1. Pascoli’s poems in Last Voyage illustrate various ways in which everything is
interconnected in the same way that the butterfly effect theorizes how all events in the world are
connected on a base level. The butterfly effect, which originated with Edward Lorenz’s theory
that a butterfly flapping its wings in one place could cause a tornado across the world because of
the atomic particle disruptions caused, that magnetized across the globe. Throughout the first
section of Pascoli’s book, Lyrics, correlations between life and death are drawn repeatedly,
reinforcing the idea that everything is interconnected and dependent upon everything in the past,
present, and future.
Similarly, the Pascoli’s poems about The Odyssey highlight parts in which cause and
effect is particularly important, where one event can be traced infinitely backwards through time
to find a cause. However, one event, such as the grass growing on the grave in Night-Blooming
Jasmine can be traced to multiple causes. Was is the person dying that caused the new grass to
grow, or whatever caused him to die, or was it the person’s parents fault for having him at
precisely the right time so that he would die at the opportune time and place so that the new
grass could sprout on his grave? The grass can be caused by an innumerable amount of things,
making it impossible to pinpoint exactly what path caused it, just as it is impossible to find the
exact cause of an event, or prove that a butterfly caused a tornado when, by the Butterfly Effect
Theory, it could just have easily been a dragonfly.
•A butterfly flaps its wings,
disrupting atomic
particles, and causing
increased wavelengths.
"November"
Some plants must die, but it is the apricot
tree's turn to flower
"Night-Blooming Jasmine"
graves allow new grass to grow- death causes
life.
"Thunderstorm"
hen from "Night-Blooming Autumn"
reappears in "Thunderstorm", so that the
second poem is dependent on the first.
•The wavelengths
magnatize as they
progress, causing
tornadoes, miles from
where the butterfly was
•Property is destroyed,
people are displaced, the
economy is hindered,
people die, and the
climate is compromiised...
"The Book" is a product of the
mountains, winds, trees, etc.
everything is dependent on the
past.

2. •Climate change causes
butterfly relocation,
and butterfly wing
flaps cause more
atomic particle
disruptions
Paris steals Helen, sparking Trojan
war, and eventually the suitors to
take over Odysseus's home
Odysseus kills suitors, but Paris
can be considered the origin of the
issue, and thereofre responsible
for their death. •Which butterfly caused
•butterfly flapping
wings causes hurricane
the hurricane? So many
causes that predictions
and/or determining
causes is impossible.
Was it Paris who started it, or were
the suitors' deaths casue b the men
eating the cattle of the sun god?
too many possible casues, nothing
can be definitively connected.