Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crow Country, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Heritage and Land
Justice and Restitution
Violence and Integrity
Summary
Analysis
Ellie sits on the edge of Sadie’s bed at home. She is worried about Sadie, and after her fainting spell at the supermarket, wants her to get a check-up at the hospital. Sadie says no, and that she just needs to stay home for the day. Ellie tells Sadie if she really does hate it in Boort, then they can move. But Sadie tells her that actually, she likes Boort and wants to stay. Privately, she thinks that now she’s inherited the other Sadie (Sarah’s) body and gotten to know Clarry and Jean, she can’t leave.
Sadie’s travels to the past—as well as the terrible things she has seen there relating to Jimmy Raven’s murder—are clearly taking a toll on her. And yet, Sadie’s desire to remain in Boort also suggests that she is becoming invested in the town, and, specifically in her own family history and its consequences.
Themes
The next day, on Saturday, David and Walter come over. Ellie and David stay behind to paint Sadie’s room, while Sadie and Walter go out for a walk. As they walk, Sadie feels glad to have Walter with her. She takes him to the town cemetery. There, she begins looking at gravestones. She freezes when she sees Gerald Mortlock’s gravestone, listing his date of death as 1933—the same year as the murder of Jimmy Raven. Then, she looks to the next headstone. It lists Clarence Hazzard. She is breathless as she realizes Clarry died only a month after Gerald. She grows dizzy when she uncovers another inscription on the gravestone: Sarah Louise (the other Sadie), who died in 1934. The words “When the Law is broken there must be punishment” keep going through Sadie’s head.
Sadie’s discovery of the three gravestones of Gerald, Clarry and Sarah Louise is shocking mainly because it reveals that all three lost their lives prematurely—and within months of Jimmy Raven’s murder. The words that come to Sadie’s mind then, about how there must be punishment when the Law is broken—words spoken to her by the crows—suggest that Gerald, Clarry, and Sarah Louise perhaps came to early deaths as a kind of punishment, or retribution, for their role in Jimmy’s murder and its cover-up.
Themes
Walter tells Sadie that he had dreamed of her before he met her—he had dreamed that she could speak to crows. Sadie tells him that she can, and then everything comes tumbling out: she tells him about the crows coming to her, the stone circle, and her travels to the year 1933, including how she becomes “the other Sadie.” Throughout it all, Walter listens attentively. Finally he says they must go look at the lakebed, to find where Jimmy Raven is buried.
Walter is the first person to whom Sadie confesses the truth about the crows speaking to her, as well as her travels back to the past. This points to a growing bond of trust between the two teenagers. This bond in turn points to an alliance that crosses racial and cultural boundaries—given that Walter is Aboriginal and Sadie is white. Unlike many of the other white townspeople, Sadie is capable of forging bonds across these divides. By offering to help and participate in Sadie’s quest, Walter also reveals himself to be deeply invested in achieving some kind of justice and restitution for Jimmy.
Themes
