The universal struggle of the human condition to discover one’s meaning and purpose in life is a common literary theme. In his novel Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry portrays his protagonist Jonah as a man who does not choose his destiny but is instead repeatedly unmade and remade by the circumstances that come into his life: “[E]ach change has been a birth, each having taken me to a new life from which I could not go back” (315). Like the chimerical changing of the river, chaotic in one moment and tranquil in another, circumstances can change a person’s life in an instant. Through Jayber’s journey, Berry reveals a character who finds meaning in allowing his trials, relationships, and acts of sacrificial love to transform him.

Jayber’s life trajectory is not linear. He resists the archetypal notion that a boy must leave home to strike out to make himself successful. Instead of taking him far away, Jayber’s path takes him home to root himself in a community and allows the community to shape him. His life is more episodic than epic, made up of many small moments of observation and contemplation with others and with himself along the way.