Flight Behavior

Content Warning: The novel and this guide contain discussions of child death/miscarriage, alcohol addiction, and suicide.

The protagonist of the novel, Dellarobia Turnbow, is trapped in a loveless marriage to a husband she doesn’t respect, and her in-laws have never accepted her into their family. She married Cub Turnbow at age 17 when she became pregnant; however, she miscarried months later. Eleven years on, the book begins with Dellarobia climbing up the path to the family’s farmland to have an affair only to see a valley and forest full of butterflies. This vision opens the door to a new life for Dellarobia: a life where she can fully recognize her abilities and dreams, though at a cost that she ultimately deems worth the pain.

The advent of the butterflies and the mystery of why they have interrupted their usual flight behavior to end up roosting on the Turnbows’ land in rural Tennessee anticipates the realization that Dellarobia arrives at by the end of the novel: A species’ true nature, while at times confused by changes in its surrounding environment, never wavers. For 11 years, Dellarobia has smothered her natural inklings, motivations, and personality to fit a mold that is the

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