The Broken Miracle — Motifs

The moth

Motifs

• I · 6Ten-year-old Jonahs frees a moth with a broken wing: moths aren't bad, and their wings don't heal.
• I · 5Jonahs calls himself “a moth surrounded by butterflies; harmless, but I still seem like a threat.”
• I · 18A moth painting hangs in Dr. Brown's office.
• II · 12A gray moth lands on Paul's arm during the Mount Olympus hike.
• II · 30Paul closes the story as a moth aiming to fly toward the light.
• I · 5Jonahs ties an artificial fishing fly shaped like a moth.

Hold the edge. Swim a little.

Motifs

• I · 2How Paul finishes his mile swim at thirteen.
• I · 10He uses it again to climb the stairs on his first day back at school.
• II · 17Years later, he repeats it in his car to pull himself out of a spiral.

Own your story

Motifs

• I · 10Mom and Mrs. Dominguez both tell Paul to tell his story in his own words.
• II · 30The realization that quiets Paul in the epilogue.

The rabbit hole

Motifs

• II · 8Paul's name for the dark spirals that follow Cash's racing beats.
• II · 29The invitations stop for a while after Tina.

It'll all make sense one day

Motifs

• I · 9Jonahs's promise to Paul after his first teenage surgery.
• I · 21He repeats it on Christmas Eve.

Broken miracles

Motifs

More about Broken miracles is revealed in the books.

Fan mail

Motifs

• I · 13Paul answers emails from fans whose lives his music has touched.
• II · 1Every chapter of Part Two opens with a fan letter.

Lazarus

Motifs

• II · 5Paul wonders how Lazarus saw the world after his second chance.
• II · 13He would rather talk to Lazarus in Heaven than Jesus, to ask how he really was afterward.

Fire refines gold

Motifs

• I · 15Dad's lesson before the Fontan.
• II · 18Bishop Mark twists it to suggest God wants Paul to stay in the fire.

The pinecone

Motifs

• I · 5Jonahs tells Paul he finds God among living trees, not in a building made of dead ones.
• II · 2Dan's eulogy brings the memory back.

Cocoa Puffs and Diet Coke

Motifs

• I · 1Paul's breakfast and drink of choice.
• II · 19Dan arrives with a fresh box.

The red sky

Motifs

• II · 21Neil's drawing of a red sky and pink sun. Paul tells his father his life needs a red sky too.

The Big Dipper

Motifs

• I · 5Jonahs shows Paul the star that always points north.

Jonahs's fishing flies

Motifs

• I · 4A colorful collection of handmade artificial flies that Jonahs keeps in a metal box in the cabin shed. They look lifelike.
• I · 5Jonahs says his caddis-shaped flies catch the bigger fish.