Chasing Butterflies in Butterwood Forest
The story begins with a boy who is traveling and wanders through a dark forest. When the boy discovers a butterfly while walking, he is captivated by its beauty and chases the butterfly through the forest. When the boy reaches a large tree, the butterfly hovers around it and the tree seems to have gobbled up the small creature. The boy who is horrified by this event has no time to react when the tree reaches down and gobbles up the boy. The butterfly reappears shortly after and continues on its way.
This story while short and simple in the fashion of most tales of this nature and as with most fairy tales, it is filled with depth. Also, like most of the tales, there are lessons to be learned. The boy who wanders and chases beauty becomes captured by it and eventually devoured by it. This is true to life and as with most fairy tales is routed in fact. The events that inspire such stories may have been forgotten and lost as the world changes; however, the stories live on through tales and become timeless themselves.
The boy is wandering and comes across a path that leads through a dark forest. The dark forest becomes the dark nature of humanity and the paths that can take us to dark places. The boy in white is symbolized by white representing death. Death can be viewed in many ways, such as, death of self, fear, or love. It does not necessarily mean actual physical death, though it is most often portrayed in this fashion. In the case of this story, death is symbolized by the death of self, fear, and love.
The death of fear comes from within, the boy lets his curiosity get the better of him and disregards any warning there is and in doing so kills his fear, which could save him. When the boy comes across the butterfly he is captivated by its beauty and loses himself within it, killing his "self". Finally the boy is lead to the tree by the butterfly and is devoured by the tree. The final death, "the death of love", happened because of his previous deaths. When he lost his fear and self, he became impure and greedy chasing beauty, in doing so the beauty leads him to be consumed by his lust and greed. The tree is black and filled with red. The black symbolizes humanities dark nature and the red is the lust that is usually at the root of it. The butterfly is also in white and is used as a warning. The creature may be wonderful to look at, however, it can lead to dark places and in this tale, and it does.
This story is heavily influenced by the tale of "Little Red Ridding Hood" however; the story is mainly about a true event that happened to a young man that wandered through dark places and found beauty and death wrapped up in a convenient package. Fairy tales are filled with knowledge that has been passed down through the ages. They are echoes from the old to teach the young and if we don't become distracted by the details, than perhaps we may all be fortunate and learn the lessons they have to share and the trials that they have endured will not be in vain.
A lesson for myself: Don't chase butterflys or demons for that matter.
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10:16
Terror Canyon at Scarywoodby Jspider5680 views
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