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Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly is a short story that exemplifies an eastern culture's conscious and subconscious attempt at socially adaptation to a westernized world. In Nagasaki, Japan, before the First World War, Lieutenant Pinkerton of the United States Navy marries Cho-Cho-San or Madame Butterfly, a young geisha. For Pinkerton, it is just a casual affair. He feels, despite being warned by the American Consul, that she will treat the relationship with similar levity. Ultimately, for Cho-Cho-San, this marriage means denouncing her own family and religion.
At first Cho-Cho-San's family sees the coming together of a successful American and a young Japanese woman as being a very good situation. Unfortunately, Pinkerton, who seems to represent the western culture on the whole, attempts and succeeds at westernizing or Americanizing Cho-Cho-San who represents eastern culture and Japan. Ergo she drops many of her Japanese values which results in her family denouncing her. The......

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Approximate Word Count: 612
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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