Where the Crawdads Sing Themes

In Where the Crawdads Sing, a novel about a young girl growing up alone in the marshlands of North Carolina, Delia Owens frames survival as an innately human skill that arises out of necessity. When Kya is a child, her mother leaves home, and her older siblings follow their mother’s lead, escaping the dilapidated shack Kya’s family owns in a remote section of the marsh. This decision to leave is in and of itself…

Because Where the Crawdads Sing is largely about abandonment, Delia Owens considers the importance of developing a sense of independence. Kya is only seven years old when her last family member deserts her, leaving her alone in isolated marshlands. Left to her own devices, she cultivates a form of self-sufficiency that helps her thrive by on her own. One facet of this self-sufficiency is an unyielding sense of independence that makes her distrustful of others…

Delia Owens sets Where the Crawdads Sing against a backdrop of prejudice and intolerance. This is perhaps best illustrated by the social stratification of the area in which Kya grows up, a place in North Carolina divided not only by race, but by class, too. Although Kya—who’s white—doesn’t face racial discrimination like her African American friends, Jumpin’ and his wife, Mabel, she experiences unfair judgment based on her socioeconomic status, receiving harsh treatment from…