58 pages • 1 hour read
Counting Miracles
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Symbols & Motifs
White Deer
Images of and allusions to the white deer repeat throughout the novel. The characters first hear that “[t]here’s a big white deer in the Uwharrie forest” on a news report (52). Because reporters only have “a blurry picture of it,” no one is sure that “there even [is] such a thing as a white deer” (52). Characters like Jasper Johnson, however, see the deer as “the ghost of something from another life” (52). Jasper first heard about white deer in the region from his father’s stories when he was a boy. Learning about the white deer sightings in the narrative present therefore awakens the mystery and wonder of his childhood and affords him a sense of excitement he hasn’t experienced since his family’s tragic deaths. The white deer therefore acts as a symbol of hope and redemption. Jasper remembers his father saying that some cultures’ mythologies cast the deer as a figure from another world—a belief which underscores the white deer’s enigmatic nature.
Furthermore, the deer’s uncanny color underscores its symbolic resonance. The deer is “an albino,” meaning that scientifically it’s white because it “doesn’t have the usual pigment in its coat or nose” (53). However, in an archetypal sense, the deer’s rare white color signifies purity, healing, renewal, and possibility. Indeed, at the novel’s end, Jasper is convinced that “the appearance of the white deer” has brought Tanner Hughes into his life—a miracle which has led to Jasper’s transformation (344). The white deer indeed renews Jasper’s hope, reawakens his faith, and ushers him into a new phase of life.
Asheboro, North Carolina
Asheboro, North Carolina is the primary macro setting for the novel. All of the events in the narrative present take place in this geographical location. The three disparate primary characters are also all united by the setting. Asheboro therefore brings Tanner, Jasper, and Kaitlyn Cooper into the same physical sphere and inspires connections between them. In these ways, the setting is symbolic of connection, home, and belonging.
For Tanner, “coming to Asheboro […] chang[es] everything” (311). He initially only ventures to the small town because he wants to find his biological father. However his protracted stay in Asheboro offers him new interpersonal connections, which ultimately teach him lessons about himself. Through Asheboro, he meets and falls in love with Kaitlyn and discovers a new way of life. The town also connects him to his familial history and inspires his relationship with his paternal grandfather, Jasper.
For Kaitlyn and Jasper, Asheboro has been home for many years. Kaitlyn has lived in the town ever since she and her ex-husband married. It is therefore where she settled down and started her family. Despite the divorce, she remains connected to the place because it’s where she began her adulthood. Jasper has lived in Asheboro for his entire life. The place is thus the container for all of his memories, both good and bad. The micro settings he observes throughout the novel provide gateways into his personal history and reveal his deep connection to the land. In these ways, the characters all derive a sense of belonging and stability from this setting.
Jenga
The Jenga game that Tanner buys for the Cooper family symbolizes life’s challenges. In the game, the players must carefully withdraw blocks from a tower of stacked blocks without making the stack fall. “Using one hand,” the players must “take out any block that’s not in the top row and stack it on top” and if “the tower falls” on that player’s turn, they lose (155). The game’s appearance, rules, and objective mirror the complications in the primary characters’ lives. Tanner and Kaitlyn particularly have a habit of trying to balance their fragility with their composed, empowered facades. The same is true in the game, where the players have to be calculated and careful about the blocks they choose and how to place them in order to preserve the integrity of the tower.
In the game of Jenga that Tanner plays with Kaitlyn’s family, the narrator depicts the characters’ movements and strategies in detail. The way they play the game provides insight into their characters and how they approach life. For example, “Mitch [is] less selective” about the blocks he chooses, which conveys his free-spirited, youthful nature (155). By way of contrast, Casey “t[akes] her time to gently poke various blocks before making her choice,” which illustrates her desire to do well and to succeed (155). The narrator also notes that Kaitlyn’s “hands [seem] to be growing steadier” over the course of the game, which Tanner guesses is “because she [is] a doctor” (155). These details surrounding the game underscore its symbolic significance, and reify the characters’ internal worlds and thus outlooks on life.
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