Success is life giving you a chance at something great, and you take that chance and work for it. Failure is something one would avoid but it just happens. These failures can affect peoples lives more than one would think. In the novel Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, Kates family plays a major role in her success and failures in life. Her family was given choices to make throughout the novel, and the choices made by them led to her success and failure. Some of the success that Kate had in her life happened because of Lukes sacrifice to keep the family together, Matts mistake that led him to give up school and give Kate that chance, the bond the children had with the pond which gave her, her passion and Daniels push that led Kate to realize that some of her failures were because of herself. The failures in Kates life were caused by family, but not on purpose. Her obsession with Matt kept her from truly loving Daniel Crane which was her boyfriend for over a year, the House Rule which kept Kate from opening up and keeping the bond between her and her family strong, and Matts dream, which she succeeded but and the guilt kept her from enjoying it.
Kate Morrisons family plays a large role in her lifes success. Throughout Kates life, she is faced with challenges that would change anyones life and some of these changes led to success in her life. In the novel, Crow Lake, Kates family led her to her success. Luke Morrisons sacrifice to give up school so that the family could stay together, Matt Morrisons mistake of when he got Mary Pye pregnant and had to give up school for her, their bond with the pond which led to Kates passion, and Daniels push to have her open up. Lukes sacrifice played one of the largest roles in Kates success. When the Morrison parents died, the Morrison kids were going to be split apart so that the kids would be taken care of by different family and so that Luke could go to school and get an education. While Luke would be in school, the rest of them would work on farms to help their poor families and not get a chance to an education. When this idea was presented to Kate, she was not happy to know that she was going to be taken away from her only close family left. Luke saw the unhappiness that this change brought Kate and the rest of the family. He decided to go against his aunts plans and give up school and give the money to Matt for school and instead , Luke would be working and supporting the family. This led to Kates success because when the Morrison children were being separated, they were going to have to work on farms to help support the new families. The Morrison children had brighter futures then just simply working on farms. They were all smart students, and Lukes sacrifice gave them a chance for success in life and a chance at a brighter future. This future that Kate received in the novel, was because if Luke did not sacrifice his future, Kate would not get the chance and become a teacher in biology, which was her passion. This passion for lakes was passed on by Kates older brother Matt, who was the brightest of all the children and deserved the chance to an education the most.
Matt was one of the brightest in his classrooms and received scholarships to a university. Matts dream was to study biology in university and he finally reached his dream, which didnt last long. The summer before Matt left for school, Mary Pye ended up getting pregnant and Matt had to give up school to support Mary and the baby. Since the two eldest boys gave up school for good reasons, it was Kates turn to attempt to go to school and scholarships. Matts mistake led Kate to go on with her studies and eventually become an Assistant professor in Biology at the University of Toronto. Kate received her passion for biology because of Crow Lake and the bond her and her brother, Matt, had with the pond. Not only was this the strongest bond between Matt and Kate but it was the bond the Morrison children shared all together. This pond was the connection they had and it also was the passion that Matt and Kate shared in biology. Matt gave Kate the passion for biology and told her a lot of what she knows about the creatures and lake contents. The pond kept the family together and throughout the book, seemed like the stress reliever. Margaret Cunning agreed The idyllic atmosphere Lawson creates in these trips to the ponds tugs at all of us who can remember gleaming jewels of magic even in the midst of most turbulent childhood.(Cunning) Whenever the children were mad, sad or just bored, they were at the lake. Matt gave that chance to Kate to go to university to study the passion he gave to her. On the way of Kate studying her passion, she ran into her significant other, Daniel Crane, while analyzing a lake for her class.
Daniel helped Kate succeed in her life because he changed her. Kate was an isolated personality that did not open up to anyone because it was an unwritten rule. Daniel pushed Kate to open up, which eventually led her to realize that the bond that she lost with Matt was because of her choices and actions. The Dial Press, when speaking of how Kate has grown away from her old life says That distance, for Kate, now a university professor and researcher, is 400 miles, but the emotional divide is far greater: "My horizons were expanding," she recalls of her college years, "and Crow Lake seemed to shrink to the tiny insignificant dot that it appeared to be on the map."(Dial Press). When Kate realized this, she began to think about how The other ponds, our pond included, are just as they have always been (291 Lawson). Which means that nothing changed other then Kate herself and Daniel made her realize that she was the reason she lost her connection with Matt, which led her to open up and become a better person toward her family. Kates success in life was triggered and pushed by her family. Lukes sacrifice to keep his family together led to Kate having a chance to a future and not just leave her working on a farm for the rest of her life. Matts mistake led to Kate getting the chance to proceed in her passion which was given by Matt. The pond kept the family together and gave the family its passion. Daniels push led to Kate realizing that she has been shutting out her family, which was the reason that she lost the connection with her family.
Even though Kates family played a large role in her success, they also played a large role in her failures in life. Kates life was not all success; there were moments of failure which affected her life greatly. Some of the reasons Kate had failed in life was because of her attachment to Matt and how he unknowingly prevented her to really love anyone, the House Rule which led Kate to isolate her personality and emotions, and Matts dream to become a biologist gave Kate a hard time to enjoy that she reached his dream, and he is working on a farm instead. Kate since a young age had this obsessive attachment to her brother Matt. This attachment truly came out when the Morrison parents died and as Nora Foster Stovel said The ponds, as they are called, provide a perspective on propagation and adaptability, as Matt and Kate, lying on their stomachs and brooding over the insect-infested water...(Stovel), which increased her attachment to Matt. Out of all four children, Kate and Matt shared the strongest bond and passion for the same things. He gave off his passion to her and was the biggest influence in her life. Because of this attachment, Kate began to obsess over Matt in an abnormal way, for example she would get angry if he was with another girl. Throughout the novel, Kates obsession with her brother Matt prevented her from really falling in love with her boyfriend Daniel and opening up to him about her life and past. The reason this prevented her from really falling for Daniel was because in Kates eyes, no one could compare to her brother Matt. Her expectations were too high for anyone to reach up to. Since Daniel tried so hard to have Kate open up and it never worked, it almost led to the ending of one of the good thing she had left. Matt unknowingly kept Kate from having something real with someone and possible falling in love because no one could match up to him in Kates eyes.
When Kate was young, there was a house rule, Understatement was the rule in our house. Emotions, even positive ones, were kept firmly under control. (9 Lawson) This House Rule kept her emotions inside and kept Kate from opening up to anyone who tried. This effect of her families rule on her was a negative one for the most part. This rule ruined Kate as a person because she had no emotions. Kate talks about these children she sees on the TV, You see them looking into the camera, directly at the lens, and knowing what they have been through you expect to see terror or grief in their eyes, yet often theres no visible emotion at all. (53 Lawson) This is a perfect description of Kates personality. Kates personality was the quiet type that people worried about. Kate isolated herself and kept the world from reaching into her heart. Kate near the beginning of the novel revealed Memories. Im not in favour of them, by and large. Not that there arent some good ones, but on the whole Id like to put them in an airtight cupboard and close the door. (20 Lawson) Daniel was so annoyed by the fact that she was like this, and almost ruined her relationship with him. The fact that she did not want to open up, or even introduce him tot he family got to Daniel and really angered him. Daniel and Kate went out to dinner with Daniels parents once in a while and after over a year in a relationship, Kate never truly opened up to Daniel about her family, the past and events that happened.
Her isolation prevented her from keeping the bond with Matt and the rest of her family. Kate pushed her family away because she never opened up to them. Matts dream in life was to become a biologist of some kind but he had to give up his dream for Mary Pye. Since Luke and Matt both gave up school, it was Kates turn to have a try. She attended university and eventually reached Matts dream. She did love the subject but it was hard for her to truly enjoy it because she feels like she took the dream from Matt and the guilt over powered it. There were many ways to make the class she taught interesting, like telling them stories of the past expeditions that she and Matt used to go on. The guilt over powered her where she made her passion boring. When she went to visit, it had gotten to a point where she did not like talking to him about it because it was like teasing him with something he could have had. This played a role in her failure because since she never opened up; her feelings about this were kept inside. She never talked to Matt about it and never found out that he is actually happy for her and what she has succeeded in. She just saw the guilt of being the one who got the chance when he lost it. Kates family played a role in her failures at life. Kates obsession with Matt kept her from truly loving anything else, The house rule kept her from opening up to anyone and kept her isolated from her emotions and how she reached Matts dream, made her feel guilty and to enjoy doing the thing she loved most.
Kates family played a large role in her life. They gave her chance to success and some of those chances, she took and it led to her success, but others did not work and it led to her failure. Some of the successes in her life were because of Lukes sacrifice to keep the family together instead of getting his education gave Kate a chance to a future, Matts mistake of Mary Pyes pregnancy led to him giving up the chance of an education , which finally reached Kate. Other ways that her family played roles in her success was the bond with the pond which kept them connected and gave Kate her passion for what she does in the future and lastly Daniels push helped her succeed in realizing the mistakes shes been doing all along with her brother Matt. Even though these events helped her succeed, there were some that led her to fail. The failures that her family helped with were because of her Obsession with Matt which led her to never really be able to fall in love with Daniel, the House Rule which led her to keeping her emotions isolated instead of opening up to the closest of family, and Matts dream of being a biologist gave Kate the inability to really enjoy what she does, because it was what Matt wanted. In the novel Crow Lake, Kates family plays a role in her successes and failures in life.
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