The crab Emma seeks throughout her career proves elusive until the very end. Do you think this is a metaphor? If so, for what?

The crab Emma seeks throughout her career proves elusive until the very end. Do you think this is a metaphor? If so, for what?

Most definitely the author uses the crab as a metaphor throughout the novel. This is an important symbol, a rare creature, important to Emma and her career. Though it is mentioned early in the novel and then dropped from the plot line, clearly it is the author's intent that it appear again only at the point when Emma is about to find out who she really is and what truly happened with Charlie, when she is able to be completely honest with herself and with Leo.

I think it is curious that Janice - in her letter to Emma - is the one who points Emma to the crab. Near the end of the novel, when Emma finds where Janice is staying, readers will remember that she sees a crab laying on the table outside Janice's tent. Janice has withheld information about the crab from Emma for a long while, as admitted in her letter. When the resolution to the novel is about to occur, when Emma is about to discover the truth from Charlie and realize the reality of their situation - the crab then appears literally. I see it as a metaphor for truth and clarity - a rarity in the world today perhaps - the truth that Janice knew and kept hidden all along, the truth that Emma needed to find and forgive herself, and the truth she needed to allow her to connect with Charlie and reconnect to Leo.

her soul and self!

All of these are right on. Definitely a metaphor for Emma’s life.

I would like to have known more about that crab,and wish it had been implanted into the story more. I agree that it is a metaphor for Emma's life, but wish it had been emphasized more throughout this story.

susiej answered this one better than I ever could. The story would still have worked without the crab, but it definitely worked metaphorically/symbolically.