Ana and Miguel

Last time I told you about two of Bràs’ important relationships.  Now I’ll tell you about the start of another one with his wife, Ana, how it almost didn’t happen, and its results.

The car's POV

In chapter three, Bràs sees Ana for the first time in a store, but is too shy to talk to her.  Typical problems, we’ve all been there.  But Bràs finally mustered up the courage to talk to this beautiful girl! As he’s running back to the store to say hello, a car hits him and kills him.  That’s rough.

But why was he hit?  Why was the car there at that exact moment?  What caused the car to hit him?  Why did he die?!

The beautiful Ana

Hypothetically, if that car was manufactured so that the gas pedal was slightly less sensitive, the car could have been miles or even feet away at the time Brás crossed the street, missing him.  Edward Lorenz, creator of the Butterfly Effect theory says that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings will cause a small difference at first, but a big, tornado-sized difference later on.  Little differences like manufacturing details or any number of things could have saved Bràs.

In the next chapter, though, he’s alive again.  Phew!

Bràs goes on to flirt with Ana, whom he ends up marrying.  Yay!

Eventually Ana and Bràs have a son, Miguel.  Miguel and his father share a special bond  - blackouts.  Both Bràs and Miguel were born during blackouts, and were considered “little miracles.”  The fact that they were both born during blackouts is pretty crazy.  What are the odds of that?!

I like to think of it as fate.  The two of them have these incredible and extremely similar stories of their births.  Fate caused them to both be born in a blackout.

But what if something happened to change that?  What if the Butterfly Effect took effect?  If neither of them had been born in a blackout, I don’t think their relationship would have changed much, but growing up not being called “little miracle” could have affected both of their lives, so much so that they could be completely different people.  Miguel might not even exist!

If Miguel wasn’t born in a blackout, but Bràs was, their whole relationship dynamic could be different.  They wouldn’t have this bond over their births.  In fact, they could be more disconnected by the fact that Miguel didn’t carry on the legacy of “little miracles.”  Bràs could be seen as the special one.  The sole miracle.

But that didn’t happen so everything’s great!

If Bràs hadn’t gone back to talk to Ana, where would we be now?

Relationships

In my last post, I told you about the Butterfly Effect and how it relates to Daytripper.  Now that you see the connection, let’s dive in a little deeper to other relationships – the ones between Bràs and his father and his best friend, Jorge.

Bràs’ father has a huge effect on him during Daytripper.  The novel starts with the father dying – BOOM emotion!  Throughout the whole book Bràs struggles with his father’s death (like, serious struggle bus), so much so that it actually prevents him from living his life.  The fact that he doesn’t understand the meaning of life makes him refuse to accept death.  Since he can’t accept death, he is reborn in each chapter.  Since he is reborn in each chapter, the novel exists.  So basically, Daytripper revolves around its first event – the death of Bràs’ father. 

I think we take this death so hard as readers because it affects Bràs so much.  We become emotionally invested in him, so when he struggles, so do we.  The relationship between Bràs and his father unravels during the novel, so as we read more and more, we see their relationship more clearly and start to become emotionally attached to his dad too.  Gosh, we’re super clingy.

Maybe it’s just me.

I mean, the novel deals with a lot of death, but it usually goes away in the next chapter… and then happens again (it’s a vicious cycle).  But when Bràs’ father dies, he doesn’t come back.  We see him again in the novel, but only as the younger version of himself.  He isn’t reborn like Bràs.

This same kind of situation happens with Bràs’ best friend, Jorge.  The two of them are attached at the hip.  They have a serious bromance going on.  (Spoiler alert!)  In chapter seven, Jorge goes off the deep end and ends up murdering Bràs and then killing himself.  I know I’m not the only one who freaked out at this. I literally had to put the book down and remember to breathe.  The sad part is, we think that Jorge might come back to life like Bràs, but he doesn’t.  Just like Bràs’ father, Jorge only reappears as himself before he died.

The lives and deaths of Bràs’ father and Jorge shape Bràs as a person, and let us as readers know that he’s the chosen one who gets to relive his life over and over with slight changes so he doesn’t die – the Butterfly Effect.

What's the Connection?

Towards the beginning of the semester I started watching Heroes, arguably one of the greatest TV shows ever made.  Ever.  (According to me, but I think I’m a pretty credible source.)

Around the same time, I was reading Daytripper, a graphic novel by Gabriel Bà and Fàbio Moon.  Daytripper is about a man named Bràs, and his life.  Every chapter is a different version of his life where, at the end of the chapter, he dies.  Each chapter ends with his obituary, and new chapters begin with his life had he not died at the end of another chapter.  Trippy, right?

So, you’re probably thinking, why is she telling me this?  While I was watching Heroes one day, there was a scene where Hiro, a character who can time travel, goes back in time to change his past, and encounters a man, who is also from the future, whom he tells he can't change the past because of something called the Butterfly Effect. 

You can view the clip here

There's an infinite amount of changes happening right now

The Butterfly Effect is basically the theory that if one little thing changes in someone’s life, his or her whole life path could be dramatically altered.  Like, if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, it could cause a tornado in Texas.

But how does that relate to Daytripper?

The Butterfly Effect is essentially what causes Bràs’ various deaths and rebirths.  If one little thing had happened differently in his life, he could have lived – which is shown in another chapter.  Whether the butterfly chooses to flap its wings or not will generate two alternate outcomes in the future, or in this case, could determine life or death.