But it turned out that my mother was right about the bug.
-- Narrator (chapter 3)

Importance: When Francie is eight years old, her mother tells her she has a bug inside her. Though Elaine's words are a symptom of her oncoming psychotic break, they stay with Francie. For years she worries that there really might be something dangerous inside her mind. As Francie returns to her childhood memories, she wonders about the connections between people with psychotic disturbances and psychics, classifying her mother's words as a prediction of Francie's later decision to swallow the butterfly.

Little droppings of my existence.
-- Narrator (chapter 6)

Importance: After Francie's first plane ride alone to visit her mother in Portland, she cannot stop thinking about the fate of the trash she left behind on the plane. As with any object, Francie obsesses over the lives of inanimate objects, wondering about their identities after their owners discard them. She sees her former belongings...