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
Sheriff Jackson and Deputy Joe return once more to Kya’s shack to find it empty. This time, though, they have a warrant, meaning that they can enter and search for evidence that she murdered Chase. As they look around, Joe gets distracted by Kya’s impressive collection of feathers and shells, admiring the illustrations. At first, they don’t find anything important, but then Joe finds a red hat hanging on a coatrack. When Ed holds the hat up next to the plastic baggy full of the red fibers found on Chase’s coat, the colors match.
As the narrative progresses, it seems increasingly likely that, even if she didn’t murder Chase herself, Kya had something to do with his death. However, it remains unclear why this might be the case, since Kya hasn’t yet proven herself to be especially violent, though it’s worth noting that she sees self-protection and survival as justifiable and ubiquitous throughout nature. If Chase happened to put her in a position in which she had to kill him or risk her own wellbeing, then, it’s plausible that she would respond violently.
Themes
