Henry the Caterpillar/ Molokai Response

In my book, Henry the Caterpillar, what essentially happens is that Henry is living life happily doing what he likes to do, which is eat plants and play.  One day, he goes to see what his brother and his brother’s friends are up to.  But when Henry gets to them, they are hanging upside down on a leaf, which seems weird to Henry.  Henry then asks if they want to come down to play with him, to which his brother responds, “Henry, we can’t come down right now.  You wouldn’t understand.  You aren’t ready yet”.  Henry then becomes sad for feeling excluded from a group that he had always been around.  He then leaves, feeling lonely and little confused, but soon stumbles upon a new group of caterpillar friends to be around.  They, like him, like to eat and play.  But then one day, as they have all put on some weight after eating so much, they all get very tired and decide that hanging upside down on a leaf would be very relaxing and would be a nice way to rest.  They all fall into a deep sleep, soon turning into butterflies.  They hatch from their cocoons, dry off their wings, and start flying together.  They soon find Henry’s brother and his brother’s friends, who have also transformed into butterflies!  They all fly together, and Henry knows he has grown up and no longer feels excluded. 

Like Rachel in Molokai, Henry is excluded from a society, but soon finds a new community where he is accepted due to having others being similar to him in this new group of friends.  Rachel in Molokai gets shunned from her hometown after people find out that she has leprosy.  Being a young girl, she does not fully understand the whole situation or why people are so unaccepting of her due to simply having this disease.  This is similar to Henry being confused when his brother and his brother’s friends were excluding him when they said they did not want to come down to play with him. 

Rachel soon goes to Molokai, an accepting environment where there are sick people like her, and where people receive no judgement for having leprosy.  This is just like how Henry found a new group of caterpillar friends to be around who were similar to him.  Unlike the last group of caterpillars, this new group likes to eat and play just like him, creating an overall more comfortable and positive environment for Henry to be a part of. 

Growing up in Molokai, Rachel realizes the struggles of having her illness and knows that it will take time until she gets accepted into the community she used to be a part of, before coming to Molokai.  Although Henry the Caterpillar has a happy ending, Henry finally becoming a butterfly is similar to Rachel realizing answers to her past that she was confused about before.