The Day Of The Butterfly By Alice Munro: Literary Analysis

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light” – Helen Keller. As we can comprehend from this quote, having a friend can be better than being alone. Everyone has a desire to have a friend and obtain that sense of belonging. The story, “The Day of the Butterfly” written by Alice Munro, tells the story of two 6th grade girls, Helen and Myra, who both have a desire to belong and have a friend. In the story, Myra is an immigrant who does not come from a very wealthy background. Thus, she is looked down on by her peers and becomes an outsider. Helen, in contrast, is more of a popular kid in her class, but she still fears of becoming an outsider herself. As we read the story, we can identify numerous similarities and differences between Myra and Helen including their …show more content…
For instance, in the story “Day of the Butterfly”, Helen expresses her desire to belong by stating, “I was the only one in the class who carried a lunch pail...the only one who had to wear rubber boots in the spring...I felt a little danger, on account of this” (Munro 36). As we can see from this, Helen has insecurity about being different. She feels a danger because she is the only one doing or wearing something that is different from the rest of the kids. We can comprehend that she feels this danger because she is different and wants to fit in, thus, she has a desire to belong. We can see Myra’s desire to belong in the story “Day of the Butterfly” when Helen describes Myra’s movements as “walking slowly, and now and then [she would] half turn around...wanting to walk with some important girl” (Munro 36). In other words, as Myra turns around, she secretly hopes that someone will walk with her. This movement describes Myra’s desire to have a friend and belong in with the rest of the kids. In the end, we can comprehend that both Helen and Myra indeed have a strong desire to