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
Sadie and Walter walk along the lake bed, looking for Jimmy’s grave. Walter is skeptical that they will find it, but Sadie tells him that the crows will show them. They find burial crosses dispersed all over the ground. A crow appears just then, and hops forward, stopping at the spot where Jimmy’s grave is. Sadie paints a sign with the words “Jimmy Raven, A Clever Man,” as Walter digs a hole for the grave marker.
Sadie and Walter pay their final respects to Jimmy by providing his grave with a marker—something which was never done, given that the location of his corpse was hidden by Clarry Hazzard. This is a final act of restitution that Sadie and Walter carry out, one which signifies an acknowledgement of Jimmy’s valuable life and violent death, as well as his connection to this sacred land.
Themes
As they work, Lachie shows up. His head is bandaged, but he tells Sadie and Walter that he had a head scan and he will be fine. Sadie apologizes for breaking into his house, and Lachie expresses gratitude to them for getting help for him when he was injured. He asks them what they are doing, and Sadie, hesitant at first, tells him the story of Gerald Mortlock’s murder of Jimmy Raven, and how her own great-grandfather Clarry helped cover up the murder.
Lachie’s gratitude reflects the fact that by acting with integrity and coming to his aid, Sadie and Walter have broken the cycle of violence initiated by Gerald Mortlock and Clarry Hazzard. The three teenagers are interacting peacefully. Furthermore, in confronting Lachie with Gerald’s murder of Jimmy, Sadie challenges Lachie to take responsibility for the wrongs and injuries done by his ancestors, particularly toward Aboriginal people and their sacred land.
Themes
Lachie is not happy to hear his great-grandfather Gerald was a murderer. But Sadie points out that even good men do bad things, including her great-grandfather Clarry. Lachie says that his sister Bethany thinks his great-grandfather Gerald Mortlock killed himself because of his war trauma. Sadie thinks, though she doesn’t say it, that Gerald killed himself because of “what he’d done.”
Lachie is still reluctant to take responsibility for the wrongs done by his forbears, which shows how hard it can be to face the injustices passed down through generations. That Gerald killed himself is news to Sadie—it confirms to her that he met a tragic end as a result of the crime that he had committed. Ultimately, he was driven to pay a heavy penalty for Jimmy’s murder, by taking his own life. This revelation indicates that violent, unjust relationships between people—especially people of different races—have negative consequences for everyone, even the people who have more power.
Themes
Lachie tells them they can put up Jimmy Raven’s grave marker. He sees more knocked down burial crosses belonging to dead Mortlocks, and begins tidying up the graveyard. Together, the three also put up Jimmy’s marker, which Walter has decorated with a black feather. Walter and Sadie help Lachie as he tidies up the rest of the crosses. Lachie tells them that that he can help them find Jimmy Raven’s World War I records on the internet if they want to find out where he came from. Before Lachie leaves for a footy game, the three agree to meet for a game of pool soon, and Sadie is astonished to see Walter and Lachie grinning at each other.
The image of the three teenagers working together to tidy up the graveyard reveals just how far this generation has moved from its forbearers. Sadie and Walter’s courageous acts have led to an end of the cycle of violence commenced by Gerald Mortlock and Clarry Hazzard. The descendants of Gerald, Clarry and Jimmy are cooperating, rather than fighting. Furthermore, Lachie’s willingness to help Walter and Sadie find out more about Jimmy also suggests that he is, perhaps, on his way to acknowledging the wrongs done by his family in the past.
Themes
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Sadie and Walter go to have a look at the stone circle. From a distance, a crow watches Sadie and Walter. Walter wants to catch the footy game, and Sadie says she will follow in a minute. When he leaves, she turns to the crow. She tells him that she had gone to visit the other Sarah Louise’s grave again, but it was gone. And when she asked her mother about her great-aunt, her mother told her that she had been an incredible woman who had many adventures around the world and lived a long life. Sadie asks the crow if she’s changed history, or if Waa changed history by taking back Sarah Louise’s punishment of early death. The crow only answers “Waaah!” Sadie can no longer understand its speech. She says goodbye to the crow, who rises into the air and laughs down at her.
By making moral choices while inhabiting her great-aunt’s Sarah Louise’s body, Sadie seems to have transformed her great-aunt’s destiny to one full of adventure and success. The crow, however, neither confirms nor denies this—now that Sadie has fulfilled her obligations, her ability to communicate with the crows has ended. Nonetheless, Sadie now knows that Waa the Crow looks over, and protects the land and the heritage it contains. She also knows that beneath the surface of her everyday reality, a deeper, more ancient reality lurks.
Themes
