How is Reuben's character in Peace Like a River influenced by his ailment (severe case of asthma)?I need to know how his character is influenced...

Leif Enger's coming-of-age novel Peace Like a
River is a story of many things, including miracles.  Reuben is the first and
most significant miracle in the novel, and it is he who narrates this story. His asthma
is not only part of who he is, it's also integral to this
story.

After being without breath for twelve minutes,
Reuben's father literally breathes life back into him.  There is no question that an
experience like that will shape a life forever.  Questions about why he was saved or how
his father seems to have miracles happen around him no doubt cause Reuben to both
understand the importance of, and yet question, the spiritual
realm. 

Physically, Reuben struggles with asthma during the
entire course of the novel.  Ironically, though he was literally brought back to life 
by a miracle; and, though his father performs miracles with startling regularity, Reuben
remains afflicted with this debilitation.  It's something which connects him to his
father, as Jeremiah must "treat" his symptoms with some regularity.  It's something
which frightens Reuben, as well.  “Sometimes when the breathing goes it goes like
that—like smoke filling a closet. . . . Your breaths are sips, couldn’t blow out the
candle on a baby’s cake.”

He dreams of dying often--even
dreams prophetically about his breathing and loss of breath in conjunction with the "bad
guys" of this novel.  His asthma impacts the entire family, and it is one of
the connecting forces throughout the work.