Something that stood out to me while reading about the Russian forest and its creatures was the blurring of lines between the human and animal worlds, specifically in the Zinovieva-Annibal pieces. The two short stories, “The Bear Cubs” and “Wolves” depicted different interactions between the worlds. “The Bear Cubs” showed animals entering the human world whereas “Wolves” showed a frenzied girl cross a boundary between humans and animals.

The bear cubs in Zinovieva-Annibal’s story were introduced as the “two friends” of the narrator. Though bears are often feared in human worlds, the cubs are described as having teeth “softer than the touch of [my] hands” (4). Because the cubs are raised in the human world, they lose much of their status as terrifying creatures of the forest. As they grow larger, they regain their ability to be perceived as a threat to human safety, despite their deep love of humans and the lack of conflict between them thus far. Though the mother and daughter who raised the Mishka’s valued love over the hierarchy of humans and animals, both bear cubs died in the end of the story because of preconceived notions that animals are inherently dangerous to, as well as subject to the wrath of, humans.

The boundary crossed in Zinovieva-Annibal’s “Wolves” followed an emotional viewing of a pack of wolves being captured in a hunt and one wolf receiving a fatal wound that caused it much suffering. In order for the humans in the story to hunt wolves, they use hunting dogs. The use of an animal to hunt another animal implies a certain hierarchy of skill that humans cannot compensate for on their own. Despite this implied power dynamic, the hunters capture the wolves to bring them to the Tsar’s hunt, where they break one leg on each world so “they won’t run away too fast… and also so they can’t attack” (21). After seeing the brutality of the hunt, Verochka enters a frenzy, she howls and runs recklessly through the forest only to get tangled in one of the traps set for the wolves. Verochka is berated for her actions and laughed at, even though she is the only one seeing the wolves with compassion instead of bloodlust.