Where Butterflies Wander

This theme of the novel argues that memories cannot be outrun and that some memories are meant to last a lifetime. The novel shows how memories of a lost object of love can be both painful and a consolation. In particular, it argues that avoiding the pain of memories can prevent healing in the present. The novel especially enables the consideration of memory and its effect on the present through the multiple character perspectives of the chapters and the reader’s intimacy with their inner feelings, including memories.

At the beginning of the novel, Marie and her family are in the midst of their grief, and everything seems to remind them of Bee. Penelope looks just like her sister, so when her family looks at her, they see Bee. That Penelope is both a living character and a ghostly reminder of Bee is emphasized by the novel’s presentation of her as living in an inner world of her own imagination. Just as her family sees past her to memories of her sister, she has largely retreated into a private world of isolation. The novel makes this implicit in the ways that Penelope’s inner monologue and perspective are so rarely shared with the others in her family, especially at the beginning of the novel.

The novel explores the unavoidability of memories through the character of Marie. It suggests that because Marie denies herself memories of Bee, she is filled with memories of her own past, despite wishing to avoid an emotional connection to the house. The past comes back the moment she steps into her grandfather’s old home. It is almost exactly as she remembers it, and it suddenly feels like no time has passed since she was there as a child: “It’s unbelievable to think how much time has passed, memory a trick able to distort minutes and years to what seems like only seconds and days” (12). Marie remembers things that her grandfather used to say and how he used to smell like tobacco. This is a link between Maria and Davina: Like Marie and her memories of the house, Davina’s heart is filled with memories of the cabin and growing up there with Rosalinda. Those early experiences shaped the person Davina has become, and everything she knows is contained within its walls. For Leo, Penelope, and Hannah, the most important memories are of the old family home. Unlike Marie, they do not have a prior connection to the New Hampshire property and so cannot replace their painful memories of their own home with alternative ones. For these characters, the move is an attempt to run away from painful memories: The novel bears this out as Marie comes to the same realization and the family will move back to the location of Bee’s life and death.

Davina’s life is also defined by memory, beginning with memories of escaping her father and eventually being taken in by Rosalinda when her mother died. Davina empathizes with Penelope’s desire to keep Bee’s memory alive and regularly thinks back to traumatic moments in her life, not wanting to forget anything important. Davina reminds herself of the day the truck exploded and the months of recovery afterward and asks herself, “What is life if not a collection of cherished memories?” (210). When the cabin burns down, many of the objects that connected Davina to her past are gone, and she is forced to start anew in a home she once lived in with her biological mother, replacing lost emotional connections with others. The novel suggests that Davina’s past and present come full circle, especially as Davina has the chance to reconnect with her own daughter in the house where she lived with her mother.

Fate refers to the idea that everything is predetermined and will unfold exactly as it is meant to. Fate can refer to divine plans or to a non-religious belief that the universe is unfolding in accordance with a set path. Chance, on the other hand, is the presumption that events occur due to luck or randomness and that there is no plan or “force” guiding the way lives unfold. Fate and chance are often presented as opposing ideas, but in Where Butterflies Wander, fate works alongside chance rather than opposing it. Small decisions create massive impacts, and sometimes people meet or interact in ways that are too conveniently timed to be coincidental. The first example of this is how Rosalinda saw Davina and her mother for the first time, only briefly, as they dashed into the forest. She believes that it was “providence, God’s hand on destiny” (2), and she believes this because she ended up being the one to take Davina in and raise her later on.

Seemingly minor occurrences, like the appearance of the butterfly when the family arrives, work alongside more significant moments, like when Brendon failed to supervise Bee in the pool or when the truck exploded and Davina became the only survivor. Davina used to reflect on that experience and wonder whether it was luck or fate, but believing that it was fate was impossible because it would have meant believing that losing her daughter was also fate. Davina eventually came to understand that she is lucky (or blessed) to be alive, but this took years of healing and reflection. Brendon, when he is striving to make amends, reflects on the idea of fate and chance, noting, “I’m starting to learn we have less control over things than we believe” (257). Sometimes, the novel shows, people are compelled to do things that come from a source so far deep within and from so far back in time that they have little say over whether they act or not. At other times, people can make conscious choices to change, like when Brendon decides to perform good deeds. The novel suggests that by engaging with ideas of fate and chance, the characters can consider their own agency and impact and embrace a proportionate sense of responsibility.

When events from the distant past come to play a part in the present, this further illustrates how fate or some underlying plan could be involved. The original house that Davina and her biological mother moved into becomes the new home she lives in, and Marie manages to locate Davina’s daughter. After years of believing that she would never see her again, Davina reunites with her daughter; all the heartache of the past weeks, and all of the loss she experienced, was worth it because it culminates in this one important act of kindness from Marie.