"The Day of the Butterfly"

Imagine having one of your fellow classmates be diagnosed with a deadly disease. What if one of those classmates was an outcast? In the story “The day of the Butterfly” by Alice Munro a girl named Myra Sayla was diagnosed with leukemia, a deadly cancer, when she was only in 6th grade. The story is about how people’s feelings toward each other might change when something like this disease occurs. Myra, goes through a lot of troubles through this book.

Myra, who is the main character of the book always seems to be lonely. She is known for taking care of her little brother, Jimmy. Everyone thinks she’s an outcast and they don’t play with her. Their opinions might change when they find out that Myra is diagnosed with Leukemia. This often happens. People usually don’t notice something until it’s a life or death situation. This taught me that you shouldn’t look down on someone because you never know what’s going to happen in the future. This was also the case for Myra. Luckily, before the cancer, Myra found a friend while walking to school, Helen. Helen gave her the prize she found in her Cracker Jack which was a tin butterfly brooch. When I looked up the symbolism for a butterfly, It said that it was often used for a symbol of love and healing. This made sense to me because Myra was soon to get cancer. Helen was Myra’s only friend, but at least she had one.

Not only did Myra have one friend, but she was soon to get more. When Myra got cancer, her classmates opinions immediately changed when they found out. They all wanted to go visit her in the hospital and bring her presents. I, honestly would do the same, and I’m sure a lot of other people would too if they found out that someone they knew had cancer and had a chance of dying. This brought Myra to many friends and presents that she received. People finally acknowledged her. Even though she now had a lot of friends and presents and people who loved her, this wouldn’t last for long because Myra was soon to die. She would also not be able to take care of her little brother Jimmy anymore because Myra passed away that night.

This taught me that you should pay attention to the people who seem to not matter because something unfortunate might happen to them like it did to Myra, and they might need a friend to help them get through their situation. Even though Myra was an outcast, and had no friends throughout her whole life, it all caught up with her in the end.