In what specific ways has the present been changed by the trip? ...

[sc00by25]

In what specific ways has the present been changed by the trip?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Describe the relationship between Mary Grace and her mother. Whatannoying platitudes does the mother mouth? Which of Mrs. Turpins opinions seems especially to anger Mary Grace?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 3

What is the narrators attitude toward Mrs. Turpin in the beginning of thestory? How can you tell? Does this attitude change, or stay the same, at the end?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[Chelseyj.hasty]

Answer to Question 1

• There are many changes, both slight and significant. Aside from the sensory changes felt by Eckels, there are two surprising external changes. First, the office sign painted on the wall has changed. The English language, especially the vowels, is different from when Eckels first read the sign. Second, and perhaps even more astonishing, the death of the butterfly has altered the presidential elections. Instead of President Keith, the terrible iron man dictator Deutscher has won, a man whose anti-militarist, antiChrist, anti-human, anti-intellectual beliefs led people to call Time Safari, Inc., to ask if they could escape back to 1492 (par. . Eckels is shocked by the realization that a beautiful butterflys death could upset balances and knock down a line of small dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time (par. 141).

Answer to Question 2

• Clearly, Mary Grace and her mother disapprove of one other. The tension grows between them in the waiting room as Mary Graces mother recites several annoying platitudes to Mrs. Turpin (Takes all kinds to make the world go round par. 60 or there are just some people you cant tell anything to par. 100). The mothers comments seem directed toward Mary Grace, a manipulative strategy that starts the girls anger smoldering. For example, Mary Graces response to her mothers platitude As long as you have a good disposition . . . I dont think it makes a bit of difference what size you are. You just cant beat a good disposition (par. 18) is to scowl at Mrs. Turpin as if she did not like her looks (par. 19). Mary Grace clearly lacks this good disposition, but is nevertheless the messenger of truth in the doctors waiting room. She gets more and more agitated as her mother and Mrs. Turpin talk. But when Mrs. Turpin answers the mothers comment about ungratefulness by proudly declaring If theres one thing I am . . . its grateful. When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is (par. 101), Mary Grace finally hurls the book and strikes Mrs. Turpin over her left eye.

Answer to Question 3

• Mrs. Turpin, bigoted and smugly self-congratulatory, seems an unlikely recipient for a revelation direct from God; yet even she is capable of accepting such a revelation and of being transformed and redeemed by it. In Revelation the smug Mrs. Turpin is blessed with a vision of salvation, but it is clear that the narrator denounces Mrs. Turpins behavior and thought patterns wholeheartedly. Since it is only at the very end of the story that Mrs. Turpin experiences the full impact of her revelation, the narrator continues to condemn her attitude up until the end.