Literary Analysis Essay on Where the Crawdads Sing

Introduction

Delia Owens tells the story of Kya, a free-spirited and often misunderstood girl, in her debut novel Where the Crawdads Sing. The book tells the story of Kya as she struggles to survive in the marshes of North Carolina amidst numerous challenges. She is abandoned by her mother, who takes her youngest siblings away with her and is neglected by her father, who spends much of his time drunk. Kya learns to fish from her father and makes the marshland her second home and place of comfort. A few years later, her father also departs and leaves her to fend for herself, which she does, learning to farm around the marshes and trade the little she makes for other things she needs. She meets and befriends Tate, who teaches her to read and write but leaves unceremoniously for college, a fact that hurts Kya. While Tate is away, Kya meets Chase, and a romantic relationship develops between them despite Chase attempting to have sex with her and Kya refusing. Tate returns a few years later from college to find Kya having collected and recorded plenty of samples of seashells and tries to convince her to publish her work. He also advises her against Chase, and though he uses Chase's ill-treatment of women as a precedent, it becomes evident that he is trying to rekindle their relationship. Soon, however, Kya finds this out on her own, as she spots Chase with another woman in his arms. Their relationship ends at that point.

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Kya endures numerous challenges from the abandonment of her parents and Tate to the promiscuous ways of Chase. He goes even further and attempts to rape her when she calls off the relationship. This prompts her to defend herself to extents whose possibilities are not made apparent in the onset but become inevitable in retrospect. After chase winds up dead, the wild mannered Kya becomes the prime suspect. The trial that ensues sees her labeled by many, such as the prosecutor, as a wild marsh girl that is half wolf among many other stereotypical sentiments that the community at giant bears for the girl. Her lawyer manages to convince the jury to abandon the stereotypes and view her as the product of not only her parents' abandonment but also the community's neglect. This opens up the way for her acquittal and catharsis between her and Tate. However, in the end, it is discovered that Kya was involved in the murder of Chase as revenge for the hurts he inflicted upon her, both physical and emotional. The purpose of this study is to understand the various characters that influence Kya’s life both as allies and as obstacles to her survival. It also sheds light on the various actions they take for or against her and how they influence the eventual course of her life. All these attempts to vindicate Kya as the hero of her story, who takes charge of her life and destiny even amidst numerous challenges around her.

Chase does not take the break up kindly and tries to rape Kya in return, which prompts her to hit him in the groin and scream at him that she will kill him- something that a nearby fisherman hears. This statement is used against her in a trial by Eric, the state prosecutor, who centers the case around these words and the fact that she was a 'swamp girl.' Kya's attorney, Tom Milton, refutes this claim as the state's case was based solely on the lack of evidence. Kya is thus acquitted of the charges. This opens up the way for Tate, who was a constant supporting figure throughout the trial, to get back with Kya with the help of Jodie, Kya's brother. Years later, Kya dies, and, in her belongings, Tate finds a poem that reveals Kya lured Chase to the fire tower and tricked him into falling an open hatch to his death. These are the events that lead to Kya's jailing, indicative of the perception of the community surrounding Kya towards her. The lawyer uses her life in the marsh to justify that any footprints did not surround Chase's body and that only an expert marsh girl would be that careful to do that. He additionally banks on the stereotypes that the jury and the community at the towering bear for her wild nature, painting it as the pretext to criminal behavior, further alluding to Kya's complicity and subsequent guilt.

Different characters influence Kya's life differently, and these influences affect the eventual path of her life. While some of the characters, like the prosecutor as mentioned earlier seek to tarnish her image further in a bid to further themselves thus harming her, others align with her and look out for her well-being, shaping her compassionate side and enabling her to walk through the many hardships she encounters in her life. Some of these characters include Jumpin' and his wife. These two accept fish and mussels from her knowing full well that they may not sell, but they do not do it out of the desire for profit but somewhat out of compassion for the poor lonely girl. They understand that she would have a hard time selling the fish compounding her troubles, and she would not take their charity. Mabel, Jumpin’s wife, devises a scheme to give Kya some clothes and a few supplies under the pretext that someone agreed to barter her fish with the commodities. She understands that Kya's nature would not permit her to take help while she could fend for herself, but she and her husband remain determined to help the girl as she has no one to look out for her. They could easily have ignored her plight and went about their business to make a profit and keep their clothes and supplies, but instead, they opt to help the lonely marsh girl in the act of unwarranted kindness.

Another ally in her life is Tate, who is clearly and obviously in love with her. Tate has been in Kya's life since childhood, and after her parents and siblings left, he helped her find her home. A series of hidden gifts are left at a stump for Kya as Tate attempts to build deliberate contact. The boy also teaches her how to read and write ad regularly brings her books in an attempt to spend more time with her, and this way, their relationship grows and becomes romantic. However, Tate refrains from sexual intimacy with Kya as she is still too young, and he does not take advantage of her age or apparent ignorance. When Kya is accused of murder, the trial drags on for a few months, during which time Tate sticks to Kya's side, always offering support to her. Even Tate's biggest regret is that he thought Kya might not fit into the kind of life he was trying to build because of her unkempt nature, but he gets over this hurdle, and they end up living together.

Kya's brother is of particular importance to her as Jodie comforted her after Ma left them. Besides, Jodie taught Kya many of the skills she uses to survive and fend for herself in the marsh. Kya is fondly seen to remember Jodie and often even after he left for New Orleans to follow their mother. Even his lies to Kya are made in an attempt to comfort his little sister as he knew that Ma ran away from their father's violent and abusive ways. “Jodie wasn’t nearly as sure as he sounded, but said it for Kya” (Owens, 3). Despite eventually abandoning her too, Jodie returns as an adult to support his sister during her trial and apologizes to her for leaving. During the trial, Jodie becomes one of the few remaining sources of hope for Kya in an environment that was against her. He also helps Kya to finally reconcile with Tate and her romantic feelings for him, convincing her that they are in love and should be together.

Tom Milton, Kya's lawyer, is a retired attorney who gets out of retirement to defend her. He does not do this out of a desire for profit or recognition but rather because he has known Kya a long time and understands her plight. This is the case he makes during the trial by beseeching the jury to abandon all misconceptions about the girl because they are wrong. He instead describes Kya’s life and the actions of the community around her that shaped her wild mannerisms; her parents abandoning her and most of the people around her paying little attention to her plight save for a few, like Jumpin' and Mabel. These, he describes, are the circumstances that made her the way she is, but do not amount to evidence of a murder suspect on their own. The lack of any direct evidence proving her complicity, therefore, undo the case, leading to her acquittal.

Other characters in the story, however, are not as positively constructive as the aforementioned to the development of Kya's personality and even actively work to destroy her. Chase, the confident and handsome former quarterback who kindles a romantic relationship with Kya after Tate's departure, ends up scarring Kya throughout her life. This determines the eventual fate of the plot. First, he attempts to have sex with Kya shortly after they met, clearly indicating that he was in the relationship only as a result of superficial physical attraction rather than fostering a wholesome relationship, unlike Tate. He disregards Kya's interest, or lack thereof, and attempts to force his will upon her, and even after he apologizes for this mistake, it is not long before he repeats the same mistake. When Tate returns, he warns Kya against Chase, and this is proven correct when Kya spots Chase with another woman even after promising her numerous times to marry her and take her to his parents.

Additionally, when Kya ends their relationship abruptly, Chase corners her and attempts to rape her, forcing her to hit him and threaten him, even exacting the terms of the threat eventually. It is thus clear that Chase has no good intentions towards Kya and is only with her out of a nigh lustful desire for her 'wild' ways; a fact he admits is the reason for his attraction towards her. In the end, Kya is vindicated for killing him since he mostly let his lust lure him to his death as Kya merely guided him and lured him with fake promises as an act of revenge.

It is easy to justify Kya's parents' plight, especially her mother, and their reasons to abandon her. Ma was running from an abusive marriage and facing uncertain times ahead of her, could not take all her children with her. Thus, she only took the younger ones. Additionally, Kya had started developing a cordial relationship with her father shortly before the letter he receives from Ma, which sends him in a fit of rage and ultimately leads to Kya's total abandonment. However, due to their actions, they subject Kya to endless misery, loneliness, and hardship, forcing her to depend on herself and the goodwill of a few friends and neighbors such as Jumpin'. Although she eventually discovers that Ma was mentally unstable and hellbent on salvaging her life from her violent drunkard of a husband, the scars of the abandonment remain etched deep in her heart and influence her adult life where she remains emotionally guarded.

On the other hand, Pa was violent and drunk, with a multitude of issues such as anger management. It is for this reason that Ma is forced to run away and abandon her children. Additionally, after her mother's departure, Kya is neglected by her father, and it is at this point that Jodie steps in as Kya's immediate and closest sibling to help her cope with their predicament. Shortly after, their father abandons them also, further aggravating the wounds of their abandonment and compounding their grief and suffering.

During the trial, Eric, the state prosecutor, mounts a strong case against Kya, believing her to be Chase's murderer. Ironically, this entire case is based on the sole fact that there is no real evidence pointing to Kya's complicity in Chase's murder. The prosecution was operating under the pretext that there were no footprints around Chase's body in the mud, suggesting that they had been wiped away, probably by an expert. Being a "mysterious marsh girl," Kya became the primary suspect, and Eric proceeded to tap into the imaginative fear...