CRITICAL ANALYSIS
A cage of butterflies (1992) written by Brian Caswell is an engaging and provocative novel that appeals a younger generation through its ideas. The first concern is that scientific research could become corrupted by selfish motives and the second concern presented is the conflict between being selfless and following one's selfish desires . Caswell has conveyed these 2 concerns in the first 40 pages through fictional and language techniques.
the first issue was that scientific research could become corrupted by selfish motives. “i have no other choice. There is no time left.”let brady try to steal his thunder now. Let him just try. The world was his.” . In the above quotes, Caswell uses Larsen to show effective choice of diction and setting of tone.
The quote, “ i have no choice, there is no time left.” By Larsen is an example of a great choice of diction. By putting the word “i”, Caswell implicitly states that Larsen thinks of himself as a one man team.
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Even though Ricky has the ability to stop all this easily, he does not want to hurt larsen and instead wants to purley stop him if they get the chance, further proving his selfless personality. On the other hand, larsen is the yang, he is agressive and dominant. He believes that “this is MY project and these are MY subjects.” This contradicts the actual situation as it is blindingly obvious that larsen does in fact have a research team and does not work on his own “project” by himself and the statement that “these are my subjects”, show us that he believes that he possesses these babies, almost as if they are an object or a toy that he can play around with and experiment all he wants. This firmly sets the notion that larsen is after selfish