White Deer

Character Analysis

White Deer is a vegetarian and a devout Buddhist. Though he is an herbivore, however, White Deer cooks a wide array of scrumptious-sounding foods, including meat, for his cronies in the Company. Really, Yep gives us more details about the food White Deer prepares than information on the man himself. We know White Deer is second oldest in the Company, and that he is the caregiver if Uncle Bright Star should get sick. This sort of casting of White Deer as the domestic god of the group further subverts gender stereotypes and shows how domestic assignments necessarily shifted in an all-male community, just as Mother's roles shifted when Father went to America.