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Chapter 32
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
By the winter of 1968, Kya has already finished her book about birds and is working on another about mushrooms. As she sits at the table in her shack working on her illustrations, she hears a truck approaching but doesn’t have time to run away. Stuck, she sees a man in a military uniform step out of the truck and make his way onto the porch. When she sees him up close, she recognizes a scar on his face and knows instantly that it’s Jodie, whom Pa once slashed across the face with a fire poker when Jodie tried to protect Ma from his wrath. When Jodie enters the shack, he sees Kya’s collection of shells and feathers and smiles, saying that he saw her book in a store. He then tells her that he did two tours in Vietnam before getting a degree in mechanical engineering.
Jodie is now the second person in Kya’s life to return after having initially abandoned her. In this regard, he follows in Tate’s footsteps, showing Kya that not everyone who leaves her behind has forgotten about her. This is an important message, since it suggests that Kya’s loved ones still care about her even though she has assumed that they must not truly love her. In turn, she will now have to reconsider the relational dynamics that have so thoroughly defined her life and informed individualistic worldview.
Themes
Jodie apologizes to Kya for abandoning her, saying that he shouldn’t have left her with their violent father. She accepts his apology and reminds him that he was only a kid, but he insists that he should have come back, though he assumed that she too ran away. Going on, he tells her that he doesn’t know the whereabouts of their siblings, but that he found out some news about Ma. Apparently, Ma’s sister contacted Jodie last week and told him that their mother died two years ago. She also told him that Ma was in the middle of a mental breakdown when she left home, at which point she returned to New Orleans to live with her parents. For months, Ma said nothing at all, locking herself in a room in her parents’ home. A year later, she realized she’d abandoned her children, and her mental health further deteriorated.
It's surprising that Kya forgives Jodie for abandoning her, considering that she threw rocks at Tate when he came to apologize for doing the same thing. Upon further reflection, though, it becomes clear that Jodie left Kya for entirely different reasons. Indeed, he ran away from home not because he didn’t want to be with Kya, but because he was trying to protect himself from Pa’s violent ways. As someone who has been forced to fight for her own survival, Kya can understand her brother’s act of self-preservation, whereas she finds it harder to empathize with Tate’s selfish decision to disappear, which had nothing to do with survival. Furthermore, the news about Ma that Tate delivers contextualizes the circumstances surrounding her departure, and though it is undoubtedly hard for Kya to hear that her mother is dead, at least she now knows that Ma wouldn’t have abandoned her if she’d been thinking clearly.
Themes
Ma’s sister helped her write a letter to Pa, Jodie tells Kya. The letter implored him to let their children come to New Orleans to live with her, but he never responded. As Jodie tells this to Kya, Kya remembers her father receiving this letter and burning it before going back to his alcoholic lifestyle. In the ensuing years, Jodie says, Ma only ever talked about her children, but she was afraid that Pa might hurt them if she ever tried to contact them, since Pa wrote to her saying that if she ever reached out again, he would beat them senseless. This is why Ma disappeared and never tried to come back, and Jodie adds that she didn’t leave them for another man or anything like that, but because she had been “driven to madness” and didn’t know what she was doing.
This new information about Ma is important because it will most likely help Kya come to terms with her feelings of abandonment. Ma was the first person in Kya’s life to leave without notice, so it’s quite meaningful to learn that she wasn’t particularly cogent or clear-headed when she made this decision. Knowing this will perhaps help Kya accept that her mother was acting on a fundamental instinct, one that drove her away from Pa to ensure her own safety. Simply put, Ma didn’t want to leave Kya behind.
Themes
Jodie tells Kya that Ma died of leukemia, which might have been treatable if she hadn’t refused medication. Instead of trying to get better, Ma became frail and succumbed to the illness. Having said this, Jodie brings Kya out to his truck and shows her a collection of oil paintings that Ma did while living in New Orleans. This, Jodie says, is all Ma did with her time, painting the marsh and her children over and over. One painting in particular catches Kya’s eye. In it, Kya crouches over a butterfly while a slightly older boy shows her something about its wings, one hand touching her arm. This boy, Jodie says, is Tate. When Kya asks why Ma would paint Tate, Jodie explains that Tate used to come around quite often. Once, he even tried to defend Kya against Pa, and Pa hit him in the face.
It is especially sad that Ma died because she refused medication, since this suggests that she had given up her will to live after fighting so hard and making such monumental sacrifices throughout her life to survive. However, Kya doesn’t dwell on this thought because she’s too distracted by the painting of herself and Tate, which shows her that he has been an integral part of her life for much longer than she ever knew. In this moment, Kya realizes that her connection with Tate is stronger than any other relationship she’s ever had.
Themes
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When Jodie asks Kya about her life and how she learned to read, she tells him about Tate. Over dinner, they fill each other in on their lives, and Jodie asks if he can stay for several days. The next evening, Jodie notices how many of Kya’s stories involve Tate, so he asks about their relationship. When she tells him what happened between them, Jodie urges her to forgive Tate, saying that he seems genuinely sorry for leaving her. It was, after all, seven years ago, Jodie says, pointing out that Tate is back now and wants to make things right. Though Kya doesn’t necessarily agree with Jodie, he urges her to give Tate a chance if she loves him. Before Jodie leaves the next day, he reiterates this idea and says he’ll come by whenever he can, since he doesn’t live very far away.
With Jodie’s return, Kya regains one of her lost loved ones, ultimately proving that not everyone from her past has abandoned her forever. Now that Kya has recognized this, one might think she would forgive Tate, which is exactly what Jodie urges her to do. However, this is easier said than done, especially since Jodie abandoned Kya out of necessity, whereas Tate left her behind for entirely selfish reasons that had nothing to do with survival. Consequently, it will be harder for Kya to let Tate back into her life in the same way that she embraces Jodie.
Themes
