Crank

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | YA | Published in 2004

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-40

Chapters 41-85

Chapters 86-135

Chapters 136-170

Chapters 171-223

Chapters 224-263

Chapters 264-295

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

The Tattoo

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses drug use and substance use disorder, which feature in the source text.

In a disturbing sequence that Kristina views as highly romantic, Adam, her first boyfriend, tattoos a heart on her thigh the night before they part. “I want to give you something…So you’ll never forget me” (178), Adam says, “stashed under your skin” (178). To Kristina, the tiny heart is a “very big symbol” of their union (178), ink and flesh becoming one. It is a heady romantic gesture that couches something toxic: Adam uses an unsterilized needle to tattoo Kristina. Further, the tattoo literally marks her as his and thus carries a whiff of possessiveness. Additionally, the tattoo gets Kristina in trouble with her parents. Kristina begins to resent the tattoo soon after the rush of getting it is over. On the flight back, she notes it is “red and raw” (180). By the time she examines the tattoo in her bathroom at home, she “silently scream[s] / at the angry / green pocket of pus / beneath / the purple welt” (195). Kristina cynically notes that the forever symbol of love is already tainted.

The infection of the tattoo symbolizes the unhealthy nature of Adam’s love for Kristina. It also foreshadows that the love is temporary. As the plot progresses, Adam writes to Kristina to tell her that they should see other people and later tells her that he and Lynx are expecting a baby. Each of these revelations hurts Kristina and sends her into a spiral that make her crave meth. The tattoo also symbolizes Kristina’s addiction to meth. Initially seductive and euphoric, the addiction soon assumes monstrous proportions. Adam’s injection of the ink into Kristina’s skin foreshadows her shooting up meth later in the novel, connecting corruption and decay.

Cats

Cats represent uninhibited sexuality in the text and also symbolize a sexual threat. In a strange dream Kristina has soon after meeting Adam, she pictures two wildcats mating. Intrigued, she draws close to the animals rutting in the grass. When the female cat looks at Kristina, Kristina gasps when she sees that the cat has her face. The mating cats symbolize Kristina’s awakening sexuality, while the female cat is her Bree self, the uninhibited self into which Kristina is growing. Kristina’s gasp upon seeing that the cat has her face illustrates her uneasy relationship with her sexuality. Name symbolism being common in the novel, it is interesting that Kristina’s chief rival for Adam’s affection is named Lynx, another word for a bobcat. When Lynx discovers Adam and Kristina talking, Kristina says she can see “her claws / spring out” (56), underscoring the feline association. She also likens Adam, her first love, to a cat, referring to his “hot bod, wildcat eyes” (233).

Though cats represent sex and sexuality in the novel, they are also fragile. Lynx, named after a cat that ought to land on its feet, is badly injured in a fall. Kristina pictures her as a “golden eyed wildcat / crumpled against the / sad, cracked cement” (141). Later, she thinks of her rival’s jump as the flight of the “wingless Lynx.” The relationship between sexuality and fragility symbolizes Kristina and society’s ambivalent ideas about sexual expression.

The Monster

Meth, or “the monster,” is a key symbol and motif in the narrative. Calling meth the monster is an example of personification, in which an inanimate object is imbued with animate qualities. The personification of meth shows that it has assumed enormous importance in Kristina’s life. Personification is also an apt device to convey the nature of addiction, in which the pull of the substance becomes so strong that it starts to control the person using it. Kristina talks of being locked in an intimate battle with the monster, showing the isolation and secretiveness of addiction. When she falls asleep after a line, she describes the dreamless sleep as “a place where only the monster / can drop you so hard” (177). When she first consumes meth, “the monster stomp[s] up / and down [her] spine” (98). When she reaches Reno still high, “the monster [is] / fluttering in and out of [her] head / like some demented moth” (192). All these images show the monster as powerful, intrusive, and solely focused on Kristina.

Kristina’s desire for the monster is often framed in romantic and quasi-sexual terms. She notes that it is strange “how intensely desire builds when the / monster waits at the far end of a drive” (267). The image evoked here is that of a boyfriend waiting in his car at the end of the driveway. Ironically, though, the love interest here is not a young man but a monster. As Kristina’s love story with the monster spins out of control, she notes, “[T]eachers, counselors, preachers / scaffolding / crumbled / by the weight of my monster” (411). The use of the phrase “my monster” shows that Kristina now feels the monster is part of her identity. The fact that the monster demolishes all support systems shows the power of addiction. As the book ends, Kristina admits that “the monster will forever speak / to [her]” (537). By depicting meth addiction through personification and hyperbole, Hopkins shows how addiction becomes monstrous not just for the person using it, but for their entire family. Meth can only be described in larger-than-life terms because of the enormous problem it represents.