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Anjuelle D. Floyd
Edward P. Jones’s story, A Butterfly on ‘F’ Street is about transformation—a change that
occurs between two women that love the same man, now deceased. Jones uses metaphor
and setting to emphasize the change. The story opens with Mildred Harper crossing ‘F’
street on her way from Morton’s to Woolworth’s. On reaching the island or median in the
about the median alerts us a change is about to occur with Mildred now following the
death of her husband, Mansfield Harper—whose passing has been yet another
On spotting the butterfly, Mildred is astonished to see such a thing, wild, utterly fragile,
in the midst of buildings, noise, cars, and buses. (p. 177) Mildred is in a vulnerable state
too. She concludes that the butterfly must have lost its way. (p. 177) Yet again, like the
After spotting the butterfly Mildred turns back and comes, face to face with the woman
Mildred has seen the woman four or five times from the back seat of her son’s car. Seeing
her now and so close, is like a recurring dream wherein she finds a being that has never
before occupied that dream. (p. 177-178) The phrase, recurring dream alludes to the
possibility that while this situation is clearly awkward for Mildred, she has on some level
10/14/2007 1
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’, Lost in the City of 4
ISBN -00679258-X)
Transformation on ‘F’ Street
Anjuelle D. Floyd
The change which the butterfly’s presence foreshadows is rooted in the instance when
Mildred, from the back seat of her son’s car, saw Mansfield and the woman he had left
her for come up the street, his strong arm around hers, as if lovers, whispering into the
woman’s ear every sweet word that had ever been invented.
Jones tells us that Mildred, had expected to see them this way, perhaps like encountering
the woman while crossing ‘F’ Street. (p. 180) These experiences are like that of a
recurring dream, each embedded and reiterating the other. (p. 177)
But what Mildred has witnessed from the back of her son’s car is not reality, rather a
memory, or wish of what had, or might have taken place, between Mildred and
Mansfield.
In actuality the woman was holding Mansfield’s elbow. When they reached the house,
she opened the gate and led him up the stairs to the porch. As Mansfield waited patiently
while she unlocked the front door, moths circled the overhead bulb—a bulb that offered
no light. The woman then guided him inside, and to a dark room. Mansfield Harper had
And while moths resemble butterflies they are not butterflies. What Mildred witnessed
10/14/2007 2
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’, Lost in the City of 4
ISBN -00679258-X)
Transformation on ‘F’ Street
Anjuelle D. Floyd
was not reality. Rather it held a moth-like resemblance of her hopes, and dreams, or
During the encounter on ‘F’ Street the woman, for whom Mansfield had left Mildred,
introduces herself as Elizabeth Ann Coleman. She explains that her friends call her Lady,
an ironic name for a woman who has occupied the role of the other woman.
Yet a twist of fate has rendered Lady vulnerable, same as, if not more than, Mildred when
Mansfield abandoned her for Lady. Both women have lost the man they loved.
Mildred says to Lady, God is with you. That she does not use the word ‘be’ as in God be
with you speaks volumes to what Mildred has seen, and now recognizes in
Mildred has witnessed aspects of herself in Lady/Elizabeth, fragments reflective of, and
that resonate with, Mildred’s love for Mansfield—two qualities that ultimately dropped
Mildred at the doorstep of insanity when Mansfield left her for Elizabeth/Lady. (p. 178)
Mansfield is now dead from cancer, and as Lady/Elizabeth, states she did not attend
Mansfield’s funeral because she was not well, Jones reveals that Mansfield never
divorced Mildred.
10/14/2007 3
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’, Lost in the City of 4
ISBN -00679258-X)
Transformation on ‘F’ Street
Anjuelle D. Floyd
Mansfield Harper’s death, another exit, has now deposited Elizabeth upon insanity’s
doorstep, a place where Mildred once was, and from which she has now healed. Yet she
has not forgotten the ache, a pain wherein she recalls the day by hour by minute by
second presence in her life as she and Lady/Elizabeth stand at the median on ‘F’ Street, a
crossroad in their lives, over and through which the butterfly, a symbol of changed, has
Mildred concludes that God had not been with Lady for a long time, a realization that
10/14/2007 4
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’, Lost in the City of 4
ISBN -00679258-X)