"Day of the Butterfly"

Envision being the outcast at your school only because of your little brother. Just because he wets himself at school, no one wants to talk to you. In the story “Day of the Butterfly,” by Alice Munro, it shows how one continuing problem can leave you with no friends. Alice Munro does accurately describes what is going on at school for Myra.

The author starts off this story by explaining the problems that Myra has at school. One of the main scenes is at recess when Myra and her brother sit by themselves and watch other kids play and have fun. The sit by themselves, because no one wants to play with them because they are the outsiders. My view of this story is that Myra is trying to help her brother by sending him home when he gets embarrassed. But he’s not the one feeling embarrassed, it’s Myra. In the middle of class her brother Jimmy will come in and makes her feel uncomfortable by saying that he wet his pants. Later in the story though Myra starts to talk to her teacher Ms. Darling and a girl named Helen. These characters are brought in the story, because they realize Myra sitting by herself all of the time.

But one day though Myra doesn’t show up to school, and some people start to realize where she is, after days gone. Even though the kids weren’t her friends, they still thought about her when she didn’t come to school. Further on comes her birthday and the class soon figures that it would be the right thing to go visit her, so that they could show her that they care for her. I thought that the student’s did a good job, and go visit Myra.

In addition I made a connection from the story’s “Day of the Butterfly” and “Speak.” The two stories include the fact that one consequence can change a lot of things that go on in your life. In “Day of the Butterfly” all of this commotion starts when Myra’s brother isn’t potty trained, and when he embarrasses Myra. In the story “Speak” Melinda loses her friends just because she went out to a party, and things changed.

The story shows what can happen to you if you are one of the outcasts in elementary school. It means that once you get to grade school things could stay the same. It also shows that if someone in your family is one of the outsiders, people will think that you are too. In the story “Day of the Butterfly” Alice Munro does a great job describing the struggles that Myra has in elementary school.