Please respond to the following prompt by posting a reply below.
Recall the short story "Butterflies" by Patricia Grace. In class it was argued that when the little girl shares her butterfly story in school, she undergoes an anagnorisis, which is a moment of awakening as to one's true situation or the transition from innocence to experience. Given this argument, first identify what it is that the little girl is "awakened" to; and second, describe a time in your own life when you experienced what could be called an anagnorisis or epiphany, be it large or small. Provide sensory detail and, of course, draw connections between the text and your own life. (Due 2/13)
Why do we study? Why do we read literatures? Not only observe the different life styles of the characters in story, but also learn how to think critically. That will be helpful for everyone to understand the world. The little girl of “Butterflies” is experiencing the moment about “thinking critically”. She is undergoing two different opinions about the creature---butterflies. The moment of her anagnorisis is to face the teacher’s perspective is different from her own experience. Which is correct? These kinds of moments happen a lot in our lives. The one most impressed me is two years ago I visited the UN building. There is a board on the first floor which is to remember the men of United Armed Forces who died in Korea war during 1950-1953. Around the board, there engraved the member countries’ names joined the war. I felt very shocked because I have never been taught that my country, China, had a flight with UN Armies. I tried my best to recall all the history I was taught at school. I was taught it was a war to protect China; a war to protest U.S.’s invasion, a war to help North Korea to set free. The teachers and textbooks never mentioned that China had a war with “UN Armed Forces”. If a country has a war with UN Armed Forces, it is obviously the country’s political opinion is entirely different from most countries’. Which one’s political opinion is correct? What caused the war? What is the consequence of the war? What is the people’s living condition after the war? When I went back, I googled all the facts confused me. I have my own idea about that.
ReplyDeleteSame as me, the girl will experience a lot after that. Some realities are not beautiful or just have a unique answer like “yes or no”. It is a beginning that lets her to learn “thinking critically”. She will find her answer some day. We all grow up like that way.
The little girl in the butterflies story got an awakening on how people had different opinions and perspectives on a topic and that something that she had believed in for a long time may, afterall, not be true.
ReplyDeletei was able to relate to this story because i am from Nigeria, a country in west Africa and we have so many beliefs that i had to change when i came to the united states. one of which was that God hated gays and lesbians. I strongly believed this but after i heard from some gays that they had no power over the way they felt, i came to believe that God loves everyone unconditionally and if he didn't like what they were doing, he would deal with the situation himself. i have no right judging anyone on thei lifestyle choices. so many people in Nigeria still beleieve that God hates them. they even go as far as burning them sometimes because they believe thay are a bad influence on society.
I still cannot tell my parents how i feel because they will be so disappointed and think America is bad for me and that i am changing into someone they don't know anymore.
This is my contribution.
PEACE OMOIKE
The little girl in story butterflies is awaken by the diffrent views of butterflies from her teachers verses her grand parents. The little girl while being raised by her grandparents was always taught to kill the butterflies because they will destroy the cabbage crops. The grandchild is now told to go to school listen to what her teacher says. Now,the little girls teacher explains to her that butterflies are beautiful creatures and not to kill them. The little girl has now experienced a anagnorisis moment that butterflies also,have a meaning full purpose.
ReplyDeleteContinuation :As a child I was always told by my teachers that everyone is your friend. My mom always told me that in life you will only have a hand full of friends. Although,in grade school I had friends like my teacher always told me I would have. Just like in the story "Butterflies" the little girl listened to her teacher but, did not understand why she likes butterflies so much and did not want to kill them. My experience was very similar.When I enetered Junior high school one of my close friends stopped being my friend and started to be friends with the new girl in school. I could not understand it. My teacher always told me I would have friends but, my mom told me different and I was able to see what she was telling me all along.
ReplyDeleteAs a young child we are taught to respect your elders and obey their beliefs. It is believed that older folks are wise and they can teach us proper upbringing and morals. As for the granddaughter in the story butterflies, she is a product of this understanding. Therefore, her grandparents told her what to do when she go to school and all the things she learned in her environment at home. Its understandable that her innocence of what she thought she knew about butterflies, and how they effect their crops was what she rightfully would confine in. However her, grandparents belief didn't equally explained to the fullest as much as her teacher reasons for butterflies death did. So now her different perspectives of butterflies has become an anagnorisis moment. When I was younger my god mother was a person who believed good was always on your side as long as you work hard and do the right thing and become successful. However this wasn't the case for my god mother, she work hard all her life and became a chairmen board committee at her school , she always did the right thing, became very successful ,and earned a lot of money and power. One day she herd she was diagnose with leukemia, she became so sick to the point where she lost her job and a lot of her money was used to take care of her health issue until she passed away, rest in peace. However at that moment I realized their are plenty of people who work hard and do the right thing and yet bad things is possible regardless of how much money or success you have gain. That was my moment as a young child that I experienced anagnoris moment.
ReplyDeleteWhen children are young you try to keep their innocence as long as possible; so you let them believe in things such as Santa Clause and the tooth fairy. The little girl’s conversation with her grandparents about killing butterflies may have resulted in a piece of her innocence being taken away. I think the little girl was awakened to the fact life isn’t all about sunny days and blue skies. Her teacher I think was trying to make life seem that way but her grandparents couldn’t allow her to think or see life one way. Life has struggles and you have to deal with reality and not live with your head in the clouds. It’s good for a child to be innocent after all they are children. They shouldn’t have to carry the worries and woes of adults but they also shouldn’t be ignorant and led to believe things that are not true. People should be as truthful as they can with children because it’s only going to help them in the long run. My moment of anagnorisis was when I was younger I used to think that everyone was like me. When I say this I mean I thought everyone was nice, friendly, morally righteous, upstanding people. How naïve was I? I knew there were bad people in the world but I hadn’t ever really encountered that type of behavior. Lucky me! I really didn’t start experiencing some people’s twisted ways until I was much older in my high school and early college years. I always tried my best to stay away from any type of drama and confrontation because I am a passive aggressive person and I almost always got along with everyone. My mom and my close friends always told me “not everyone is your friend”, but of course I had to find out for myself. So in my sophomore year of college I met this girl and we became friends. As we started to build more of a friendship I started to see her treat me differently. She used to say slick and rude comments to me, she used to try to compete with me in the grades we got in class and she was manipulative and a phony person. I quickly learned that this girl did not wish me well and she felt that she could say things to belittle me so that she could build her own self esteem. She was the first person that I did NOT like in my life. Thankfully we are no longer friends and I listened to what the genuine people around me had to say, stopped being naïve and got rid of someone who tried to bring negativity in my life. Similar to the little girl people’s responses changed my perspective on things and I was brought back to the reality that there are people in the world with bad intentions.
ReplyDeleteThe grand daughter in the story “Butterflies” is made aware by her teacher that butterflies are beautiful creatures that shouldn’t have any harm done to them and also at the same time is told by her grandparents that they are not as beautiful as her teacher made them out to be. With this new understanding towards butterflies the grand daughter is now aware that perhaps not everyone shares the same views on the value of hard work in terms of things like food and how it is obtained.
ReplyDeleteAn epiphany that I experienced was when I was little was learning all about mixing colors. One day I came home and my parents bought me 3 tubes of paint which were the primary colors yellow, blue, and red. I remember I was initially upset because I was very much used to using every color in the rainbow because it’s what was just given to me (pre made colors) in class. However they sat me down and explained to me that from these colors a whole array of others can be created by combing varies amounts of either of the three. From that day I gained a new understanding of art that part of making art is the amount of work you put into it, in this case it was through the colors created.
This situation could connect to the Butterflies story in the sense that the idea of working hard and achieving things through your own means instead of by others. Her grandparents were trying to teach the granddaughter that things don’t fall form the sky but are produced through hard work. This could be inferred because the grandfather mentions to his granddaughter “Your teacher, she buy all her cabbages from the supermarket” initiating that the teacher doesn’t put in the work to produce her own food to eat.
The girl in the "Butterflies" story is awakened from the traditional family teaching (grandparents) to a institutional teaching (teacher). Only lessons she has received so far is from her grandparents who taught her to listen and obey all the time to the teacher. When she wrote the poem she expressed what she knew and what her grandparents have told her about butterflies. She did not know that the butterflies where "beautiful creatures", she only knew that she needed to kill them to protect the cabbages. By listening to her teacher she realized that there is another world outside her home where people think and live differently.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal experience I have pass for a similar situation. I came from my country when I was 15 years old. I used to have a very different life over there; different culture, customs, language, people, ideas, etc. People lived more traditionally and valued more the family. I used to know my neighbors, have a lot of friends and spend more time with the family. But when I came here, my life changed completely, everything was knew for me. I moved from a small town to a big city where people are completely strangers. There was not more friends or close neighbors to talk to. By that time I realized that there was a different world outside my home town where people live, think and behave differently. A place where you can meet people from all over the world. Exchange opinions and learn from different cultures besides mine own.
Looking over the story it seems as if the granddaughter had disciplianry problems because she was always being told to listen to the teacher, come straight home.. She was asked questions about her day. Did you write in your book did the teacher like your work. The grandfather when he introduced her to the neighbor said how she know lives with them and in turn also saying go to school and listen to the teacher from the grandfather and grandmother constantly. But the neighbor from how the grandfather introduced her said like three times"she's fine". I took it as the neigbor was telling the grandfather to loosen up a bit on the granddaughter. The way the granddaughter spoke on butterflies gave me feelings that she was emotionally unhappy because she said she killed the butterflies and butterflies are suppose to be considered beautiful creatures that help bring beauty to the earth by visiting the flowers. So when the granddaughter read her story to the grandparents they was clueless to why the grandaughter felt this way about the butterflies.. So the grandfather says the teacher buys her cabbage from the supermarket thats why.. I took it as the grandfather felt that the teacher didnt have a garden and didnt know the true beauty of the process of growing the cabbage perhaps??
ReplyDeleteThe granddaughter in the story "Butterflies" is going through a phase in her life, where she will learn about the world through the opinions, beliefs and knowledge of people other than her immediate family or whomever she closely associates with. Her teacher has open her eyes to actually consider butterflies more than just creatures that need to be disposed of to save crops. The granddaughter now has an opinion that butterflies are also beautiful creatures that compliment nature itself and should not be tampered with in such a violent manner. As for myself, I recall a moment when I learned through experience outside from what my parents have taught me. This may have very small significance, but I remember when I was in elementary school, my parents would always encourage me to stay ahead in school by learning more than what is being taught in school. My father would teach me how to solve these advanced problems a certain way, and thoroughly. But when school caught up with what I was taught, I was shown other methods and even shortcuts to these kind problems I did at home previously. I relate this to the granddaughter because like her, I too was taught something in school that I had no clue about. I was fixed on there being only one method to solve a problem, but now I know there can be many views on a certain thing.
ReplyDeleteThe grandchild is awakened to finding herself and her place in society. This is a conflict of man verses society. She will experience different stages of growth in her life until she finds out who she really is on the inside and even then, she will still be growing. The grandchild is now becoming aware of the fact that her world she lives in is no longer the same, as she once viewed it. She was probably taught by her grandparents that butterflies and other insects are harmful to the cabbage, now her teacher tells her differently. In society she will have opinions that are opposite of the values taught to her by her grandparents. The values she once thought of, as truth is now in question, leaving her confused.
ReplyDeleteThere is some truth to “with age comes wisdom” (unknown). I migrated to the United States from a small country in Central America. There were minute cultural differences in my country, but nothing compared to the transformation that I experienced living in the United States. I was at war with my values and upbringing. I can remember a time in my life when I was frustrated and confused with the prospect of finding “The Right Job.” I thought at one point there was something wrong with me. It came to the point where I purchased several “How to Books”, on how to write a better resume and how to find the perfect job. Other people experiences. None of these books was helpful. They were just creating a false image of whom I really am. Even though I was confused and frustrated, who I really am was already formed on the inside, through my family values. No number of “HOW TO BOOKS” would have changed who I am.
At some point of time we all undergo a state of anagnorisis whether it’s in the work place, school or even our personal lives. In the short story the “Butterflies” by Patricia Grace, the little girl is awakened to a situation where she is in a state of confusion by the perspective of both her grandparents and the teacher. She didn’t know whether or not killing the butterflies was right or wrong when her teacher stated “You don’t kill butterflies.” When she told her grandparents she noticed that her grandfather was upset. Is it really wrong to kill butterflies? How come we grow our cabbage while the teacher buys hers? Why is grandfather so upset when he told me to listen to my teacher? These are probably some of the questions the little girl was thinking.
ReplyDeleteRelating to the granddaughter I too have experienced anagnorisis. I was awakened by a strong emotion called love. Growing up my mother taught me that love was an unconditional feeling you have for someone. She taught me that when you love someone you would never want to hurt them and if the feelings are mutual they wouldn’t want to hurt you either. She said “love isn’t supposed to hurt.” When I started dating in the 11th grade I had experience my first state of puppy love. I was dating a guy who I thought would be my high school sweetheart forever. We were inseparable, until he said “I love you but I’m dating someone else.” I was devastated and hurt and all I could think about is my mother telling me that love isn’t supposed to hurt. So why was I hurt? I was sad for a couple of days and my father asked me why. We sat down and talked it over and he told me sometimes love hurts. After the talk with my father I was no longer just heartbroken but confused. My mother told me that love isn’t supposed to hurt; meanwhile my father told me sometimes love hurts. Who was right and who was wrong?
The connection between the granddaughter and I is the state of confusion. We both are in a predicament where we question the perspective of people we look up to. I believe when we experience a state of awakening it is not to choice a side but to sometimes determine our own perspective using both point of view. Who is to say the teacher and my mother was right versus my father and the little girl’s grandparents?
In “Butterflies” a short story written by Patricia Grace a little girl whom is nameless undergoes a moment of awakening. The little girl learns that there are other beliefs, opinions and perspectives people have depending on their own personal experiences, and culture. Her grandparents view butterflies as crop killers, as did she until her teacher spoke to her negatively about the dead butterflies she had in her book. Her teacher explained that they are beautiful creatures that lay eggs, and visit pretty flowers. The teachers view point on butterflies is that they are peaceful and harmless creatures while the grandparents see them as the opposite. This allows the little girl to have an epiphany in which she now understands that people view things differently depending to how things affect their lives. When reading this short story I had recalled on a past experience that happened when I was younger. When I went to my cousins farm in Europe she made a big deal about having to go water the vegetables out in the field, and if she missed doing it the crops would eventually die and their wouldn’t be as many. I would always think to myself well if they died she could easily go buy at the market. While reading “Butterflies” when the grandfather stated the teacher buys her cabbage at the market I remembered that experience with my cousin. Now I understand why taking care of the crops was more important to her than it was to me. We both grew up differently were I could easily get access to all kinds of vegetables at the market, while my cousin and her family would have to grow crops in order to have vegetables. Just like in “Butterflies” the little girl became exposed to a new view point on butterflies while I did with vegetables.
ReplyDeleteThe little in the story was raised with the teachings of her grandparents. This generation gap may have resulted in the major different ideas and values from the mainstream world. She was awakened to the way the world viewed butterflies. She always killed the butterflies because that was her job. She knew that if she left them alive they would harm her grandparents’ cabbage patch that may have been their main source of food, nutrition, and money. Yet according to her teacher, she was discouraged from killing them because the accepted societal view of butterflies was to view them only as beautiful creatures that fly around, lay eggs and then die on their own. Everyone who comes of age and interacts with other people outside of their family life has gone through that moment of “awakening”. My “awakening” moment has to be when I was in kindergarten. I was playing with a credit card and I really didn’t know what it was or what it did. I just knew that it was my mother’s. I loved playing and bending the credit card all the time not thinking anything of it. One day my uncle who is only a few years older than me told me that if I touched the black line of the credit card the cops would come to the house and take me to jail. From that moment on I was terrified of playing with the card because I knew I didn’t want to go to jail. One day I made a mistake and touched the black line. I started to cry because I thought I was doomed to go to jail. My mother ran into the room because she thought something terrible happened to me the way I was crying. When I explained to her that “I made a mistake and touched the black line of the credit card and that I was scared to go to jail” she started to chuckle. I was so confused because I was like this is a big moment of my life and my mother was laughing at me. She took the card and did more than just touch the black line. She rubbed it, plucked it, and grabbed it. At that moment my heart was pumping out of my chest because I thought to myself that both of us were going to go to jail now. But she did that to show me that nothing bad was going to happen and that the cops were definitely not going to come to take me away. I realized that my uncle was just playing a prank on me and now I know the true purpose of a credit card. When I tell him this story he still doesn’t remember telling me that, but I guess since it was so traumatic to me, it is etched into my memory.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “Butterflies” the little girl or granddaughter we are introduced to experiences a moment of conflict, like most main characters do. However in this situation the granddaughter is faced with the conflict between perceptions. We, as readers learn that the granddaughter wrote a story about killing butterflies. The teacher’s response to her story was that killing butterflies was wrong, with the addition of an explanation of how they are beautiful creatures. Also, though it was not stated, we are forced to infer that the grandparents (whom happen to grow their own crops) taught the little girl that killing butterflies is right. Though the grandparents told the little girl repeatedly to listen to the teacher, they themselves end up disagreeing with the teacher’s response. This conflict of perceptions creates an anagnorisis. In this epiphany granddaughter realizes that because her grandparents and her teacher come from two different lifestyles, their values, opinions and knowledge of what is right and wrong differ as well. I was able to connect the granddaughters experience in “Butterflies” to my own. In my experience the confliction between perceptions happen to be between my own parents. Though happily married for 30 years now, they are in fact total opposites. My father solves problems using his brain, while my mother uses her heart. As an adolescent, throughout my school years I would always seek advice. When I went to my father I was told to think logically, in terms of consequences and what option would better me in terms of success and accomplishment. My mother for the same issues would tell me to go with what I think was right, what made me happy and what would better not only me but those around me. Eventually I realized that the best way to solve my issues was to think both logically and emotionally and that I no longer had to follow only one perception or opinion. Though we are left in suspense of how the granddaughter reacts to her epiphany in “Butterflies” I hope she learns as I did, and determines her on perception of right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe little girl in "Butterflies" by Patricia Grace is awakened to her real life situation. This came as a result of a difference in opinion about the value of butterflies between her and her teacher. While the little girl proudly enjoyed killing butterflies, probably because it meant her family would get a better yield of crops, her teacher was against killing butterflies, beautiful and gentle creatures. In a way one could say the little girl got the shock of her life and might have been in a state of confusion and wonder for a while till she told the story to her grandparents who opened up her eye's.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, growing up, I was always taught to greet elderly men by prostrating as a show of respect and acknowledgement of their wisdom shown by the grey hair. So like the little girl, I was greatly shocked and confused when one day, prostrating in greeting before an elderly teacher at my new school, he stopped me and said it was embarrassing not only for him but me too. After his explanation of the situation, I was awakened to the fact that world views are indeed vast and people may have different backgrounds, culture and situations. However, I still prostrate in greeting whenever I visit the ancestral village, an indication of the experience I've acquired in dealing with different situations.
Emmanuel O.
The little girl from the short story “Butterflies” was awakened to a different perspective of viewing butterflies. She thought butterflies were bad and should be killed because they destroyed her grandparent’s cabbages, but her teacher told her that butterflies are beautiful creatures who are here for a short time and then they die after laying their eggs. Even though she was just a little girl, there must have been a battle going on in her mind. Perhaps she was ruminating on what she learned from her teacher. Should she agree with her teacher, or support her grandparent’s perspective of butterflies. After all, her grandparents did tell her that she must do what the teacher says.
ReplyDeleteIn life we are bound to have a few vacillate moments. Whether at a young age, or at a later point in our lives, we all come across situations where we are exposed to different views and opinions other than what we are accustomed to or acquainted with. Sometimes we have to reason within ourselves by weighing the pros and cons in order to come to resolution. As a young girl, in my early teenage years, I used to have this notion about what an ideal “love” relationship should be like. That conception involved two people being “head over heels” in love with each other. However, my mom used to tell me that it’s not wise to be too crazy in love with someone. That in a sense you become a slave to that person because your control over your emotions become vulnerable to disappointments. She said that life was full of surprises and you cannot guarantee that, that person wouldn’t hurt you. I thought to myself, if the feeling (being crazy in love) is reciprocated then why not? A few years later, during my late teenage years, one of my close relative got married. At that time she was 21 and her husband was 23, but they were both mature individuals. It was quite obvious that they were deeply in love with each other. I admired the love they shared, it was remarkable. They both decided that they wanted to start a family. So, eighteen months later they had their first child. Two years into the marriage, my cousin discovered that her husband had cheated on her during her pregnancy. Devastated as she was, she forgave him only to realize a few months later that he did it again. She learned that his father had cheated on his mom several times throughout the course of their marriage. Even though her husband loved her, it was obvious that he needed professional help. She decided to stay with him despite the possibility he might do it again. She said she couldn’t imagine her life without him and did not think that she could exist if he was not a part of it. At that time after learning about the situation, I remembered thinking after all, my mom might have been right about being a slave to love, to be so blinded by love that you give up your dignity and neglect your own self. A typical example of how being so crazy in love can hinder your judgment in deciding to walk away from an unhealthy relationship. Now, years later having been able to observe a couple other situations, it has certainly broaden my perspective pertaining to that notion I once had as a naive teenager. I am still a hopeless romantic, but I know that you should not rule out the possibility for disappointments, nor distort realities.
Sometimes we have to reason within ourselves by weighing the pros and cons in order to come to *a* resolution.
ReplyDeleteI think the girl gets awaken to the fact that her teachers perpestective about butterflies conflicts with her grandfather's. Because of this she gets confuse of which is right. I think this is a case of expericene vs. intelligence,the grandfather has the experice of working in the farm and having butterflies eat carbage while the teacher has the intelligents of buttterflies been a very beautiful creature that doesn't deserve to be killed as the grandfather says. When I was a kid,in my neighbourhood there use to be a masquerade parade every 24th december with some high school kids dressed as monsters,my mom usually tells me if I misbehave on that day or day before she was gonna allow the monsters to take me with them. So I usually ran into my room if I happen to hear them druming and singing.One day as I was hiding in my room I looked through the window and saw my dad giving them money,I was shock because I thought my dad loved me and beside i do not misbehave on those two days,When we moved from the neighbourhood 3 years after.I asked him why was he paying those monsters? he told me my cousin was part of them and they usually go around scaring bad kids and raising fund for their school.
ReplyDeleteButterflies by Patricia Grace
ReplyDeleteThe little girl is awakened to a new reality regarding butterflies. Through her teacher she learned that butterflies are not dangerous insects you kill because they destroys cabbage crops, but are also wonderful creatures that fly around in the sunlight, bringing beauty and happiness to flowers and humans alike.
I grew up in Grenada, where it is considered a blessing to have a relative in the United States. Money, gifts, food and clothing arrive yearly for families, including mine, who cannot afford to purchase these items on their own. The myth: “my relative in the U.S. is rich”. So we keep asking and they keep sending. My thinking changed dramatically when I came to the U.S. and realized first hand how hard my mother worked to provide for us back home. I stopped, and realized I had to educate my family in Grenada quickly so they understood how much labor of love goes into the things we so happily received from mom.
The little girl in butterflies and myself, share a common awareness that things in life can have different meanings once you experience them first hand. Life’s journey teaches us that Cultural difference exists all around the world.
In a short story "Butterflies" the little girl was put on to a confused mode, where she has to make a decision over different perspective of different culture. At first, she was taught by her grandparents to kill those butterflies so it won’t harm their crops and cabbages because it was their main source of income. On the other hand when the teacher realizes the girl’s story of killing butterflies, she was absolutely shocked and right away threw a comment without even questioning what is the reason behind it? “You don’t kill butterflies because they are beautiful creatures, and they don’t harm you.” That was the moment when the little girl goes under anagnorisis; she wasn’t able to make an argument with the teacher because of her innocence and right from that moment she experiences that not every society or an individual have same perspective over same things. I think it was just a matter of a cultural belief that she was taught right from first vs. the modern changing society, which created the conflict and sort of confusion in girl’s mind. Every one in his/her life experiences some type of situation where they realize something has gone wrong and which has awakened them, similarly I have also gone through an awakening moment in my life. When I was 10 my mom gave me the news that “we will be shifting to United States permanently in 6-8 days so say good buy to all your friends”. After hearing this I was really excited and filled with joy because I have heard a lot about America since my childhood and I really wanted to experience a new place that I have not seen ever. All of my friends were upset to loose me but I was the one who dint even cared about them at that moment. It was just the feelings of luxuries and amusements to reach United States without any interruption and disturbance. Once I was arrived in US, I realized it was totally different from where I was grown and raised. As the days were passing, I started to feel sort of uncomfortable because there was no one to communicate in same language like I use to with my friends back home, no one was there to hangout and play around, and no one was there to help me out, like friends used to. Every day and night I use to feel upset because I kept imagining those sweet memories of my past life with friends and family back home. From that day I realized that life is not always the same as you expect, it keeps changing with time and place and from that moment I decided to move on and start a new life with new friends.
ReplyDeleteIn “Butterflies” the little girl is awakened to reality where she has to come to her own conclusion about butterflies. The little girl had to choose between what she experienced and what her teacher said because her parents told her to listen to her teacher.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Jamaica West Indies I thought of American as “The place where things are happening.” On television you saw the beautiful houses, the awesome schools with lockers, and kids always had fun and looked happy. It was more than a land of opportunity but heaven, in my mind. When I came to America to live I was disappointed because it wasn’t the life television showed me. The houses weren’t all big and only some were beautiful, the schools didn’t have lockers and was in no way awesome and the kids were vicious only a few were happy and those were the kids who got picked on. Experience changed my mind. What I was told to believe by the media was not so in real life.
In the short story “Butterflies” the little girl awakened to the fact that not everyone feels the same way for butterflies as her grandparents do. Her teacher shows compassion for butterflies and describes them as beautiful, contrary to what she was led to believe by her grandparents.
ReplyDeleteAn example of anagnorisis or epiphany in my own life would be my faith or religion. I was never deeply religious but I was raised my entire life as a Christian, I always believed in God and Jesus and other biblical deities. I never gave religion a second thought. This can be compared to the little girl in butterflies who was always taught (either explicitly or by example from her grandparents) to kill butterflies, she didn’t know any better and neither did I. But as I got on into my teen years I got more and more exposed to this world and how everything works in it, including people. I hadn’t really thought about religion much during this time, I just prayed to God whenever I got into trouble and needed help. With this growing knowledge of the world and the things in it started to open my eyes more and more, I began to realize that just because I don’t understand how most of the world works that’s doesn’t mean that some all-powerful creator is the answer behind it. I stepped out of my naivety into the present reality. This was a big change in my life, and it made me realize that maybe a lot of things aren’t what I think they are or what I was taught it to be and I began to look at everything differently. This is much like how in the story the little girl’s reality changed, she once believed one thing but began to think about the other as a possibility also.
The story of the butterflies, shows that as parents or grandparent we are the first teacher in a child’s life. We can only hope that it positively affects them in one way or another. As a teacher for the upcoming children in our society, book smarts is not all that is needed but street smarts as well. The teacher in the story was smart in the book tense, but when it comes to street smart she clearly lacks. The grandfather knew all it took to grow cabbages because he did that for a living but the teacher didn’t know anything since she bought her cabbages at the supermarket. To people who grew the cabbages and other crops, caterpillars which are the first stage of a butterfly’s life they eat the crops to survive and are considered a pest for damaging the crops. By killing the caterpillars, it was like killing butterflies. The grandparents were surprise that the child was aware about the caterpillars and why she had to kill the butterflies. As a parent I can only hope that that I’m a good a parent as my parent were to me. I can only hope that my daughter can see beyond the city life and show some appreciation for nature and life as I did because I too was raise in the city but yet I grow an appreciation for life. We are a product of our environment and we acquire tools for survival.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story "Butterflies" by Patricia Grace the granddaughter undergoes a moment of confusion. She is confused because she has been exposed to someone that has a different way of life and a different interpretation of things. Like the butterflies, the granddaughter has been taught by her grandpparents to kill butterflies because as farmers it harms their crops, but when she goes to school and writes about the killing of the butterflies her teacher gets a little upset. She tells the granddaughter that butterflies are not meant to be killed and that they are beautiful creatures and that is where the confusion comes in. The daughter was told to always listen to the teacher and that the teacher is always "right", but it goes against what her grandparents have been teaching her.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to this story because I too have undergone an anagnorisis. Being raised in the south I was taught that when there is a funeral you must wear all black. When I moved to New York I made a couple of Indian friends and one of them had invited me to their dad's funeral. I went to the funeral wearing all black, when I got there I was so embarrassed. Everyone was wearing all white. I was so confused. I couldnt understand why everyone was wearing all white, and everyone at the funeral was probably thinking the same thing about me. I asked my friend and he told me that in Indian culture to celebrate the dead you wear all white. This relates to the granddaughter in "Butterflies" because we both had a sitiuation in which we both were exposed to a different way of doing things. We were both exposed to people with different cultures and different lifestyles.
The short story Butterflies, the main character is exposed to conflicting ideas from her elders, probably for the first time. She is told by her guardians, which are her grandparents, to listen to the teacher and do what the teacher says at school. However, when she gets home from school, her grandmother basically tells her that the teacher is wrong about the butterflies and how you can’t kill them. I don’t think this type of situation really is taking any of her innocence away, it’s more like she’s now being exposed to different opinions and walks of life, getting an understanding on the different types of people and their perspectives. This type of experience will help her in forming her own opinions about things. The story is rather short and of course doesn’t provide much detail about what happens after but a good possibility is that she definitely learns how to think critically and problem solve to have her own opinion.
ReplyDeleteA profound moment for me or possibly an epiphany would be when I was around 15 years old. Two years earlier my mom kicked my father out of the house. They basically stayed together that long "for the kids". My brother and I cried like babies and we didn't want to see our father go. My father broke down as well. However, when I was 15 )he had come back again), my mother did it again and I didn't fight it; neither did my brother. We both realized our parents do not belong together and even if our father doesn't live with us, he would most definitely still be in our lives. I knew both my parents loved me, they just didn't love each other. Every kid from a divorced family would want their parents to stay together but sometimes you just have to let go and realize what is right in front of you. It doesn't really relate to the story in a literal way, I feel like the story is much simpler but at the same time, I was young and just like the girl in the story, had to see things from different perspectives and make my own thought about it and what I was going to do with this new point of view. It's very easy to get caught up and confused with everything adults tell you when you're young but you know you're growing up when you take a step back, gather all the information and decide for yourself what you're going to do with it.
My thought on the reading of butterflies
ReplyDeleteAs children we are raised on our parents or grandparents values or belief. It’s not until we go to school and start interacting with other students we realize that some of the beliefs that we were thought are wrong, inaccurate or exaggerated. For example, the granddaughter has been raised with the belief that butterflies are no good. They are harmful to the crops and vegetables so if you see them you must kill them. However, her grandfather never thought her about the beauty and joy such a creature brings. We go through this same situation on a daily basis, at work at school or in the streets. We already have a pre-conceived notion about people or things weather it’s good or bad. Majority of the time these notions are brought on by rumor or propaganda. As the granddaughter continues to go to school and educate herself she will start to live and experience life through her eyes not anyone else.
Jose Desilva
in the story "butterflies" the granddaughter acknowledged that butterflies are living creatures that are not perticularly damage the cabbage. Though,she was taught by her grandparents that butterflies destroy the cabbage and she was highly adhered to that due to the she had received by her grandparents. But when she had an opportunity to go to school, she acquired new knowledge about the butterflies and that changed her perspectives in dealing with innocent butterflies. By listening to her teacher, she developed a new mental representation about the butterflies and she accomodated that butterflies should not be killed for the cabbage. By and large, she gained a new knowledge surrounding the butterflies and the cabbage.Therefore, the story tells us that we can learn from others'culture as much as we can adapt to their system.
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