Helen's Guilt

At the end of “A Day of A Butterfly” Helen is met with this sudden feeling of betrayal upon being offered one of Myra’s gifts. This sudden guilty feeling is brought by the realization of how dark the situation is for Myra and how much weight the gift she presents holds.

Helen’s guilt can be traced all the way back to the beginning of the story. Helen like most of the other students in the school pay little attention to Myra. She remarks how “she must have been in our class at school for two or three years” (234). This relative ignorance seems to be present among all the other students in the class by the loneliness present in Myra. Myra is very quiet, shy, and reserved, yet also caring which is shown by how she goes extremely out of her
A dying outcast was giving her a gift, “a guilt-tinged offering”, and she begins to realize the consequences of her actions (241). How mean and indifferent she has been to Myra; how she followed along with the other classmates, treating her like a doll; how she had ignored her for years; are suddenly brought forth. Years of built-up guilt suddenly coming to fruition. Helen describes how everything seemed to turn shadowy and dark, as a combination of betrayal and death loom over Helen's mind. Myra, who likely had little time left to live was giving her one of the last gifts Myra might ever get. Leukemia, the disease inferred by the book, is an extreme form of cancer with a low 5-year survival rate in 2018, let alone the late 20th century in which the story likely takes place. A dead girl who Helen had continually ignored and hurt, with the exception of one gift, was giving one of her birthday gifts to her. This kind act from someone who she had so hurt, purposefully or not, sent Helen’s mind into a frenzy. She wants to “give it away” or “let my little brother pull it apart”, but neither of those can remove the guilt she carries as a burden (241). All the while Myra appears completely sincere, unaware of the subtle