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Chapter 11. Catching: The Prisoner
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Catching Teller Crow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Grief
Abuse of Power, Racism, and the Law
Storytelling and Truth
Time
Female Friendship
Summary
Analysis
First and Second carry a paralyzed Catching to a room, where they deposit her on the floor and withdraw. From the shadows emerges the Feed, a white monster with sticklike limbs and eyes made of “mirrors.” The Feed picks Catching up, puts her on a table, and pulls up her shirt. He shoves his fingers into her stomach below her navel, ripping her flesh; when he pulls his fingers out, colors cover them. He eats Catching’s colors from his fingers. Though Catching wants to scream in agony, she can’t.
If readers take Catching’s fantastical story as an allegorical representation of a realistic trauma, the Feed’s violent penetration of Catching’s lower abdomen seems to symbolize a sexual assault. In that interpretation, the Feed’s devouring girls’ colors represents how sexual assault traumatizes its victims, stealing their positive emotions and psychological health.
Themes
