Integritus Prime

Recently I watched a film called Where the Crawdads Sing, based on the novel of the same name by Delia Owens. I was struck by beauty in the movie – the beauty of nature primarily, and of the protagonist, Kya. However, there was a lot to learn in the film about love, trauma, and biomimicry too. Read on to learn more (and spoiler alert)!

Love

The way Kya and Tate fall in love is silent, and at once, classic. They are familiar with each other as children, and then Tate teaches Kya how to read, becoming attuned to her way of life in the marsh, all alone. His intentions are pure, to the point where he doesn’t have sex with her to prevent her from pregnancy at a young age. Sadly, he leaves for college, and does not return a month later as promised, repeating the abandonment that Kya has already faced with all her family members.

However, when Tate does return, their love is eventually rekindled, or rather, it becomes obvious that their love is true, and they are able to grow old together. One of their sweetest ways of connecting is by leaving each other a feather, and then identifying the bird it belongs to when they speak. This is how they begin connecting as young adults, and how they return to each other five years later when Tate returns from college. This love story is, in an authentic way, a dreamy fairy tale that we all want to be true because it is so touching and beautiful.

Trauma

When Kya is quite young, perhaps 8 years old, her mother leaves the family, having had enough of physical beatings from Kya’s father, who, we later learn, served in the war. Soon enough, Kya’s sisters leave too, followed by her brother Jodie. Kya manages to live with her father for a little while, resolving to stay out of his way. One day, she discovers that he too has abandoned her. Astoundingly, Kya decides to harvest mussels to earn her living, delivering them to “Jumpin'” and his wife Mabel at the local town store in exchange for grits, matches, and candles. Those two compassionate individuals become the closest thing to family Kya ever has, in human form.

Kya’s greatest family, solace, and comfort, however, as the film demonstrates, is nature, represented by the marsh. The beautiful ecosystem is the only feature in her life that does not abandon her, and she does not ever want to leave the place. Over time, Kya begins making drawings of the creatures and plants in the marsh (following her artist mother’s footsteps), but we learn that she is also becoming very knowledgable about the creatures, through her own study. Eventually, she begins publishing her drawings and writings about the North Carolina coastal marsh.

Aside from abandonment, Kya faces the trauma and fear of sexual and physical abuse from Chase, a young man who deceives Kya with promises of marriage only to use her for sex. After Chases forces himself on her, Kya realizes she cannot live in fear in her own home.

Biomimicry

For several years, I’ve studied biomimicry, the science of emulating nature. The aspects of biomimicry that interest me the most and that I apply to my work is the social and ethical: how might humans collaborate, or embrace diversity, or evolve, or practice resilience, the way nature does?

Kya, too, learns from nature and eventually her tactic for ridding herself of fear is to emulate the female praying mantis, who bites off the head of the male during mating, and then devours his body for nourishment afterwards. She kills Chase by luring him to a tall tower that he once showed her, and pushing him down. Chase falls 63 feet down to his demise, freeing Kya from her fear.

Justice

Of course, this application of biomimicry is nowhere near ethical, and yet Kya’s purity and wisdom, and the excruciatingly difficult childhood she endured seem to render this outcome just. Indeed, Kya emerges free even after being put on trial for Chase’s murder, due to a lack of solid evidence.

We don’t figure out Kya’s role in Chase’s murder until after she passes away, and an elderly and emotional Tate finds the necklace taken from Chase’s body, hidden in one of Kya’s journals.

With many more themes than the ones I’ve touched on here, Where the Crawdads Sing is a must-watch film, bringing together so much beauty, pain, and the magic of nature in a masterful way.