Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing

by

Delia Owens

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Where the Crawdads Sing: Chapter 42 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
The county jail is attached to the courthouse and is where Kya has been staying ever since Ed and Joe arrested her at Jumpin’s. Since then, she has languished in the half-darkness of the cell, yearning for the outdoors. When she stands on a crate, she can just barely see out the one window and turn her head toward the marsh. As she does this, she remembers an Amanda Hamilton poem about a gull with a broken wing, which ends with the couplet, “A broken heart cannot fly, / But who decides the time to die?”
Perhaps the worst thing for Kya about spending two months in jail is the fact that she’s forced into isolation but doesn’t get to enjoy the kind of freedom that she normally associates with being alone. For somebody who covets her individualistic lifestyle but also yearns for human connection, this is the worst possible combination. Left to her own devices, she has nothing to do but think about the marsh and recite poems about death, clearly considering the fact that a jury will ultimately decide whether or not she lives.
Themes
Independence vs. Human Connection Theme Icon