Crow Lake Kate Character Analysis

Entry 1- The Relationship between Matt and Kate
Throughout Crow Lake, Kate and Matt show their exclusive love and respect for each other. Kate esteems Matt as a teacher and as a father figure because he guides Kate throughout her childhood and motivates her to explore the horizons of possibilities by pursuing post-secondary education. Matt exposes Kate to biology and teaches her about the ecosystem of the pond near their home. They both share similar enthusiasm for biology; however Matt has more passion for it than Kate. When Matt and Kate visit the pond as children, Matt regularly teaches Kate. She doesn’t expect her experiences with Matt to be significant until she’s an adult and is forced to research and teach biology on her own. Kate then realizes that her abilities in learning and teaching biology are inferior to Matt’s abilities: “Matt saw that it was miraculous/, whereas [Kate] would’ve observed, but would not have wondered” (199). She desperately needs him to reignite the passion …show more content…
Lawson separated Crow Lake into six parts where Kate experiences and recalls a distinct traumatic event of her life in each part. In the first few parts, it starts with an overwhelming amount of issues that she and her family have to cope with. As the story continues, Kate recalls more of her memories as an adult and has to face the challenges related to her past experience with a more reformed and mature mentality. She looks back into her past decisions and feels guilty about the choices that she made or didn’t make. This book is written in first person, and it skips between the present and the past in each chapter. There are many flashbacks in the book and this allows the reader to understand the psychological growth of Kate as she matures form a child to an adult. An example of Kate showing ignorance when she was a child is when she witnessed a sexual