Literature Circle: Crabbe by Alexander Barter

About the Author

bartera4 — 2025-05-26 16:59:27 UTC

Author of 19 books.
7 of his books received prizes.
Wrote some books with his wife Ting-Xing Ye.
Born in Toronto Canada.
His first book that he published was Crabbe in 1986.
He continued making books until he was 70 years old.
Almost 90% of the books he has published either won prizes or were nominated for one.

6 Things you Need to Know

bartera4 — 2025-06-03 18:10:02 UTC

We begin the novel with a flash forward with the protagonist Crabbe in a psychiatric facility. We see that he is a smoker who dislikes the doctors in the facility. We then get a flashback we see why Crabbe was placed into a psychiatric facility because he had run away. We see that Crabbe dislikes his wealthy life where his parents controlled his every move. We see that Crabbe is an alcoholic. Later on we see that Crabbe manages to steal a jeep and canoe from his parents and escape to the wilderness. A few days in Crabbe finds himself struggling with all the aspects of the nature, one night Crabbe is attacked by a bear he gets out of the encounter unscathed but scared. After the attack Crabbe attempts to move location via canoe where he ends up falling off a waterfall. Crabbe ends up injured from his fall and discovered by a woman named Mary. Mary is camping out near by and takes Crabbe in for him to recover. Mary being more experienced than Crabbe teaches him how to navigate, build fires and cook food out in the wild.

Two Key Passages

bartera4 — 2025-06-03 18:15:28 UTC

"But deep down I'm glad I did what I did. I'm glad because it's the one intelligent, independent, creative thing I've done in my life, and the one thing I've done for me."

This passage symbolizes that Crabbe is happy as he eve for a short time was truly free.

"He feels a sense of accomplishment and officially free."

This passages symbolizes how Crabbe felt free on the first days in the wilderness after his excape from his life.

The Three R's

bartera4 — 2025-06-03 18:18:31 UTC

We see the three R's play a significant role in this story. We see Crabbe survive in the wilderness on his own for days and with Mary for months. We see him never give up if with injury from his fall off the waterfall. We also see him from a relationship with Mary who had saved him and thought him how to survive. All of these things is what got Crabbe so far and what helped him develope as a person.

Summary

bartera4 — 2025-06-03 18:37:59 UTC

In this novel we see the journey of a teenager who was bron and raised in a wealthy family where everything was done and decided for him. We see that this young man is unhappy with his life and how it was going often skipping school and getting drunk. One day the protagonist figure he's has enough, that he would make his own decisions and do thing himself. One night when his parents are out he takes one of their vehicles and their canoe and drives to the location the one time he and his dad when camping. Upon arriving at this location he loads all of his supplies into the canoe just to realize that he doesn't quite know how to operate or even sit in a canoe. Once he figures out how to sit in the canoe without tipping it he sets off. Once down river he sets up camp enjoying the piece and quiet. After a few days in this location he experiences a bear attack. After the bear attack he decides that the location was no longer safe. He once again sets off down river once more in search of a better location to set up camp. He struggles to steer the canoe and finds himself in the path of a waterfall, without being able to get clear of it he goes off the edge. In the fall his canoe and all his supplies had been destroyed. He is rescued by a woman who had also been hiding out in the wilderness from her life. He awakens surprised to see another person and to see that he had been injured in his fall. He stays with the woman for some time to recover, during this time she teaches him how to navigate, start fires and cook food while out in the wilderness. Once he was recovered the woman informed him that he would have to leave soon as winter was approaching and she would not have enough food for the both of them. With this they go on one final adventure. They travel for a few days to a hunt camp where the woman had taken food from before when they arrived they had realized that it had occupants, still they decide to press on. When taking food some of the men who were drunk came outside with their dog. The protagonist decides to go out and keep an eye on them while the woman stayed stealing food. Not long after the dog became aware of their presence and alerted the men of the woman stealing the food. Despite being drunk the men captured the woman and took her inside. With this the protagonist developed a plan to break her out, he sets the building with their food in it on fire causing the one conscious man to rus out with the dog. The protagonist then gets inside the main building freeing the woman who had been sexually assaulted and traumatized. When they got out of there they ran for hours climbing mountains and traversing hard terrain for hours in the cold. When they finally stop atop a cliff he starts a fire and when he leaves in search of fire wood he returns to find the woman he had been with for months had jumped off the cliff. He then burns her body in the fire and continues back to the camp. For a few days after arriving back at the camp the man decided he would learn about her discovering that she had been married, a university professor and an activist, who's husband had died in a protest. After sitting around for a while he dicided with it getting cold and being low on food to return to civilization. He begins to make his journey back the way he came being harder this time due to the ice growing over the river and lake. Once back he makes his way back to the town where he is found and placed into the psychiatric facility from the first few pages of the book.