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
Ed and Joe receive more lab results, which indicate that Chase died from his fall and that he smacked his head on the beam beneath the fire tower’s open hatch. More importantly, though, the lab report says that there were a number of red fibers on his jacket. The fibers are made of wool and don’t match any of his own clothing. Holding up a small plastic bag, Ed looks at the small collection of red threads and tells Joe that they’ll have to find whatever article of clothing matches the sample.
As it becomes more and more clear that Chase’s death was not an accident, readers are invited to consider the violence that led to his death and, moreover, why somebody would find it necessary to kill him. Even still, though, there isn’t enough information about his death to make any definitive conclusions about what happened, though it’s worth remembering that he seems to have had a relationship with a woman who lives in the marsh. The only person in the narrative so far that matches that description, of course, is Kya.
Themes
