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Chapter 39
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
After a short break for lunch, Eric Chastain—the prosecutor—calls his first witness to the stand. The witness is Rodney Horn, who testifies that he was fishing on August 30th when he and another fisherman heard a commotion coming from Cypress Cove. Getting closer, they heard a woman shouting. By the time they got close enough to see what was happening, he says, they saw the woman kick the man in the groin and then in the back. That woman, Rodney asserts, was Kya, though he calls her the “Marsh Girl”—a phrase Judge Sims rejects, instructing Rodney to call Kya “Miss Clark.” Going on, Rodney says that Chase Andrews was the man Kya was kicking. Furthermore, he claims that Kya shouted, “Leave me alone, you bastard! You bother me again, I’ll kill ya!”
Rodney Horn’s use of the name “Marsh Girl” reveals that he’s already biased against Kya simply because of the narrative about her that prevails in Barkley Cove. Thankfully, Judge Sims tries to correct this by insisting that Rodney use her proper name, but this most likely does little to change the way Rodney—and, in turn, the majority of the jury members—see Kya. In this way, the town’s prejudiced view of Kya and her lifestyle threatens to impact the outcome of her trial.
Themes
When Eric finishes questioning Rodney, Tom takes the floor and asks several questions, getting Rodney to establish that Kya’s screams could have been a sign that Chase was attacking her. Going on, Rodney admits that it’s possible that Kya was simply defending herself against Chase, who was burly and athletic.
In this moment, Tom tries to reframe the perception of Kya that Rodney has just provided. Instead of seeing her as a wild and uncontrollable “Marsh Girl,” he attempts to show the jury that Kya is just a human who was trying to protect herself from danger. Indeed, what he wants Rodney to admit is that Kya may have been fighting for her own survival, not trying to harm Chase for no reason.
Themes
