43 pages • 1 hour read
Crow Lake
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Themes
The Value of Education
Degree of education factors heavily into the lives of the Morrison siblings, influencing both their accomplishments in life and their relationships to one another. Although the Morrisons struggle for generations to secure enough time and money to allow their children to pursue education, the entire family strives to learn and encourages one another to stay in school as long as possible, which sets them apart from many other families in similar situations. Fiona deJong, Kate’s student, acts as a foil to Kate in this respect. Although Fiona and Kate both come from small farming communities, their outlooks on life and relationships to their families are vastly different. The key factor is that while Fiona’s family sees her interest in education as an oddity, Kate’s family has always encouraged her.
Although the Morrisons tend to be very restrained in how they express emotion, the value they place on education is one manifestation of their familial care and love. It is only possible to send a child to school if their responsibilities are covered by another family member, so the pursuit of education becomes an all-family activity, including efforts from even the siblings who aren’t in school. Kate’s father, for instance, was able to finish high school because his brothers picked up his farm work; likewise, Luke abandons his schoolwork to support the family, insisting that Matt should stay in school, and even opening an account for Kate where she can put her own earnings and save for university. Although sending some children to school often requires a sacrifice from their siblings, the Morrisons understand that education is what will most fundamentally improve the family’s situation.
Familial Destiny
Crow Lake is still home to the community’s three founding families: the Janies, the Vernons, and the Pyes. Of these, the Pyes are most deeply explored in the novel. Like the Morrisons, who have been pursuing education for three generations, the Pyes seem to pass down attitudes and expectations from generation to generation. Unlike the Morrisons, the attitudes the Pyes pass down are violent and destructive. When Miss Vernon shares the story of the Pyes with teenage Kate, it becomes apparent that each generation of Pye children follows their parents’ footsteps: The daughters marry young, most of the sons run away from home, and whatever son is left with the farm grows up to emotionally, verbally, and physically abuse his children. The Morrisons work hard to pursue a future in which every member of the family can become educated; the Pyes, on the other hand, seem stuck in a perpetual cycle of violence and abuse. In both cases, family determines destiny.
The importance of family on a person’s destiny continues to be a major theme in Kate’s adult life. Although she is the only sibling who has gone on to university, she attributes her interest in learning directly to Matt. When Kate and Daniel go to dinner with Daniel’s parents, this theme emerges again: Daniel’s mother talks about the effect of early influences and inquires about Kate’s childhood teachers, prompting Kate to think about Matt. Eventually Kate realizes she is excessively invested in the idea that she and her siblings (specifically Matt) are working toward a specific destiny, and she will have to let go of this notion to accept her family for who they are. Regardless, the strength and support of her family allows Kate to grow into the person she becomes.
Gender-based Expectations
In Crow Lake, the expectations of different family members are deeply intertwined with gender roles. Typically, men will farm and support the family financially, while women tend to the children and the home. This typical dynamic is exemplified by Aunt Annie, who visits the Morrison siblings after their parents’ death to take the place of the mother, cleaning the home and feeding the children. In a similar way, Mrs. Stanovich begins coming to their home twice a week to cook and clean. Domestic work and farm work are represented as two deeply important forms of labor, but they are not seen as transferrable between genders.
An early clue that these traditional gender roles will be challenged comes when Matt takes young Kate to the pond and tells her about sticklebacks. According to Matt, the male sticklebacks care for and protect the eggs, while the females “eat a lot” and recover from laying eggs (47). Soon after this interaction, Luke and Matt commit to keeping the family together, meaning they will subvert typical gender roles by becoming caretakers for their sisters. Annie voices initial skepticism about this, telling Luke that he doesn’t understand just how difficult it is to raise a family. This comment is mirrored by Miss Vernon, who tells Kate as a teenager that she doesn’t understand how difficult farming is, even though Kate has been working all summer in her garden. Both Luke and Kate are told that they can’t comprehend the challenges of the work assigned to another gender, but they both take on this work anyway.
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