Crow Lake is Canadian author Mary Lawson 's first novel,which is narrated by Kate Morrison, the second child in the Morrison family. A serious car accident left seven-year-old Kate, her one and half year old sister, Bo, and her two older brothers, Luke and Matt, orphans. Rather than live with relatives separately, they chose to live together and grow up. Luke and Matt made many sacrifices to support their family and they also got many helps from their community. The story took place in Crow Lake, a remote small farming community in northen Ontario.
In Kate’s childhood, Matt and she often visited the ponds near their house. There are many descriptions of the ponds in the novel, which are closely linked to the theme of the story. The ponds represent the childhood and hometown in Kate’s mind, they help Kate decide her career and they are vital bonds between Kate and Matt.
In the first place, the ponds are full of Kate’s memory about childhood and hometown. They are Kate’s favorite places before she grew up. In the prologue, Kate mentioned that “there is no image of my childhood that I carry with me more clearly than that” (Lawson, p.4). Kate remembers her first trip to the ponds. “ I was so small he had to carry me on his shoulders-through the woods with their luxuriant growth of poison ivy, along the tracks, past the dusty boxcars lined up to receive their loads of sugar beets, down the steep sandy path to the ponds themselves”(Lawson, p.4). From riding on Matt’s shoulders to follow Matt to the ponds, they spent “hundreds of hours” (Lawson, p.5) there. Kate cherishes the vivid and sweet memory of the time she spent in the ponds. There, she lie down her stomach and watched into the water learning the natures ' secrets from Matt. “Her braids bob up and down in the water, making tiny ripples which tremble out across the surface of the pond. She is “completely absorbed” (Lawson p.5).
In addition, the pond times Kate spent
References: Lawson,Mary. (2002). Crow Lake. Toronto: Knopf Canada.