Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Contributed by Youlanda Mill
Motifs
Motifs are devices or structures that are used by artists or authors to help in the development of a theme.
Abandonment

Kya is abandoned by everyone she truly cares about, including Ma, Jodie, the rest of her siblings as well as Pa and Tate, even Chase chooses another woman over her. Due to these abandonments, Kya consistently lives in loneliness and struggles to survive isolation. She fears abandonment throughout the book, and always seems to reach a point where she has to endure it. That hardens her character. In the beginning, as a child, she longed to connect to people and be accepted but was shunned. By the end, she was the one who decided not to engage in any connections. She chose to abandon the entire town of Barkley Cove as nothing more than a memory in her mind.

Love

Love is a driving force in Kya. She loves her Ma, so she chooses to stay put in the shack waiting for her return, choosing to remain alone with an abusive father, and later on in complete isolation. She loves the Marsh, so she does her best to protect it from people, and turns it into a conservation area. She loved Chase, in a way, before he betrayed her and then showed his real face. She loved Tate from that very first encounter when he helped her home, loving him as a child, as a teenager, and as a woman.

Heartbreak

Kya’s heart first broke when her Ma left. Followed by Jodie and then Pa. From a tender young age, all she knew was heartache and the sting of abandonment. She learned to keep herself guarded and not let anyone in, because if she did, she could hurt if they left. That was a massive motivation for her character. When she developed a relationship with Tate that grew into love, she feared he would go as well, and heartache would follow. After her fear became a reality, when Chase cut ties with her, sorrow enveloped her once more. She only opened herself up to the possibility of companionship after the toll of solitude became too heavy to bear. She got burned again after Chase fed her lies, and picked a town girl to marry over her. Kya knew heartbreak and never wanted to experience it ever again. That’s why when Tate reappeared in her life, vowing love, she was reserved. It took her a while to open up to the possibility of love without heartache. When she did, it was worth it as she spends the rest of her days with Tate, in love. No heartache.

Knowledge/Education

Kya is not classically educated. She attended school for a single day in her life, and never returned after that. Despite not having received what everyone in town did in terms of education, Kya surpassed them all in the knowledge of survival. She knew the Marsh, its inhabitants, currents, mating rituals; she knew so many things that they could not possibly imagine. But in the eyes of the town, she’d always remain the girl who couldn’t spell ’dog.’ They looked down on her and underestimated her. Even when she learned to read and do basic math, no one cared enough to give her credit. Kya hungrily consumed the knowledge, expanding what she already knew of the world and the Marsh. When she published her first book, the town didn’t seem impressed whatsoever, despite her findings influencing the scientific world as thorough and extensive. To them, she would never be more than the illiterate marsh girl, despite Kya surpassing all of them in knowledge.

info_outline
Have study documents to share about Where the Crawdads Sing? Upload them to earn free Studypool credits!