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Consideration in Crabbing
Consideration in Crabbing
Katherine Paterson presents a world of environmental engagement and sustenance in her novel Jacob Have I Loved. Thriving on biblical themes of 1920s coastal island life, the novel explores the development of protagonist Louise Bradshaw and her peers as they move through life. Although the novel might not at first seem like an “environmentalist” text due to its focus on personal development and conflict between siblings, Jacob Have I Loved can nevertheless be categorized as green literature. The novel takes place on the island of Raff, where crabbers and fisherman live and work on the water of the Chesapeake Bay. Through action involving the natural world, Paterson promotes consideration and respect for one’s environment. She develops a consistent theme of ethic of responsibility and reverence towards the natural world, as well as the importance of actively engaging and considering one’s surroundings. Young readers may look to such a water-themed novel as inspiration to connect with nature, and tap into their own potential by engaging the natural world around them.Louise Bradshaw is the protagonist of Jacob Have I Loved. The behavior Louise exhibits serves as an example of the type of empathy human beings might seek to emulate while interacting with fellow living creatures. Louise and Call befriend Captain Hiram Wallace (know as “the Captain”), a childhood inhabitant of the island who has returned after decades. When Trudy Braxton, the old “cat-lady” and spinster has a stroke and suffers a dangerous fall, Louise, Call and the Captain take it upon themselves to clean Trudy’s house while she recovers in the hospital. Part of this process includes determining how to deal with Trudy’s sixteen feline companions. Thin, sickly and mangled, the cats appear “half-starved” (89). The Captain, Louise and Call realize that they must “dispose of them humanely” (91). Through these characters’ emotional reactions, Paterson emphasizes the uniquely green quality of considering fellow creatures and the environment around us.
When Hiram, Call and Louise row out to toss the sacks into the water, Louise experiences a moment of panic. Frantic, she jumps from the boat and swims to shore. She runs all the way home, where she comes across her sister. Caroline uncharacteristically comforts Louise, brushing her hair. Subsequently, Caroline joins them in attempting to save the cats. The sisters discover upon meeting Hiram and Call that the men, too, were unable to go through with the killing.
Paterson’s development of such emotional connections with one’s environment and fellow creatures serves as one example of how her work is green literature. This situation exemplifies Paterson’s use of the environment and characters’ engagement with the natural world to promote an ethic of sustainable behavior. In this case, Louise, Call and the Captain are all unable to go through with killing the cats. Their strong emotions and decisive action may inspire the reader to similarly empathize with their environment or with creatures in distress. To this end, the characters’ unique interaction with each other demonstrates how one might truly consider one’s environment and other living species.
Paterson constructs a narrative theme of the water as an emotional escape for Louise, as well as a crucial source of income and ultimately of personal development and independence for the young woman. For Louise, the only escape from tumultuous emotions is on the water. She describes how “only on the water was there peace” (66). Each morning before dawn, she ventures out into the waves, seeking a source of income to contribute to a future opportunity of boarding school in Crisfield. Half of her earnings from crabbing go to her family, while she secretly saves the other half for her dream of escaping the island. To some degree, Louise hopes that in escaping the island she will also move beyond the reaches of her extreme guilt. Louise explains to the reader, “it seemed to me that if I could get off the island, I would be free from hate and guilt and damnation even, perhaps, from God himself” (66).
Louise’s need for escape stems from a deep jealousy of her sister Caroline. Louis and Caroline are fraternal twins. Though Louise is older by a few minutes, Louise expresses grave concern that her sister is more well-loved than she. Louise describes her sister as “so sure, so present, so easy, so light and gold, while I was all gray and shadow” (33). If Louise had been “ugly or monstrous”, she may even have commanded some attention for her “freakishness” (33). Instead, Louise feels totally and completely insignificant.
In her jealousy, Louise admits to hating her sister. When she dreams that Caroline has died, Louise describes her conflicting emotions: “Always there were two feelings in the dream- a wild exultation that now I was free of her and… a terrible guilt” (64). Louise seems to experience these emotions in real life, too. Louise enviously watches while Caroline basks in the attention of her parents. After the family attends a school Christmas concert, Caroline imitates their classmate Betty Jean singing “O Holy Night” in a flat, shaky voice. Louise describes how Caroline “look[s] around, grinning for her family’s approval” (32). Their father smiles slightly, “a smile working at the firm corners of my father’s mouth”, and Louise expresses “a burning desire to hit [Caroline] in the mouth”, though she controls herself (32).
Louise also describes how her mother never looks at her the way she looks at Caroline, with the proud look “on [her] mother’s face as she listens to Caroline practice” (66). Through these instances, Paterson reveals to the reader Louise’s extended suffering due to jealousy of her sister and an inherent feeling of lack of self-worth, reinforced by her perspective that her loved ones regard her sister with higher esteem than they will ever feel towards Louise. Over the course of the novel, Louise develops skills as a waterwoman, refocusing her energy away from childhood rivalries and finding, for the first time, peace and fulfillment.
In addition to serving as a refuge, the water of Raff plays a vital role in citizens’ economic sustenance. Crabbing is a culture on the island: Louise describes how, “for the men of the island, except for the preacher and the occasional male teacher, the Bay was an all-consuming passion. It ruled their waking hours, sapped their bodily strength, and from time to tragic time, claimed their mortal flesh” (37). Louise’s father wakes up at 4:30 every morning and collects both oysters and crabs. The process of crabbing is a delicate one. Soft crabs were packed into eelgrass to be shipped, and molting crabs were stored in the floats until they’d finish peeling. Watermen must be able to tell how much time a crab has until it molts. Louise can “tell almost to the hour when the [crab] was going to shed” (161). This intimate knowledge of the creatures they work with highlights the environmental engagement required of waterman, who know both the tides and the creatures they work with.
The responsibility of crabbing catalyzes Louise’s growth from a jealous sister into a mature, confident and independent young woman. Louise begins a new phase of her life when she takes over her father’s crabbing floats. Like all of the boys on the island over age twelve, she wakes up at dawn with her father and “pole[s her] skiff from float to float, fishing out the soft crabs and taking them to a crab house to pack them in boxes filled with eelgrass for shipping” (161). Louise takes pride in her work. She feels “less helpless to be a girl of fifteen doing what many regarded as a man’s job” (163). Like the young men on the island, Louise doesn’t enroll in school. Instead, she catches up with her studies after the crabbing season is complete.
Perhaps what signifies the importance of Louise’s transition to crabbing is the fact that she is “no longer fighting” (165). Caroline is at boarding school, and Louise’s father allows Louise to make her own choice about attending church. “I was old enough, he said, to decide for myself,” Louise describes, for “God was my judge, not they” (163). As she disengages the world of religion and ventures into life at sea, Louise refocuses her energy: amongst the oysters, she finds peace. She describes feeling “deeply content with what life was giving [her]” (164). Part of her contentment, she explains, is due to spending time with her father, who serenades the oysters of Chesapeake Bay “with the hymns the brothers Wesley had written to bring sinners to repentance and praise” (163). Thus, Louise’s engagement in the cultural and economic practice of crabbing brings personal and emotional satisfaction.
Ultimately, Paterson develops a consistent theme of ethic of responsibility and reverence towards one’s environment, as well as the importance of actively engaging and considering one’s surroundings. Louise’s natural environment provides her with a refuge from emotional distress, while also serving as a vehicle for Louise’s discovery of confidence, independence and self-sufficiency. Though one would not initially deem Paterson’s text to be a work of green literature, her characters intimately and deeply engage with each other and with their natural surroundings.
Works Cited:
“Awards by Book.” “Awards” section, katherinePaterson.com. Ed. AuthorsOnTheWeb.
Katherine Paterson, 2015.
“Biography of Katherine.” “Bio” section, katherinePaterson.com. Ed.
Media: Digital image. Katherine Pateron. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.