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Chapter 12. Catching: The Feed
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
Back in her room, Catching feels like a broken object whose pieces will never be recovered. Crow asks whether Catching is upset about the bread. She explains that the Fetchers will make Catching eat, and that there will be drugs in the food if they’re planning to bring her to the Feed. When Catching won’t respond, Crow—distressed—asks what she could have done: “No one gets away.” Catching asks about the other girls, and Crow sadly implies that the Feed eats them until they die. Catching vows to escape.
When Crow asks whether Catching is upset about the bread, she’s really asking whether Catching is upset that Crow didn’t warn her the bread was drugged. Her subsequent explanations make clear that she doesn’t believe any warning would have helped Catching. That Crow bothers to explain to Catching reveals that she wants to be Catching’s friend. Her claim that “no one gets away” and the revelation that all the Feed’s victims have died, meanwhile, hints that Crow has been traumatized not only by her own death but by the many subsequent deaths she has witnessed.
Themes
Crow tells Catching that she can escape by becoming dead and emotionless, so she won’t “mind being a grey girl.” When Catching says that she won’t become gray, Crow indicates Catching’s arm—where, Catching sees, the Feed’s fingermarks have turned part of her skin gray. Catching tries to scratch off the gray part but can’t. Crow explains that Catching won’t be able to get rid of the gray because it’s hers: “everyone’s gray is their own.” Then she suggests that Catching would be less upset if she were dead. When Catching snaps at her, Crow snaps back: “Fine! Put all your screams upon your shoulders and let them crush you!” Then Crow retreats to the shadows.
The gray fingermarks on Catching’s arm represent how the Feed’s violent assault has traumatized her, stealing the intense colors that symbolize positive emotion and psychological health. “Being a grey girl” seems to represent a state in which the Feed’s victim has lost all capacity for positive emotion. Crow argues that this loss is specific to each victim—“everyone’s gray is their own.” She also believes that if Catching allows herself to feel negative emotions, “screams,” rather than numbing herself to all emotion, she’ll be “crush[ed].” Thus Crow’s advice, though fatalistic and hopeless, comes from a place of care and friendship.
Themes
Catching, staring at her gray skin, wonders how she can live with the Feed’s fingermarks on her. She begins silently reciting her female ancestors’ names, but when she reaches her grandmother, she forgets what she’s supposed to say. Thinking frantically, she recalls the name: “Grandma Leslie Catching.” The name triggers a memory of her mom, explaining to her that the government took her Aboriginal Grandma Leslie away from her family when she was a child. To survive the terrible place where she’d been taken, Leslie recalled the “old rocks” of her childhood home and fashioned her own strength after theirs. She survived till adulthood and went to find her family.
Like Catching’s Nanna Sadie, her Grandma Leslie Catching belonged to the “Stolen Generations,” children forcibly removed from their Aboriginal families to be assimilated into white culture at group facilities or in foster care. This passage implicitly parallels the Feed’s assault on Catching to the government’s assault on Aboriginal family integrity, suggesting that both assaults were immoral, traumatizing abuses of power.
Themes
Catching tells herself that she’s not a broken object—so long as she remembers her ancestors, she can be a rock. She asks Crow to help her with something. When Crow, pouting, says that she was helping, Catching promises to consider becoming emotionless and dead if Crow will help. She asks Crow to recite the words “Granny,” “Nanna,” “Grandma,” “Mum,” and “Me.” She figures that Crow can help her remember her ancestors until she escapes and takes revenge on the Feed.
Despite her trauma, Catching draws strength from her family relationships. This suggests that Catching’s Aboriginal heritage is a source of power for her, despite the historical atrocities her Aboriginal ancestors suffered. It also implies that victims can overcome trauma with the help of loving communities. In this moment, Catching draws Crow into her community as a friend by asking her to help Catching memorialize Catching’s strong female ancestors.
Themes
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