44 pages • 1 hour read
Virginia SorensenMiracles on Maple Hill
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Finding Hope and Healing in the Natural World
Humans have long seen nature as a place to find tranquility, solace, and refuge. Absent the distractions and stresses of modernity, the natural world offers people a chance to slow down and wonder at the beauty and miraculous truths revealed in nature. Virginia Sorensen’s Miracles on Maple Hill is a celebration of returning to a simpler life grounded in the seasonal rhythms of the natural world. Through characters like Dale and Marly, the novel illustrates how the natural world can become a place of healing and renewal in the face of adversity. The novel also underscores the idea that amidst life’s complexities, the wonder of nature can inspire hope.
Maple Hill becomes a sanctuary for Dale, who struggles with the residual effects of trauma. At first, he busies himself with indoor projects like cleaning and repairing the house. Soon, though, he begins spending more time outdoors with Mr. Chris and develops a love of gardening, fishing, and making maple syrup. For Dale, being outdoors isn’t just a distraction from his pain; it also provides a healthy outlet for his energy. When he sees the fruits of his labor, whether it’s vegetables or syrup, he feels a sense of accomplishment and peace. When Joe ponders the idea of leaving the city for good, Marly reminds him of what Maple Hill has done for Dale. However, Dale isn’t the only one who experiences a profound change by becoming closer to nature, for Joe also warms to the country lifestyle, taking long hikes and finding a connection to the smallest parts of nature on Maple Hill, like moss and mushrooms. When Joe befriends Harry, he also learns to harness the power of nature through cheese-making and wood crafting.
Marly also arrives at a more philosophical love of nature as she settles into life at Maple Hill and begins to learn from Mr. Chris; she also becomes intimately familiar with the seasonal rhythms around her. The family arrives at the end of winter, and she witnesses the first blooms of spring pushing up from the ground. Marly sees that nature’s resilience mirrors her plight as the new blossoms must struggle to push through the decay of the last season. Just as the flowers are striving to find the sun of a new season, Marly is also blooming into a new, hopeful season of life. Observing the cycles of scarcity and abundance, hibernation and harvest teach Marly to value the nature of existence in a new way, and nature’s resilience teaches her that she too can persevere.
Marly first arrives at Maple Hill looking for miracles of the mystical, magical sort, but she soon learns that real miracles exist in the simplest moments in nature. Fleeting moments like seeing a cardinal, finding a rare bloom in the woods, or experiencing the first snowfall all become miracles to Marly. However, nothing inspires her awe more than the yearly sap run, and she comes to associate the sugaring season as the defining moment of spring and of the entire year. As Mr. Chris tells her, “The sap is the first miracle that happens every spring. After all winter, with everything shut up tight, all of a sudden the trees are alive again” (36). The act of turning tasteless, colorless sap into delectable syrup inspires awe and wonder in Marly. However, after experiencing the hard work of harvesting the sap and turning it into syrup, she gains a greater appreciation of the process. She also learns that, even though it is a miracle, it’s also an important source of income for the Chrises. Nature once again reveals a miracle as the family and community unite to harvest the sap and complete the syrup production while Mr. Chris convalesces. Through the experience, Marly learns that nature is a great provider of sustenance but can also bring people together. Through the eyes of a little girl, the novel captures the profound connection between humans and the natural world as Marly embraces her part in the great circle of living.
The Power of Memory
Like a colorful tapestry or a carefully crafted quilt, human memory is an interconnected web of experiences, emotions, and recollections. Memory is not just a way to preserve the past, however, for it can also shape a person’s identity and guide them in making decisions for the future. The author of Miracles on Maple Hill uses the concept of memory to develop relationships between characters, create a sense of belonging, and highlight the importance of family and heritage within a culture. Though Marly’s mother Lee is closely connected to the home at Maple Hill through her childhood experiences, Marly only knows it through her mother’s memories. However, those memories are so powerful that just hearing about them has created within Marly a connection to a place she has never physically seen. As the narrator states, “Grandma’s whole house and yard and her whole Maple Hill were in those words, just the way Mother had described them ever since Marly could remember” (9). Lee’s stories create a powerful bond between her and Marly and allow her daughter to understand what it is like to connect to a place on a spiritual level. Once they arrive at Maple Hill, Lee walks through her memories as she moves through each room in the house. In the stirring of dust comes a flurry of memories from the times she and her brother spent their summers with Grandma. Through Lee’s memories, Marly connects to her mother’s heritage and looks forward to making her own memories in the house. Lee and Marly’s attachment to the house and the memories it holds facilitates a stronger bond between mother and daughter.
Memory also becomes a way for Mr. Chris to transmit history and heritage to Marly’s family through the syrup-making process. As they watch the chemistry of sap turning to syrup, they feel the weight of an ancient process handed down from generation to generation. There are no written recipes for Mr. Chris’s process. Instead, he relies on the memories of others and the knowledge they passed to him to keep the tradition alive. The sharing of memories and knowledge brings Marly’s family into the heritage of syrup making and helps them to create a new sense of identity as they begin their own yearly tradition of harvesting sap. Each day at Maple Hill is a new memory for Marly and Joe that they can tuck away to access themselves or one day share with someone else to convey the significance of their time spent at Maple Hill. Lee was once the steward of the memories, but now the process of learning and passing on knowledge will be a responsibility that the children also share. Through the characters’ experiences, Sorensen highlights the power of memory to preserve the past, shape the present, and give hope for the future.
The Importance of Family and Community
All humans have an innate desire to be a part of something larger than themselves. Through the lens of Marly and her family’s physical and emotional journey in Miracles on Maple Hill, Virginia Sorensen demonstrates the profound impact of familial bonds and the redemptive power of finding community. The author begins the novel by asserting the importance of the family unit. Marly and her family travel to Maple Hill in a unified effort to help Dale heal and recover from his trauma. The transition could be difficult for the individuals in the unit, but they each sacrifice their desires and needs for the good of the family. The family works together to clean and organize the house, and each family member relies on the others for physical and emotional support whenever the weight of the transition becomes overwhelming. At first, Marly and her brother Joe do not have a close relationship, but they soon bond over the shared goal of helping their father to heal from his traumatic war experiences. Through shared experiences and a willingness to cooperate, Marly and Joe’s relationship begins to strengthen. Marly realizes that she physically needs her brother’s protection, but she also longs for his approval. The siblings also learn from each other, for while Joe comes to respect his sister’s sensitive, contemplative nature, Marley comes to respect Joe’s relationship with Harry and enthusiasm for homesteading. Marly and Joe’s developing bond explores the ways in which a sibling relationship can evolve into a genuine friendship.
Marly’s family comes to Maple Hill as a unit of four, but soon their circle grows to include the Chrises and others in the community. They quickly learn that homesteading in a rural area requires resources and knowledge that they don’t yet have. The Chrises offer their help and companionship as the family settles into their new life. Through shared work and fellowship, the two families become one and even include their hired man Fritz in their trusted circle. The sugar camp becomes a place of communal gathering where they not only make syrup but sing songs, share memories, and build relationships. The text describes how Marly feels tucked inside its walls: “The sugarhouse was a warm, beautiful red island in the middle of a cold, white-and-black world” (30). During Mr. Chris’s illness, the outpouring of love and support from the community moves Fritz to say, “This reminds me of stories I’ve heard about the old days. […] Folks used to help each other more than they do now. If a man’s barn burned in my neighborhood, why, everybody turned to and in a week he had another barn-full of hay” (115). Fritz speaks of a time when neighbors’ dependence on one another wasn’t seen as a weakness but a privilege and a blessing. By highlighting the value of seeing the community as an extended family, the author affirms the beauty of the simple act of being willing to share life with others and reap the rewards of cooperative living.
