fredag 23. september 2011

Literary analysis, "About the Butterflies"

This is the analysis of the short story " About the Butterflies " :

About the Butterflies
- An analysis of the short-story “Butterflies”, by Patricia Grace.

Butterflies” is a short story written by Patricia Grace, published in the collection Electric City and Other Stories (1987). Grace is a Maori, born in Wellington, New Zealand. It is a story about life as a Maori and different views on the world.

The story begins with a couple of grandparents sending their beloved granddaughter off to school, proudly telling their neighbour how well she’s doing. When the granddaughter gets home they ask her about her day. She says that she has written a story, and they want to hear. She has written that she killed butterflies, and then the grandparents ask what the teacher thought of it. She replies that the teacher said that butterflies are “beautiful creatures”, which fly in the sun, and “visit pretty flowers”. The teacher had also said that one does not kill butterflies. The grandfather then says that this is because she buys her cabbages from the supermarket.

The short story is set at the home of the grandparents who are farmers. The setting is important in the short story, because we see it from the grandparents’ point of view. They are poor, they grow their own food and have little or no education, which you can tell by how proud they are that their granddaughter is attending school: “And clever,” the grandfather said [about his granddaughter]. “Writes every day in her book.”

The granddaughter is a Maori child. She does well in school and writes in her book every day. The grandparents are farmers. They love their granddaughter very much, and try to raise her up the best they can, although they aren’t rich. And despite that they have no education they seem like bright people, who sees the world for what it is. The teacher on the other hand, is rich and most likely white. She doesn’t see the world like the grandparents do, but from a white person’s point of view. She buys her cabbage at the supermarket, after all.

The main conflict would be the contrast between the white and rich teacher and the poor Maori family who grows their own food. When the granddaughter writes the story about killing butterflies, most people, especially in the western world, would think of this as a morbid and cruel thing to do, and the teacher is amongst those who possess these thoughts. The ones that grow their own food, on the other hand, know how the butterflies can destroy their crop. They have experienced it themselves, and therefore don’t see butterflies as beautiful creatures, as the teacher claims them to be. She has never faced problems with the butterflies, because she buys her cabbage.

Butterflies” has got a third person narration, which allows us to see the story from both sides, although it is written in the farmers’ point of view. Had the story been told from the teacher’s point of view, we had probably thought of the Maori family as dumb and morbid.

There are several themes in this short story. I would say it’s about different ways of living and different ways to view the world. When reading “Butterflies” for the first time, one might not get the message. One will have to think twice about the last line: “Because you see, your teacher, she buys all her cabbages from the supermarket, and that’s why.” I am of course referring to what I earlier wrote about her being white and rich, being able to buy her cabbage, and therefore needn’t worry about butterflies ruining the cabbages.

I find this short story quite good, as it made me think, and also made me see the world from another perspective. Never before had I thought badly of butterflies. My view on them was the same as the teacher’s. And in addition I think I can understand poor people better. Not that they were poor in life though. They seemed happy, although they had to struggle.


The analysis is a good one because it is written in a way that highlights the writers perspective on the story. The analysis makes it easy to see why she thinks as she does when she analyzed it.

There is also a great structure to the analysis, and it contains all the points you need in an analysis.

I can learn much from this, because its a good analysis with all the points and structure it should contain, and I have never written an analysis before.
-Espen 


8 kommentarer:

  1. Sorry about the bottom line guys, could not change it :/

    SvarSlett
  2. I viewed "Butterflies" differently from yours. And I think my understanding is far from what the author tries to convey in the story.. You are right when you said that a reader might not fully grasp the meaning at first reading it, especially the last lines.. Yes, a couple of times I reread that part.. quite confusing and the story is puzzling for me..My view is that I thought the child was an orphan since she lives with her parents...I thought also that the butterflies which the teacher is pertaining are the parents of the child...the theme for me is innocence and deception because the child in the story is innocent that she doesn't know that killing the butterflies are quite not a good act..the word "kill" is not so appropriate for a child to say..Aside from this the other characters (even the neighbor saying "she's fine" twice) seem to know something about the child's background (maybe about the child's parent)... is my analysis ok? or i'm really far beyond understanding
    the real meaning.

    SvarSlett
    Svar
    1. Well, everything can be right. So don't be so confused about the judgement.

      Slett
    2. In fact, this article does not need to go up to the national perspective to analyze, the little girl kills butterflies based on the farming habits of farmers who need to kill pests, and the teacher is based on the perspective of a highly educated romantic, essentially It is written that the differences in the concepts of people in two different life fields have little to do with the nation

      Slett
  3. Really informative post, it helped me to understand the story better and more in depth. So needed for my unoversity test!

    SvarSlett
  4. My thoughts; the family is not Maori, but from a Pacific Island community, and English is their second language. Not farmers, but a family like mine who enjoy gardening and control pests like white cabbage butterflies that destroy cabbages by laying their eggs on them.

    SvarSlett
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