Social Interaction In Where The Crawdads Sing

In the BOOK
What is the book about?

Where the Crawdads Sing is a powerful novel told in two separate timelines. The first tells the story of a young girl named Kya and her life in the marshlands of 1950s North Carolina. Nearly 20 years later, the other plotline explores a murder mystery as authorities investigate the death of a local man named Chase Andrews. This book involves betrayal, survival, and love, but I think it truly highlights the importance of social interaction in modern society.
Who’s telling the story?

Where the Crawdads Sing is told from a third-person perspective, so a narrator tells the story. This allows the author to tell readers the characters’ inner thoughts and motivations and lets readers like me see others’ perspectives

With no parents to care for and provide for her and the “marsh girl” reputation of the town, she is forced to rely on her own wits and the resources of the marsh to survive. Kya also endures her fair share of loss, betrayal, and suffering, suggesting that her struggle affects her both physically and emotionally. As the reader, Delia Owens also wants to convey the importance of human interaction and how its absence can drive people to commit reckless actions; for example, when Tate doesn’t return from college on the Fourth of July as he promised, Kya comes to the lagoon in hysteria: “At noon she stood and screamed, ‘TATE, TATE, NO, NO.’ Then dropped to her knees, her face against the mud. She felt a strong pull out from under her. A tide she knew well” (Owens 143). Owens wants to teach readers like me that isolation and loneliness can deeply affect the human spirit; social connection is essential and can offer a path to healing through traumatic

Until that point in the story, Pa had been portrayed as a neglectful and abusive father who regularly disappeared from his family for long periods of time. It was unexpected to see the vulnerable side of a man who had left deep scars on every member of Kya’s family, even driving them to leave home forever. Kya’s fishing trip with Pa highlighted that a desire for love and connection can still be hidden in the most toxic of relationships.
What does the author think I know?

I believe the author assumes that I understand, to an extent, the contrast between Kya’s perspective of the marsh and the townspeople of Barkley Cove. While Kya finds joy and residence in the shack, the citizens think of the marsh with disgust and Kya as an uncivilized, disgusting creature: “Meryl Lynn, dahlin’, don’t go near that girl, ya hear me. She’s dirty” (66). This quote portrays how the townspeople have disregarded Kya as a person simply because of where she was born and highlights the widespread discrimination and prejudice that existed in 1950s society as well as today.
What changed, challenged, or confirmed my