The Butterfly Effect Essay

The Process to Madness
When tragedy strikes, it is normal for individuals to go through stages of grief. In some situations, people become cemented in one stage of emotional instability. They focus so much on their anger over the inevitability of the unfairness of life, that it eventually makes them go mad. This theme composes the synopsis of Joyce Carol Oates’ book We Were the Mulvaneys. The rape of Marianne Mulvaney catalyzed the disembowelment of the Mulvaney family due to their inability to move on from their grief; each family member coped in unique manners.
The book encloses the philosophy of “The Butterfly Effect.” This theory elaborates on the idea that one small event can lead to much greater consequences. Rory Remer illustrates this in his article when he claims “The butterfly effect...states that small differences in initial conditions may have severe consequences for patterns in the long run…” The cause being Marianne’s rape makes each character go through emotional turmoil.

She is a beautiful young woman, she is popular, smart, and caring. She gets raped by her date Zachary Lundt the night of the Valentine’s day 1976. She did not want her family to worry, so she kept quiet. This being the first outcome of the butterfly effect in the story. Her keeping her rape clandestine tormented her internally. She wept and attempted to “clean” herself after the events when it is depicted “Her soul she’d scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed as, in the hot, hurting water at the La-Portes’, she’d scrubbed her offended flesh” (143) Neglecting the situation, to acknowledging the event. Consequently, after her family found out about her rape , she was devastated in seeing her “...Marianne who was sobbing convulsively- choking, breathless, hysterical.