Madama Butterfly Animation Response

This animation was very interesting to say the least. The sound was quite informative, even though I didn’t know what the voice was singing about. The song in the beginning sounds beautiful, innocent, and full of hope when it is accompanied by the nature sounds. It symbolizes how full of life and love the woman is with the man. Yet, right after she has sex with him, he begins to control the song, her song. The whole time the man is in the animation, before he leaves, he is the one controlling the music. He is playing her life and emotions for her, she has no say in the matter.

When the man leaves, so does the butterfly. The butterfly, I believe, represents love and beauty which she thought she had through his eyes and when he leaves, so does the beauty she once had. When he is gone, all she can do is listen to the song of her past and wait till the man comes back so she can begin living again. She attempts to break from the song when she becomes pregnant. She tries to sing on her own but she cannot because the song of her past is much more powerful.

After her daughter is born, she doesn’t listen to the recorder anymore. She does not need to live through her past anymore; she can live with her daughter now. I did think it was weird that the mother and daughter are physically attached to each other, like she never cut the umbilical cord. But visually, it symbolizes their bond. She and her baby are now able to fly like the butterfly she used to have when she was with the man. They are happy together; and there are no words to express this happiness.

                Yet when the man comes back and takes her child from her, it is the only time in the whole animation where it actually seems like she is the one singing the song. She is expressing how she feels in response to him. Her emotional anguish is very powerful. When she steps out of the scene, it is like reality, pain, and suffering have finally hit her.

In regards to the part with the fish bowl, I am really not sure why the fish bowl was used as a pregnant belly.  Possibly to dehumanize the baby at the beginning and show that life and beauty are built through love between mother and child. It still confuses me a little bit. I like how it visually symbolized the woman’s water breaking though. Thinking further into the visual implication, it almost seems that the fish bowl is a simplification that you would tell a child when you are trying to describe a pregnancy. Quite interesting.