93 pages • 3 hours read
Crabbe
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Crabbe’s Journal: 20-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Journal 20 Summary
After almost two days and two nights holed up in his shelter, Crabbe decides to set out again. The depth of the snow forces him to abandon his canoe. Instead of taking shelter immediately, he presses on, hoping to find shelter at Ithaca Camp. He puts on all the clothing he owns to stay warm, an effort that proves futile in the wind and snow. As his body temperature falls, his hands and feet begin to freeze, and he develops frostbite. He also begins to get extremely tired and considers stopping to sleep until he recalls a Jack London story in which the protagonist freezes to death after falling asleep. Crabbe pushes himself to continue. He eventually reaches a cabin, where he is able to take shelter. When he wakes up his chest hurts and the feeling has not returned to his left hand. He manages to reach the main road and is picked up by a stranger in a pickup truck. When the Good Samaritan realizes that Crabbe is suffering from frostbite he drives a hundred miles to a clinic in Huntington. Crabbe loses consciousness after a staff member gives him a shot.
Journal 21 Summary
Crabbe’s chest, head, and hand hurt when he wakes up. His doctor asks how he's feeling and asks him his name, the latter a question he refuses to answer. She explains to him that his head hurts from the anesthetic, his lungs hurt because he has a case of double pneumonia, and his left hand hurts because she had to amputate two of his fingers. He is shocked. She tells them that he could have lost the entire hand, so he should be grateful. She then explains that he needs to be taken to a hospital in the city where they have better facilities. He is transported by ambulance to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in Toronto.
After several hazy days, he wakes up fully, only to be confronted by a hospital administrator, doctors, and a police officer who all want to know his name and what happened to him. Although he initially refuses to answer any questions, he eventually tells them his name and parents’ address. He still refuses to explain why he was found out in the wilderness, however. When the administrator continues to press him for answers, he tells him to mind his own business. When the administrator threatens to bring his parents over, Crabbe curses and responds by telling him to do what he has to do.
Journal 20-Journal 21 Analysis
Crabbe’s escape from the wilderness reveals the limits of autonomy. As an autonomous adult, he can still make bad decisions and be forced to deal with the consequences. His decision to push on despite the weather is an example of this truth, and the frostbite he suffers symbolizes the possibility of negative consequences. Furthermore, while determination and strength of character enable him to push on to the highway, his survival is ultimately assured by the Good Samaritan in the pickup truck, making the point that even the most autonomous of adults must sometimes rely on the help of others. Crabbe’s conflict with the adults he encounters in the hospital represent his attempts to use the autonomy he learned in the wilderness to counter urban life’s pressure to conform.
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