Day of a Butterfly

Do you know how it feels to be left out once in a while? People talking, and you’re just sitting on the side being ignored. Well, that’s what Myra Sayla faces every day at her school. That is until Myra gets leukemia and makes a friend. In the short story “The Day of The Butterfly” by Alice Munrow the purpose of the story, Helen, and Myra all play a huge part in the story.

First of all the purpose playes a significant part in this short story. The purpose of this story is that every cloud has a silver lining. Even though Myra had no friends and leukemia she didn’t give up and eventually made one friend named Helen. A lot of people in Myra’s grade didn’t even know that she existed. On page 234 the narrator says “I do not remember when Myra Sayla came to town, though she must have been in our class two or three years.” The narrator didn’t even know when Myra came to their school, so nobody really paid attention to her. She was in desperate need of a friend and in the end Helen provided the support she need to get through her cancer.

Helen, provides support for Myra when she gets cancer, but she also strays from her crowd of friends and gives Myra a chance to become her friend. The first time that Helen even gave Myra a chance to talk to her was a day before Myra stopped coming to school. Helen hesitated before going to talk to Myra. Helen said “I had often loitered in that way, wanting to walk with some important who was behind me, and not quite daring to stop and wait.” Because of Myra’s reputation and because Helen didn’t want to be seen with her. Helen hesitated and finally went over to Myra and it paid off. They became friends. Helen is also the narrator in the story. Everything in the story is heard from Helen's point of view, including her thoughts on Myra.

When Helen and Myra became friends their friendship benefited Myra the most because she didn’t have a friend and she needed one. At first when Helen told her to wait, Myra didn’t trust Helen when she told her to wait so she could walk with her. When Myra hesitantly stopped to wait for Helen, Helen thought “perhaps she thought I was playing a trick on her, perhaps she expected me to run past her and throw an empty cracker jack box at her.” When she developed cancer she couldn’t tell anyone and when she was probably going to tell Helen about it the next day she had to stay in the hospital. In the end, when Myra was in the hospital her class at school threw her a birthday party. She was overwhelmed when she got so many presents, and asked Helen to take some. She had an amazing friendship with Helen and she trusted her even though they hadn’t known each other for long.

Some considerable aspects this short story are Myra, Helen, and the purpose of the story. Myra never gave up and eventually made a much needed friend. The name Myra is a name from a Latin word meaning extraordinary. Myra is really extraordinary, she is definitely not an average person like everyone else. She has her own personality and when Helen realizes how great of a person Myra is they become friends.