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
Shortly before Christmas, Kya goes to Jumpin’s earlier than usual because she knows that Ed and Joe might be looking for her, since they’ve been poking around her shack recently. As Kya approaches, she sees Jumpin’ very subtly shake his head, so she abruptly turns her boat around and speeds in the other direction, but it’s too late, and she finds herself facing two police boats. However, she tries to escape them by roaring between them, and though she makes it through, they eventually catch up to her and force her to stop, telling her that she’s under arrest for the murder of Chase Andrews.
In this scene, it’s hard to tell why, exactly, Kya tries to escape from the police. On the one hand, this makes her look even more guilty than she already did, since most people would only try to run away if they’d done something wrong. On the other hand, though, Kya has spent her entire life hiding from strangers as a means of self-preservation, so the fact that she tries to evade Ed and Joe isn’t particularly out of character. On another note, it’s worth pointing out that Jumpin’ tries to save Kya by shaking his head, a reminder that he is one of the few people she can count on to help her when she’s in trouble.
Themes
