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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Where the Crawdads Sing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival, Necessity, and Violence
Independence vs. Human Connection
Education, Coming of Age, and Adulthood
Prejudice, Intolerance, and Acceptance
Summary
Analysis
Eight days after finding Chase’s body, Joe learns from several townspeople that Chase used to go out to the marsh on his own quite frequently. Explaining what he’s heard to Ed, Joe says that Chase started taking secretively his boat to the marsh about four years ago. Accordingly, Joe wonders if Chase had gotten mixed up in drugs, but Ed doesn’t find this plausible, since Chase wasn’t the type to do drugs. Still, this is important information, and Ed hopes that Patti Love—Chase’s mother—will be able to add to the story when she comes in that afternoon, since she called and said she has something crucial to tell them about the case. Whatever it is, Ed tells Joe, Patti Love said it has to do with a shell necklace that Chase used to wear at all times.
As Ed and Joe investigate the circumstances surrounding Chase’s death, it comes to seem more and more likely that he had a relationship with Kya. After all, why else would he disappear into the marsh, if not to pay her a visit? What’s more is that Ed and Joe have already heard rumors that Chase had a secret relationship with a woman who lived in the marsh. Given that Owens hasn’t yet introduced any characters other than Kya who live in the marsh, it seems reasonable to assume that she is the one whom Chase used to visit on his boat. This, in turn, suggests that Kya eventually learned to accept people other than Tate into her life, ultimately opening herself up to human connection.
Themes
