Where the Crawdads Sing

Pa departs for a trip to Asheville to apply for an increase to his military disability payments. As he leaves, Kya wonders if he will abandon her like everyone else. Unlike Ma, he waves when he leaves. Kya takes Pa’s fishing skiff almost all the way to the ocean, but the rough waves frighten her. On the way back, she gets lost. She encounters Jodie’s friend Tate Walker, who helps her navigate to familiar territory. Being around him calms her because he doesn’t disrespect her the way the other townspeople do. She realizes that she needs both the skiff and Tate to keep a connection with other people.

Back in town, Tate stops by the boat of his father, Scupper Walker, and they head home for supper. The two have had a close relationship since Mrs. Walker and Tate’s sister died. Tate misses them fiercely and blames himself for their deaths, wearing his sister’s old red baseball cap everywhere. Scupper believes poems are worth reading because “they make ya feel something” (48), so father and son share poetry with each other. As they read Thomas Moore’s poem about a man’s lover who “paddles her white canoe” (49) through the swamp, Tate is reminded of Kya.

Kya has become increasingly isolated. Pa is around infrequently, and Kya refuses to get close to anyone in town for fear someone might discover she has generally been alone since her mother left. Kya talks to the gulls, and despite never having had a friend, “could feel the use of it, the pull” (51). Desperate for connection with her father, she gives the shack a deep clean. She buys enough gas to replace what she used during her outing in the skiff.

Pa returns four days later just as Kya begins to suspect that he has abandoned her. He praises the hot meal she serves him. She then asks if he will teach her to fish and he agrees to teach her despite his sense that fishing is not an activity for girls. When he takes her out with him the next morning, her plan to get closer to her father appears to be working. As if to confirm, he gives her his old army knapsack, the only gift she has ever received from him, which she uses to protect the nests, leaves, and other items she collects in the marsh.

They fish all the time after that. Pa even tells her about his childhood: He came from cotton aristocrats from Asheville, but the family lost everything in the Great Depression. Kya is glad to learn her family history, but wishes she knew more about her mother’s side of the family. That will never happen because her father rants angrily any time Ma comes up. Nevertheless, it is a sweet time. Her father even calls her “hon” (58)—honey—one day.

Chase’s family positively identifies his body. The grief of Chase’s mother and widow shakes both the sheriff and deputy. Four days later, the lab report on the crime scene confirms Chase’s death occurred near midnight of October 30. Only the fingerprints of the boys who found the body show up in the report, so the sheriff and deputy assume the crime scene was wiped clean—the fire tower is a favorite hangout, so the fingerprints of many people should have been found. The two men head to the Barkley Cove Diner where townspeople share their theories of who the murderer is—a jealous husband or even the so-called Marsh Girl (Kya). The two men decide to get takeout to avoid the gossip.

Pa takes Kya to the gas and bait shop owned by an older African-American man known as “Jumpin’.” Afterward, the Clarks head into Barkley Cove for a rare trip to the diner. There, the wife of the Methodist minister humiliates Kya by snatching her own daughter away, cautioning the little girl to stay away from people like Kya because they are dirty and carry contagious diseases.

These are relatively good times for Kya, however, because Pa disappears less frequently and treats her like a daughter. Kya thinks wistfully that perhaps they can be an ideal family if Ma returns. Her hopes are crushed, however, when Pa burns a letter from Ma and disappears for days after that. When he comes back, he has reverted to the mean drunk he was before. The fishing trips end. Kya tries to pray that Ma and Jodie will return, but she can’t remember the words. Instead, she remembers a violent fight between her parents—a fight that likely took place after Ma took her to Easter services—so Kya banishes the thought of prayer amid the frightening memories.

The sheriff and deputy go back to the crime scene, but the marsh once again stubbornly keeps its secrets. All the men find are animal traces and wild nature.

In the winter of 1956, Pa leaves and fails to come back, so Kya must to figure out how to survive without the little he gave her. She concludes that “the marsh is all the family” (75) she has, and in response comes up with a plan to hide her abandonment from the authorities. She works out a deal to sell mussels to Jumpin’ for gas, some money, and the small amount of supplies she needs to survive. He warns her that he can only buy so many mussels from both her and her competition, so Kya gathers them by night to beat out other mussel pickers. She feels proud of her ability to take care of herself.

Kya is lonely at times. She looks for Pa and Tate, the latter of whom turns up in the marsh one morning. Kya looks more and more tattered, although she does slip on Ma’s last remaining dress. It has a blood stain on it—likely from something Pa did. Kya blocks out this memory.

One day, she spies several town kids playing on the beach. Chase Andrews is with them. Kya gives the girls nicknames like “Tallskinnyblond, Ponytailfreckle face, Alwayswearspearls, and Roundchubbycheeks” (80). She longs to be one of them and remembers how Ma described the need for female friendship: “women need one another more than they need men” (80). Ma never explained how to form such friendships, however, so Kya slips off deeper into the woods.

One morning, Kya doesn’t arrive before the other mussel pickers, so Jumpin’ is unable to buy her mussels. He agrees to take some poor-quality smoked fish from her on consignment, but he doesn’t have the heart to tell her how bad they look. When he takes the whole lot home, Mabel, his wife, learns how dire the situation is with Kya. Mabel gets the members of her church to donate items for the little girl.

The next morning when Kya shows up at Jumpin’s store, Mabel tells her that if Kya tells Mabel what items she needs, Kya can trade her mussels for them. The bounty of what Jumpin’ brings her the next morning overwhelms Kya. She finally realizes that Jumpin’ and his community are not trading goods with her: they are being charitable.

Kya is now fourteen and has a developed a body that reflects her age. She is no longer a fanciful little girl. She and Jumpin’ are interrupted one morning when a boy comes bumbling through the woods and Kya has to hide. Her anger at his trespassing ends when she discovers he has left a beautiful, rare feather for her on a stump in a clearing.

Kya sees wild turkey hens attack a hen singled out from the group. Kya speculates that they do this because the hen is disfigured or wounded, and thus in danger of attracting a predator to the flock. The danger of being different becomes real for Kya when a group of town boys tag her door that night, calling her “Marsh Girl” and jeering at her in sexual ways. She feels vulnerable, ashamed, ignorant, and exposed.

The autopsy report on Chase confirms Chase died from a blow to the head. The analysis also shows that red wool fibers are present at the scene.