© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008

The Versions of Childhood Represented In

A CAGE OF BUTTERFLIES

By Brian Caswell

Sarah Don

Conference Paper

Abstract

This paper investigates the multiple versions of childhood and adolescence

constructed by A Cage of Butterflies, by Brian Caswell. In this paper, the ways in which these

versions of childhood and adolescence are constructed have been explored through analysis of

the characters, language features of the text and the author‟s cultural assumptions prevalent

within the narrative.

1,293 words

© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008

Introduction

A Cage of Butterflies by Brian Caswell constructs multiple versions of childhood and

adolescence which vary with age and intelligence. This essay explores how the author has

constructed these versions through the setting, plot and language features of the novel. By

analysing these aspects of the text as well as the individual characters, this paper investigates

how Brian Caswell has posited his perspective of cultural assumptions pertaining to

childhood, depending on the age and intelligence of the child.

Plot Summary

A Cage of Butterflies, is set in a research institute in Sydney where the researchers

have two main projects in progress concerning high-order thinking. The first version of

childhood that Caswell addresses is that of gifted adolescents. Seven teenagers, who have

been identified by their teachers as being “gifted”, were brought to live at the institute to

contribute to Dr. Larsen‟s research. The teenagers themselves refer to the institute as the

„farm‟, and assimilate it to a „think-tank‟ as they feel that they are like “experimental white

mice, following…mazes [and] performing meaningless party tricks…”(Caswell, 1992, p.35).

The second group of children under observation at the institute are referred to as the

“babies”. The five children, aged between five and nine years old, are clearly not babies,

however, their level of brain activity due to their telepathic abilities has deprived their bodies

of energy to grow, so they appear much younger than they are biologically. Before the

“babies” were admitted to the institute, they were all mistakenly diagnosed with severe autism,

and Larsen, not being the most sincere character in the novel, convinces the “babies‟” parents

that their apparently autistic children would be better-off in the institute. However, Larsen

knew that the “babies‟” condition was more mysterious than autism, and his ulterior motive

was to conduct research and experiments on them to find out what made them so special.

The adolescents in the novel challenge tabula rasa theory as the book suggests that

giftedness is genetic and not learnt (Landry, 2006). As the plot develops, the teenagers in the

think-tank have to figure out a way to rescue the babies from one of Larsen‟s pending

experiments. In their escape from the research institute, they fake their death and live together

„happily ever after‟, inventing contraptions and enjoying each other‟s similarities, intelligence

and companionship. This demonstrates the use of sequencing by the author in order to

position the reader to believe that the feats that the teenagers achieve in rescuing the “babies”

are primarily due to their intelligence, and that their actions are beyond what would be

expected of an „average teenager‟.

© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008

Invited Reading

The values expressed in the text are those formed by Western society which Brian

Caswell is part of. In A Cage of Butterflies, Caswell invites the reader to accept the cultural

assumption that gifted teenagers are not the norm and do not „fit in‟ amongst their mainstream

peers. The author also invites the reader to assume that the “babies” in the institute are not

representative of the majority of children their age. These cultural assumptions that gifted

children do not „fit in‟ is supported by Western sources such the following extract from an

article elucidating the social and emotional frustrations of gifted teenagers; “The gifted child

who has learned…to conceal her true abilities may, as she moves through school, slip further

and further behind a screen of camouflage…[in] the process of „blending in‟.”.(Coleman,

1985) Similarly, there are Western texts to suggest that children displaying symptoms of

autism do not fit the description of a „healthy child‟ and are consequently not expected to „fit

in‟. (Brereton, 2007) Therefore, the invited reading is that individuals who do not conform to

the norms of Western society find it difficult to fit in with their peers.

Setting

The setting of the text positions the reader to believe that the children and adolescents

in the institute have been removed from society on account of their differences. The fact that

the gifted teenagers live in an institute for high-order thinking research, suggests that they

should be secluded from the rest of society because of their giftedness. Similarly, the way that

Dr. Larsen sought after particularly specific cases of autism suggests that children who don‟t

smile, laugh, play or talk are not representative of the author‟s accepted version of childhood.

The institute isolates the characters from the rest of society because of their differences, and

therefore positions the reader to believe that all the “babies” and gifted adolescents have are

their “differences in common, and it [gives] them an identity” (Caswell, 1992, p.52).

Language used by adolescent characters in A Cage of Butterflies

One particular character who is representative of the version of adolescence

constructed by the novel is Greg. When he describes his high school life before he joined the

institute, Greg points out the cultural differences between him and his peers, saying, “it

doesn‟t take long to discover what being different means”. (Caswell, 1992, p.10) He describes

all the teenagers in the think-tank as being a “mismatched bunch of…misfits, with super-high

IQs and sub-zero social skills,” and says that “[our high school peers] don‟t understand us any

more than we understand them”. (Caswell, 1992, p.9) These statements describe Caswell‟s

belief that gifted and average teenagers are two discrete entities that cannot understand each

other and because giftedness is in the minority, it is less socially accepted.

© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008

Greg also uses Chris, another adolescent at the institute, as an example of the sort of

tricks they used in order to „fit in‟ at school. Greg says in the novel that Chris “fak[ed] enough

mistakes to keep him[self] near the middle of the class…he played basketball and

football…even scored a few detentions and one letter home”. (Caswell, 1992, p.10) This

highlights the cultural values that these teenagers had assumed of how a typical teenager

should behave.

Greg describes Chris‟s undoing as an illustration of what the other adolescents in the

institute were really like before they joined the think-tank, underneath their culture-

constructed facades of pretention. Greg says, “but they got [Chris] in the end…he made the

mistake of discussing the importance of Stephen Hawking‟s unification work in quantum

theory and relativity physics with one of the science teachers”. (Caswell, 1992, p.10) In this

passage, discussing scientific matter at a level beyond what is culturally expected of an

adolescent is described as a „mistake‟. This word highlights the author‟s belief that

adolescents should be playing sport and collecting detentions rather than conducting in-depth

scientific discussions with their teachers. Greg also says, “Chris realised he‟d blown it…once

they were onto him, there was no point in pretending anymore”. The use of the phrase

“…they were onto him…” suggests that gifted adolescents such as Chris should be sought out

and ostracised from society for not fitting the archetypal adolescent stereotype. The use of

these phrases in a negative tone illustrates the author‟s view that gifted adolescents should

hide their intelligence in order to blend into the mainstream.

Conclusion

A Cage of Butterflies is a cultural artefact that constructs several versions of

childhood and adolescence. There are four versions – two pairs of binary oppositions – gifted

adolescents versus average adolescents; and children with exceptional cognitive capacity

versus children who laugh and play. These four versions of childhood have been constructed

by the text through the use of sequencing, the implications of the setting, values of the

characters, and the language used to describe the effects that giftedness and high-order

thinking have on the characters and events in the novel. Versions of such discourses of

childhood and adolescence are a product of the author‟s own values and beliefs. Therefore,

the versions of childhood and adolescence constructed in A Cage of Butterflies are

representations of what Brian Caswell believes children and teenagers should emulate.

© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008

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