Butterflies Symbolism

“Butterflies” by Roger Dean Kiser, is a literary non-fiction piece about Roger as a young boy in an orphanage who likes to play with the butterflies that land on him. One day he tries to save some butterflies that were pinned to a sheet of cardboard by his house parent. Despite his efforts the butterflies die. From that day on he never allowed another butterfly to land on him as he could not bear to see them die. Roger Dean Kiser expertly describes his childhood in a way that allows the reader to immerse themselves into the story yet does not give it an over the top plot line that would ever suggest that this is a fictional piece. He is vague about the dates when the story occurred and this helps prove that this is a nonfiction piece because not many people remember specific dates from their childhood. “I guess that would have been when I was about six or seven years old,” (Kiser 1). The imagery in “Butterflies” helps the piece flow very smoothly and not sound like an essay stating fact after fact. It tells about Roger’s past in a creative and and exciting way that hooks the reader and lets the reader understand what Roger would have been feeling at the time the story took place.

The butterflies symbolize how trapped Roger felt as a child in the orphanage. It was like he was the one pinned to the cardboard sheet, trying so desperately to free himself. The broken pieces of butterflies can also be related to his life at the orphanage. No matter how hard he tries to piece his life together, the orphanage still breaks him and he will always be haunted by his childhood. “I picked up the torn wing and the butterfly and I spat on it’s wing and tried to get it to stick back on so it could fly away and be free before the house parent came back. But it would not stay on him” (Kiser