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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crow Country, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Heritage and Land
Justice and Restitution
Violence and Integrity
Summary
Analysis
On a late Saturday afternoon, as Ellie takes a call from David, Sadie leaves the house for Lake Invergarry. She wants to find the circle of stones, but can’t remember where it is exactly. Suddenly, she notices a crow swooping over her and crying. She follows it, and sure enough, it leads her to the circle of stones.
Sadie’s decision to go back to the lake on her own points to her strong sense of curiosity and her lack of fear. The appearance of a crow also signals the significant link between these creatures and the circle of stones.
Themes
Sadie finds the crow waiting for her. Saying that it has a story to tell her, the crow explains that the circle of stones is “a secret place, a story place,” and that Waa the Crow’s people were once here, but that they have disappeared. The crow says the story it is about to tell belongs to Crow as well as Sadie, and that Sadie must finish the story herself. When Sadie asks questions, the crow grows impatient. Then it unfurls it wings, from which darkness streams. The earth trembles, and there is a sound like thunder. Sadie runs. It is night.
The relationship between the crows and the circle of stones is explicitly revealed when the speaking crow informs Sadie that the stone circle belongs to a supernatural being, Waa the Crow, and the Aboriginal people who venerate him. In this encounter, the crow also charges Sadie with the responsibility of finishing a story, thus making her an active agent in that story—although Sadie herself doesn’t yet know what this story is about.
Themes
