57 pages • 1 hour read
Angie KimMiracle Creek
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Honesty and Lies
Kim creates characters with whom the reader empathizes despite their behavior, especially in Elizabeth and Mary. Even Matt, who is the least likable character, is admittedly deeply disturbed by his behavior and his punishments: the loss of his fingers, his impotence, and his failed marriage do evoke some sympathy on his behalf.
Kim argues that we cannot merely look at the actions of a character; we must also explore the motive behind the character’s actions. Pak lied to his wife and committed perjury, but he acted out of a desire to protect his family. He didn’t want Young to be burdened with the knowledge that Mary was responsible for such atrocities, including paralyzing her own father. He believes that his duty is to protect his family no matter what. He even wants to go so far as to take responsibility for Mary’s actions, to save Mary from suffering the consequences.
Young is heartbroken once she realizes that her daughter started the fire, killing two people and injuring others. However, she is relieved to know that Mary did not intend to hurt anybody, and her understanding of this restores Mary and Young’s relationship. When Pak insists that they remain silent about who caused the fire, that Young’s belief that Mary should confess will mean that Mary will “destroy her life for nothing,” Young replies, “[d]oing the right thing is not nothing” (340).
Disability
By introducing a “hierarchy of disability,” Kim explores how we define disability and what it means to be disabled, particularly through the relationship between Kitt and Elizabeth. Although both of their children are autistic, Henry and TJ are on different parts of the autism spectrum: Henry struggles with interpreting facial expressions, maintaining eye contact, and making friends, while TJ demonstrates behaviors that are more difficult to “correct,” such as self-injury and fecal smearing. This causes friction between Elizabeth and Kitt not out of jealousy or competition, but over what constitutes disability. Kitt believes that Henry is socially awkward, whereas she believes that TJ has a severe disability.
Through Teresa and Rosa, Kim also explores the idea of ableism—discrimination against people with disabilities. This is evident in the many characters who seem to believe, even if subconsciously, that Rosa would be better off dead. Here, Kim questions what it means to have a good life, and who has the power to decide who should live and who is better off dead. Even Teresa wonders if she had prayed for the wrong thing, if Rosa would have been better off had she died from her illness.
Love
Miracle Creek explores the love between parent and child. Although much of this is focused on two parent-child relationships, between Mary and Young and Henry and Elizabeth, Kim explores similar concepts in each. Elizabeth seems to recognize this when she finally realizes that she is not the only one suffering from the inconvenience and exhaustion of Henry’s many treatments, but Henry is as well. Through this relationship, Kim explores what happens when love blinds us to reality.
A similar situation exists with Pak and Mary. Like Elizabeth, Pak is willing to sacrifice everything for his child. However, Kim seems to argue, this is not necessarily what real love looks like. Instead, Young demonstrates that real love means knowing that your child will suffer but helping them to become resilient and kind even in the face of such suffering. Real love does not mean trying to change your child, as in Elizabeth’s case, or changing reality, as in Pak’s, but in loving your child as they are and helping them to become good people.
Cigarettes
The murder weapon in the story is a cigarette: Pak originally started a fire using a cigarette and put it out in hopes of framing the protestors, but Mary stumbled upon the staged scene and relit the cigarette. The cigarette also doubles as a symbol of dishonesty and pointless rebellion. Both Mary and Matt smoke for the sake of rebellion, which has terrible consequences. Their meetings to smoke initially seem harmless, but both the characters and the reader know that what Matt and Mary are doing is dangerous. They are dishonest with themselves and with each other, and the cigarette symbolizes this deceit. The reader sees this again when Elizabeth smokes to be rebellious, which seems harmless but also accompanies Elizabeth’s lie about not feeling well, which turns out to have disastrous consequences.
