The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Prayer Summary & Analysis

Once Bauby had been introduced to the wheelchair, he knew he was an “official quadriplegic”—he would not recover. He began to give up his “grandiose plans,” and in spite of the sadness of doing so, he felt a burden lifted off of himself—and noticed one lift from the shoulders of his friends, family, and other visitors. Bauby realizes now that though he’ll never walk, talk, or move normally again, there are small hopes for improvement: the blinking of his eyelids suggests that his nervous system has begun a very slow recovery. In a few years, he thinks, he may even expect to “wiggle [his] toes.” He hopes that his respiratory functions will soon return, and he’ll be able to breathe and perhaps even eat without the assistance of tubes and machines.

Bauby thinks of all the people he loves, and all the prayers they’ve dedicated to him across the world over the years. Many of Bauby’s friends travel widely, and they tell him often that they’ve prayed for him in places like chapels across France, temples in Nepal, and with holy men in Cameroon. He thinks, too, of his daughter, Céleste, whom he knows prays for him each night. Since the two of them fall asleep at roughly the same time, Bauby feels protected and “shield[ed] from all harm” by his daughter’s prayers especially.