Kian Francis A.

Peralta Applied English

HUMSS 12 A August 2. 2018

“Without Butterflies, the World would soon have few Flowers”

A partially Reflection, mainly Review Paper for the book “Hope for the Flowers”

The book entitled “Hope for the Flowers” is composed of a very powerful story that has the
capacity to change someone’s perspective in seeing life. Not like the others, “Hope for the Flowers” is a
short book that consists only seven (7) chapters and has illustrations with it that minimizes the use of
words but maximizes the use of someone’s imagination and visualization which captivated my eyes
because I am an artistic right-brain dominant person. The book was written and illustrated creatively by
Trina Paulus for about 2 years and finished it on September 1972. According to Una McGurk, writer of
The Grail in the USA, the book has won many awards for its inspiring and motivating story including the
Christopher Award for the most inspirational book of 1972 in Egypt. McGurk also said that, Hope for the
Flower’s publisher, Paulist Press, has manufactured and distributed over 3 million copies of the book in
English worldwide and the book has also been translated into Korean, Russian, Spanish, German, Chinese
and more. Hope for the Flowers is a classic tale that is partly about life as it conveys that a lot of us are
misdirected with our very own paths in life, and it is partly about revolution because it takes courage and
bravery to oppose everyone who believe in something that is not real which was portrayed in the story by
Stripe in the scene where he realized that there is really nothing on the top and tried to unravel the truth to
other caterpillars who seemed to still climb even though they don’t really know where the path leads. This
book is encouraging every people, even those caterpillars, to get out of the race they are currently rushing.
The story conveys a message and a true meaning of life that can touch someone else’s heart and open a
mind; can brighten-up a person’s feelings and could totally change the way he sees life.

After 15 minutes’ worth of reading, the story awakened my heart as it became a self-reflection of
my life, as if my life was written in the book. The story is all about the two worms named Stripe and
Yellow who met each other again in a newer and better form of life after being separated by their own
ambitions. At first, Stripe is done with eating and getting bigger and soon asked himself more about life.
He leaves the tree who fed and shade him to find the meaning of his life. In his wandering, he caught up
in a caterpillar pillar and noticed that caterpillars were rushing to climb and reach the top. In his curiosity,
he joined the swarm of squirming mass of caterpillars without knowing why they are all rushing to reach
the top, and he met Yellow. Stripe suddenly felt something special for Yellow, and so as Yellow to Stripe
and they decided to go down as if they think that being together is what the “more on life” they are
searching for. Being together seems boring and not yet an answer for the question that Striped ever
wanted to know. So, he went back to the pillar and climb again, this time he is eager to reach the top. He
then realized climbing up is not the life really means when he reached the meaningless top of the pillar.
Finally, they discover that the way to answer what they are searching for is to “give up being a
caterpillar” and that is by entering the cocoon and taking risk to be a butterfly. The plot of the story is
exceptional, and I am amazed how the story goes. The story is an allegory of our life, the epitome of our
very existence. As I read the story, I realized that I already found the “more” in my life. And that is
coming out of the closet, being the true me and not worrying about what others may say because I know
that what really matter is being accepted by your love ones from being who you are, being a butterfly. I
would give a perfect five stars for the plot.
 The characters in the story are Stripe and Yellow. Stripe is a strong-willed caterpillar who is
really determined to seek the true meaning of his life but is failed to do so as he did not take the right path
of knowing the true meaning of it. Though he is strong-willed, he lacks patience and restless. On the other
hand, Yellow showed contentment and comfortability. Yellow is a relaxed type of character. Though
being contented to her life, she lacks the motivation to search for and make the best version of herself,
which is life is all about, before he met Stripe. Sadly, she is not the type of character I am looking for. All
in all, though there are only two main characters, they successfully delivered and conveyed the message
of the story and the characterization of each are unique and remarkable, so I give the characters in the
story a four out of five stars rating.

Talking about the Dialogue that each character has said and expressed, I am beyond amazed of
their lines because most of them implies another meaning of what they actually mean. The lines I found
captivating are: “There must be more to life than just eating and getting bigger. He was seeking more,”
Stripe said; “No, my dear, I have to do this to become a butterfly,” the grey-haired caterpillar hanging
upside down on a branch said; “Tell me Sir, what is a butterfly?” asked Yellow, “It’s what you are meant
to become. It flies with beautiful wings and joins the earth to heaven,” the grey-haired caterpillar
answered; “Without butterflies, the world would soon have few flowers,” the grey-haired caterpillar said;
“It can’t be true! How can I believe there’s a butterfly inside you or me when all I see is a fuzzy worm?”
Yellow asked and exclaimed; “How does one become a butterfly?” asked Yellow, “You must want to fly
so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar,” the grey-haired caterpillar answered; “What
looks like you will die but what’s really you will still alive. Life is change not taken away. Isn’t that
different from those who die without ever becoming butterflies?” the grey-haired caterpillar said. Not to
mention all, that lines are some of my favorite in the story because it imposed something more than what
the literal meaning they have. For the dialogue, I will give a thundering five stars.

I found the themes of this book relatable. I learned from the grey-haired caterpillar that,
caterpillars are meant to be butterflies and we are meant to be the best version of ourselves. I learned from
the swarm of caterpillars that, life is not a competition nor a race but is all about getting into the finish
line in our own pace. Stripe taught me that, realizing that you are wrong and starting to sort it out is what
all matters. Lastly, the general theme I got from the story was: We are all butterflies trapped in a
caterpillar’s body. It takes courage and bravery for us to face the process of changing to be the best
version of ourselves, and that was taught to me by Yellow. All of the lessons incorporated to this book are
relatable to everyone in any ages. I am fascinated how this book contained all of these lesson that is
applicable to anyone, indeed a great book of all ages. I will give the themes of this book five stars.

All in all, Trina Paulus have written a one-of-a-kind story way back in 1972 and still relevantly
on-fleek at this time. I am impressed by the story, dialogues, illustrations, universal message and all the
other elements present on this book. It is a must-read book for those who hate clichés. It is also for the
people who love reading books with illustrations and pictures on it. It is also for the readers who do not
want to be committed in reading a book for a long period of time. Lastly, for the caterpillars out there
who still struggle to becoming a butterfly, this book is for you. Though I found a room for improvement
for this book, it’s excellency occupied the room for the most part, so I will give this book an all in all five
stars. I will be sure to recommend this book if someone ever asks me what book to read.