Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Where the Crawdads Sing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival, Necessity, and Violence
Independence vs. Human Connection
Education, Coming of Age, and Adulthood
Prejudice, Intolerance, and Acceptance
Summary
Analysis
Kya is 14 and spending an afternoon on the beach feeding the gulls. She’s wearing one of Ma’s old dresses that didn’t used to fit her but now stretches tightly across her chest. While paying attention to the gulls, she hears something behind her and quickly tries to determine what it was. Sneaking into the woods, she tracks what she thinks is the source of the sound, eventually seeing a boy moving through the trees. For a moment, they make eye contact before she ducks behind a bush and then runs, her face low to the ground.
As time passes, Kya enters adolescence. This means that she has successfully navigated her way out of childhood with very little support, a testament to her survival skills. Part of the reason she has been able to maintain her solitary life in the shack has to do with her ability to avoid other people—a skill that has enabled her to dodge authorities who might want to put her into an orphanage. Now, though, she uses these skills out of habit, instinctively hiding from anyone who comes near. In this way, she resembles a cautious animal in nature, effectively imitating the creatures that surround her.
Themes
After avoiding the area for the rest of the day, Kya creeps back to where she saw the boy and finds a feather sticking straight out of a mossy stump. The feather, she sees, is rare because it comes from the “eyebrow” of a great blue heron. As she inspects it, she realizes that the boy must have left it for her. Not sure what to do, she leaves it in the stump, but she spends all night thinking about it. The following morning, she returns and takes it from the stump, wondering why exactly a boy would give her this gift.
Because Kya has had very limited experiences with other people, it’s almost unfathomable for her to think that a stranger would be interested in reaching out to her. Simply put, she’s not used to people wanting to connect with her in any manner. What’s more, Kya finds it hard to stop thinking about the boy because he has chosen to interact with her on her own terms, giving her feathers and thereby endearing himself to her.
Themes
The next day, Kya finds yet another rare feather in the stump, identifying it as a tailfeather from a tropical bird that isn’t even from the area. That night, she lights two candles—burning more oil than usual—so she can paint the beautiful feather.
It’s clear that this boy’s attempt to connect with Kya is working, based on the fact that she enthusiastically uses more oil than normal to paint the feathers he gives her. Finally, it seems, she has found a kindred spirit, though she has yet to actually interact with him.
Themes
For an entire week, no more feathers appear. Then, Kya finds a turkey tailfeather on the stump. She’s delighted by this, though it makes her think of a time roughly one year earlier when she was walking in the woods and came across a flock of turkeys murdering one of their own because it had gotten injured. She knew from what Jodie had told her that turkeys kill each other if they’re hurt because incapacitated birds are more likely to attract predators. Despite this knowledge, though, she couldn’t stand by and watch this gory ritual, so she chased the turkeys away, but it was too late—the damage had already been done.
When Kya witnesses a group of turkeys murdering one of their own, what she sees is the harsh reality of life in the natural world, where survival takes precedent over all else. Because the injured turkey ultimately puts the others in danger, it is in the flock’s best interest to kill it. Of course, this is a rather devastating thing to observe, which is why Kya tries to save the injured turkey before it’s too late. However, the turkey is already too injured to survive by the time she gets to it, so this experience becomes something of a lesson that there is very little room for emotion or even mercy when it comes to matters of survival in the natural world.
Themes
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While thinking about the mangled turkey the night after watching its flock members kill it, Kya hears voices in the woods and freezes. “Here we come, Marsh Girl!” one voice says, and she realizes that there’s a group of boys in the surrounding woods. The boys have dared each other to come out to the marsh in the middle of the night and run up to Kya’s shack. As she braces herself, she hears them slap the house with their hands before darting away again, laughing and calling her unseemly names. When they’re gone, her fear subsides somewhat, leaving an intense feeling of shame.
Kya has spent her entire life separated from her surrounding community, but she has rarely had to confront this fact. Normally, she only experiences the townspeople’s prejudices when she ventures beyond the confines of the marsh. Now, though, she’s forced to acknowledge the ostracization that people from Barkley Cove have forced upon her. Notably, this feeling of otherness makes her ashamed, ultimately demonstrating how destructive intolerance can be on a person’s sense of self.
Themes
Although the turkey feather in the stump reminds Kya of the violent turkeys and the group of boys who ran out to her shack a year earlier, she’s still pleased to find it, since it confirms that the unknown boy is still thinking about her.
Despite Kya’s negative experiences with people from Barkley Cove, she finds herself excited by the idea that this boy cares enough about her to give her such extraordinary feathers. In turn, it becomes clear that she still has faith in the value of human connection.
Themes
