Crow Lake by Mary Lawson: Themes, Characters, and Analysis

Summary of Crow Lake

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson revolves around a family living in Crow Lake, a small town in northern Ontario. A tragic event shatters the family when both parents die in a terrible accident. The eldest brothers, Luke and Matt, take on the responsibility of keeping the family together, determined not to let it fall apart. Many events unfold as Luke and Matt navigate the challenge of raising their younger siblings.

Luke, the eldest brother, has just received acceptance to a teacher's college. However, on the way to buy him a suit for college, both parents of the Morrison family are killed in a car accident. The accident shocks the family to an unimaginable extent and fundamentally alters the course of their lives.

In the present, Kate works in the zoology department of a university. The figure of her great-grandmother recurs constantly in her life. The great-grandmother never suppressed her curiosity for knowledge, always striving to understand something obscure in the novels she read.

Mr. Morrison comes from a very isolated town in northern Ontario. He is the only child in his family to finish high school and ventures into the outside world carrying his great-grandmother's high expectations. Mrs. Morrison is a girl who is very close to Mr. Morrison during childhood; she accepts his marriage proposal after he settles at Crow Lake.

After the accident, Aunt Annie — Mr. Morrison's sister — arrives to help Luke and Matt sort everything out. Not wanting to break the family apart, Luke kindly refuses Aunt Annie's plan to send Kate and Bo to a foster family. Thanks to Luke's efforts, Matt is able to carry on his academic career as normal.

As Luke takes on the responsibility of caring for the family, he starts out relatively capable of managing daily tasks. Over time, however, the job becomes increasingly burdensome and his limitations begin to show. He works at night in order to have time to care for Kate and Bo during the day, yet running a household proves far too difficult. The conflict between Matt and Luke escalates until it finally explodes on a winter night in a physical fight, sparked by Matt's teasing of Luke and the women around him. Further conflicts follow. To make matters worse, after Sally lies to her parents to protect Luke, Luke loses his job at McLean's store and remains unemployed for three months. These hardships cast a dense and gloomy atmosphere over the entire family.

The relationships between the Morrison boys and the women in their lives are also central to the novel. Sally is attracted to Luke and even lies to her parents to protect him. After the death of the Morrison parents, Marie becomes a close companion to Matt. They frequently spend time together at the ponds near where Matt lives, and Marie listens to his worries and hopes. Marie also plays a decisive role in shaping the course of Matt's life: he gives up school and university after making her pregnant.

In the present, Kate is the type of woman who avoids any conversation touching on her background or childhood. Having lived a far less fortunate childhood than most people around her, she is unwilling to confide those stories. Her colleague and potential partner, Daniel, is a contrasting character — bright, warm, sociable, and positive. Deep down, Kate fears telling Daniel about her background because she feels diminished before someone so blessed and fortunate. In the end, however, Kate does choose to let Daniel into her world by inviting him to Matt's son Simon's eighteenth birthday. At the novel's close, Kate is the one who pursues higher education, feeling obligated to do so out of reverence for her great-grandmother's expectations.