns’ instructions, so she is constantly marked as “behind” the others.

Because of this, the sisters start to see her not as one of them, but as someone holding the whole group back.

2. She endangers the group’s status

The other girls know their advancement through the stages depends on proving they are becoming more human, so Mirabella’s wildness makes them afraid.

• The text describes how they worry that her failures could drag the pack “back a stage,” which would ruin their chances of moving on.

• They begin to treat her as a liability rather than a sibling, thinking she could cost them the future they want.

This pressure encourages them to push her away instead of protecting her.

3. Her loyalty clashes with their new values

At the school dance—meant to test their refinement—Mirabella rushes in and attacks a boy to protect her packmate, acting from wolfish loyalty, not human etiquette.

• This moment shows she still lives by pack instincts, not by St. Lucy’s expectations.
• The dance disruption “cements her outsider status,” and after that, the sisters see her less as brave and more as dangerous.

Her actions embarrass them and threaten their carefully built human personas.

4. They actively exclude and label her

The text gives clear evidence that the sisters shift from unease to deliberate exclusion.

• They hide their food from her and refuse to sit near her.
• They trade away her gifts for demerits, choosing their own record over her feelings.

• They repeat the nuns’ language, calling her “incorrigible” and “feral,” which justifies treating her like she no longer belongs.

These behaviors show they are not just uncomfortable with Mirabella—they are consciously pushing her out.

5. Her expulsion and their reaction

When Mirabella is finally expelled, the girls do not protest or defend her.

• The narrator explains that the girls “did not look back” as Mirabella is led away, feeling guilty relief rather than grief.

• Their silence proves that, by this point, they have accepted the idea that Mirabella must be removed for them to move forward.

So, the sisters treat Mirabella like an outcast because her persistent wolf- like behavior, rule-breaking, and disruptive loyalty threaten their own transformation and status at St. Lucy’s, and the story shows this through her biting and howling, the ruined dance, their hiding food and avoiding her, their harsh labels, and their failure to stand up for her when she is expelled.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.