The Butterfly

4 Pages 1047 Words

Everyone has something that they value let it be achievement, beauty, justice, or wealth. The late Manly Hall once said that "a man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world" because without standing for anything or having any values a man is lost within himself, so how can he function properly in the world. In " The Butterfly" by James Hanley, value plays a key role in the backdrop of the plot. The two main characters in this short story have different values which is why a conflict arises between them. In the world today, many people have differences and society as a whole needs to start accepting the differences in people and learn from them. The main characters have no similarities in what they value while Brother Timothy values the religious faith, Cassidy values aesthetics.
The way Brother Timothy puts his religious faith on such a high pedestal gives the reader the idea that he believes that "religion is the sole technique for the validating of values". Allen Tate, the author of this quotation, describes how strongly Brother Timothy feels about religion. In the very beginning of the story, the reader finds out that Brother Timothy obviously is a priest because as he " strode up and down the passage" his " cassock made a peculiar swishing noise" ( 1,1,1). Since this is so, the reader can infer that Brother Timothy dedicates his life to the Catholic church, and to do that it must be of great value to him. Beyond that, Brother Timothy also displays his value of religion when he tells Cassidy that because he misses mass that he has " no right to be happy or anything else" ( 2,13,1). The reader can infer from this quote that Brother Timothy believes so strongly about religion that he doesn’t even want Cassidy to be happy just because he misses one day of mass. Finally, the reader can conclude that Brother Timothy values the religious faith because of the way he punishes Cassidy at the end of the story. S...