Who is the grey wolf in this novel? Who is the black wolf? Are you sure?

I believe the grey wolf is Yves Rousseau and the black wolf is Sebastien. I should say, rather, that I think these are one of the grey wolves and one of the black wolves. More wolves to come!

Ultimately, I think Gamache is The Grey Wolf. He is the person entrusted with this secret to quietly resolve the threat, if possible. He has fed the right spirit during his life, looking to serve the ideal and fair justice as much as he can. He is “…strong and compassionate. Wise and courageous enough to be forgiving.” Contradicting my identification, Gamache mentions they need to find the grey wolf. He could be talking about Dominic, but in the end is it actually Jeanne Caron who appears to have changed, potentially by feeding her spirit the right food? Ironically, Gamache avoids her for most of the story and you are left to wonder, what if he had talked to her on that first day?

It’s not clear to me how far up The Black Wolf goes. Is it a politician enticed into poisoning his people for personal gain, who clearly fed his spirit with greed and corruption? Or is he only a a significant disciple of an even more powerful, evil one? Apparently, time will tell.

The grey wolf is “strong and compassionate. Wise and Courageous enough to be forgiving.” The too obvious choice for grey wolf is Armand, but I agree with Katherine that the grey wolf is Dom Philippe (Yves Rousseau). I also agree with Carol that Jeanne Caron could be a possible grey wolf because she puts aside her vendetta against Armand and his family and comes to him with information because she knows that she can trust him, that he cannot be bought. And, of course, she saves Armand by shooting David, even though she had been shot earlier in Three Pines.

The black wolf is “vengeful, forgetting no wrong, forgiving no slight, attacking first, cruel and cunning and brutal to both friends and enemies.” I think there is a pack of black wolves, including Marcel Lauzon, David Lavigne and Sebastien, all involved in one way or another in the plot to poison the water and take over the government. But I may be surprised when we get to the next book.

The grey wolf pack is quite large. The Abbot who leaves the safety of his monastery to warn Gamache and Montreal is certainly a grey wolf. Charles, gave his life trying to sound the alarm about an attack on the water supply. One might even say Jeanne Caron is a grey wolf but can a leopard change its spots? I have reservations about Jeanne and which pack she really runs with. Of course I see Jean-Guy and Isabelle in this pack along with their leader Gamache who has always fed the grey wolf. All through his career he has chosen good over corruption even when it meant putting his life on the line or losing his job. The black wolf may have taunted him but it is always the grey wolf he feeds. He carried the weight of making decisions that would affect the lives of millions of people on his shoulders. Continually, throughout the book, whomever he meets along the way he wants to tell them to leave. To run for safety. But he always chooses to feed the grey wolf for the greater good of the country, at great cost to his emotional well being.

The black wolf pack is large. but I am not sure we know just how large it is. Among its members there’s Gamache’s friend David Lavigne, of the RMCP turned traitor. Frere Sebastian and any other persons who look to gain from this corrupt act. Since we know the next book is titled The Black Wolf I’m thinking the Alpha Black Wolf has yet to be named.

My first response was that I think Dom Phillippe is the obvious grey wolf, but his niece Jeanne is also one. The ultimate Black Wolf is the RCMP friend of Gamache’s. But thanks to Libby, Nancy and Katherine I can now see the clever analogy between real wolf packs and the grey and black wolves in the book. I agree that there are packs of grey and black wolves and many to be discovered yet.

Like so many of you all have noted, I too think there are several grey wolves and several black wolves in the book because a number of characters who are revealed to be the opposite “wolf” than we initially think they are.

One of the most interesting grey wolves is Jeanne Caron. She’s right away set up as a black wolf for her past actions towards Gamache and Daniel. But by the end of the book it’s revealed she made a choice to be a grey wolf.

Frere Sebastien appears to be a grey wolf through the book but then it’s revealed he’s a black wolf. Same with David Lavigne.

We never meet the Deputy PM Marcus Lauzon but for sure he’s a black wolf. But I have lingering questions about who he worked with…the big bad black wolf (or wolves?) still to be revealed.

Answering the last question first, I am most definitely not sure. I think LP wants that to be the case. At the conclusion of TGW, Armand, Isabelle and Jean-Guy meet at 4:15 a.m. in the Gamache’s home asked by Gamache to come at that hour because Gamache now realizes there is more. “Armand pointed to his laptop, now sitting on the coffee table in the living room. The black wolf was in there.”

Having said that, I agree with all of the previous comments and nominations and the idea that there are multiple wolves, both grey and black. For me, that is a fundamental element of this story. That in every situation and relationship in our lives, we make a choice; a choice to be compassionate, wise, courageous and forgiving or cruel, cunning and brutal. Our choice is not static and it is possible for one to be both black and grey.

Lauzon and Lavigne are my view of a black wolf. We only meet Lauzon indirectly through Caron and the story of his daughter but he is part of the story and was a black wolf from the beginning. Frere Sebastien is a little more nuanced for me, willing obviously to cause great harm and ultimately responsible for the death of his friend but believing his part in the plot would save the world. “You’re delusional,” Isabelle tells him. Dom Phillipe is absolutely a grey wolf. Jeanne Caron remains a bit of an uncertainty for me; I hope she is truly acting as a grey wolf.

All of my answers were already posted, so I didn’t have anyone new to add. But then with the ideas presented by Jane B and Jane R, I think that Madeline Toussaint is an interesting character who is trying to present herself as a grey wolf by defending Gamache publicly, but her hidden actions and motivations may veer more towards the black with inviting the one journalist she knows will try her best to denigrate Gamache. And maybe we may see more of her true self in The Black Wolf.

I am on my second read-through now and I am struck by the many small references to the idea that all of us have both wolves inside of us, and become the one we feed. And can become the other one…