59 pages • 1 hour read
Penelope DouglasCredence
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
“Credence” and Other Tattoos
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual exploitation and assault, emotional and physical abuse, and violence.
Tattoos are an important motif in the novel. They are often in the form of words, which ties them with the symbolism around speech, writing, and silence. Jake is shown to be heavily tattooed, indicating that he is a man of experience, with life symbolically written all over him. Jake’s “My Mexico” tattoo shows the power of tattoos and written words to tell stories which speech cannot. Even before Jake tells Tiernan the story about Flora, Tiernan can tell that this particular tattoo is special. Once she knows about Flora, Tiernan intuits that the tattoo refers both to her as well as to Jake’s need to find a place where he belongs the way he belonged to Flora. “My Mexico” becomes a symbol for the feeling of belonging, which Jake has tried to establish in Colorado.
The other important tattoo is the one which lends the novel its title. Kaleb has only one tattoo on his body, the word “credence” running vertically from the bottom of his skull to the middle of his shoulder blades. The sparseness and rigidity of this tattoo symbolizes Kaleb’s mysterious nature. The single tattoo is key to unlocking the mystery of Kaleb. Noah, on the other hand, has no visible tattoos, symbolizing that his life is yet a blank slate. His destiny is waiting to be created. “Credence” means “belief as to the truth of something” (406). Tiernan takes the tattoo to mean that she should have faith in the truth of Kaleb’s love for her and her love for him, even if Kaleb does not express himself.
The motif of tattoos is linked with the motif of words and books. Douglas conveys that words are important since they form a bridge between people. For Tiernan, who feels that her parents never talked to her, communication becomes all the more imperative. Kaleb’s silence hence challenges her to an extreme. Getting Kaleb to talk becomes Tiernan’s way of exercising control over a painful past and fraught present. Tiernan’s first inroad into Kaleb’s mind is through his tattoo.
Snow, Winter, and Chapel’s Peak
Snow, winter, and mountains are important symbols in the novel, representing silence, solitude, and awe. The winter landscape of the Colorado mountains is richly detailed, adding to the world-building in the novel. The snow and winter signify different meanings for different characters. For Noah, they spell an unwilling isolation—a shroud from the buzzy, colorful world he is being kept away from. However, for Tiernan, the snow provides willing solitude and a space for reflection and self-growth. Tellingly, Tiernan loves the snow and notes, “winter and snow don’t suck if you’re having fun in it” (277). These symbols therefore help to convey The Role of Challenges in Self-Discovery. The snow and winter are also symbolic of Kaleb. To find Kaleb in the last stretch of the novel, Noah and Tiernan make their way through a worsening winter storm, which shows Kaleb’s complete immersion in the wintry elements.
While male characters often hint that the snow and winter are dangerous for Tiernan as they signify her being shut off from society and safety, the threat does not quite play out. Tiernan loves the thrill of the snow and the mountains. In Chapter 3, Tiernan is wonderstruck at the sight of Chapel’s Peak and compares it to a “cathedral” (31). The beauty of the mountain gives her goosebumps and makes her forget her troubles. The conflation of chapel, cathedral, and mountain invokes the purity and holiness of the winter landscape. In this sense, the winter elements represent nature at its purest and wildest, a divine force.
Animals
In Chapter 2, Jake tells Tiernan that the Van der Bergs have “a young mare who always seems to find some way out of her stall” (23). Jake is literally referring to the mare Shawnee, yet there is an implied comparison between the headstrong horse and Tiernan herself. Both are wild, autonomous creatures who do not want to be controlled. Soon after her arrival at the ranch, Tiernan develops a fondness for the animals, including Shawnee and a cow named Bernadette. Tending to the animals becomes her daily routine, and she notes, “I constantly want to be […] petting the animals. Making treats for the animals. Playing with the animals” (276). When Terrance Holcomb and his men set the barn on fire, Noah notes that Tiernan goes off immediately to free the horses, with “no hesitation” (311). Thus, animals form an important motif in the novel, representing Tiernan’s sense of freedom.
In the symbolic sense, animals represent the pure, wild, sexual, shameless, and even bestial aspect of human nature. In the same passage that Tiernan notes her fascination with animals, she observes that she wants to be “tucked away somewhere quiet with one animal in particular” (276), implying Jake. Tiernan’s bond with the actual animals extends to her desire for the Van der Berg men, who are in touch with their animal nature. Tiernan’s kinship with animals reflects her desire to be in touch with the wildest, most socially transgressive aspect of her own nature. Kaleb also has an uncanny kinship with animals; Tiernan observes that “the dogs love him most […] they follow him, sleep with him” (318). Kaleb is often described as an animal, watching Tiernan or cocking his head at her like a curious puppy. The flip side of this affinity with animals is that Kaleb is described as violent and sexually aggressive like an animal. Kaleb is animalistic in the sense that his behavior is beastly. Tiernan describes him “like a bear. His love feels like shit” (378). Animals represent both the creative and destructive aspects of human nature in the novel.
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