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
Chase continues to visit Kya throughout the winter, occasionally talking about their future together. However, when Kya goes to Jumpin’s one day for gas, she sees Chase standing with a group of his friends, his arm around a young blond woman. Upon seeing Kya, he immediately drops his arm. Kya doesn’t want to go to them, but she has no choice but to walk toward them because they are directly in her path on the dock. Pleasantly enough, Chase says hello and introduces her to his friends, indicating that the one whom he had his arm around is named Pearl. His friends give Kya disinterested greetings before turning and walking away, at which point Chase says that he’ll come see her on Sunday. After parting ways, Kya walks to the Piggly Wiggly and buys a newspaper because it has a headline about a new local biology lab.
Even though Kya now has ample evidence that Chase has been cheating on her, she continues to see him. This proves how desperately she yearns for human contact, even if this contact isn’t as genuine as she’d like to think. For somebody who is quite individualistic, she ultimately sacrifices her own dignity simply to maintain her connection to a man who blatantly disrespects her.
Themes
At home, Kya opens the newspaper. Inside, there’s an announcement that Chase is getting married to Pearl. As Kya stares at this in disbelief, she hears Chase’s motor, so she quickly leaves the shack and hides in the trees until he gives up looking for her. Alone again, Kya walks to the beach and feeds the gulls, cursing in a rage.
Finally, Kya can no longer deny Chase’s lack of respect for her. Now that he has officially announced his engagement to Pearl, there’s no way for Kya to ignore the fact that he isn’t exclusively in love with her. In fact, that Chase even allowed this announcement to run in the newspaper demonstrates that he views Kya as a completely separate part of his life, clearly assuming that he can do whatever he wants in Barkley Cove because Kya is isolated and will never find out.
Themes
