The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

by

Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: The Vegetable Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
In the early weeks of June six months after his stroke, Bauby began composing a bulletin newsletter for friends and associates, which he writes and sends out monthly with the help of Sandrine. He’d learned that his old coworkers had started rumors that he’d become a “total vegetable,” and he wanted to try to dispel the mean-spirited gossip. His “hubris,” which motivated the first newsletter, has surprisingly had “gratifying results”—his friends and former associates now know they can “join [him] in [his] diving bell.”
Bauby, once a charismatic and powerful man, laments that gossip now paints him as a shell of his former self. Determined to take the narrative back into his own hands, he sends out a bulletin almost as a snide act of revenge—but finds that he is actually able to start a real, profound dialogue with many of his coworkers, and feels less alone through his communication with them. 
Themes
Isolation vs. Communication Theme Icon
Resilience and Determination Theme Icon
Irony and Humor Theme Icon
Quotes
Bauby now receives many “remarkable letters” which range from ones that are serious and existential and touch upon “the meaning of life” to ones that are chatty and quotidian, in which his friends simply capture “small slices of life” and relay them.  He hoards the letters he receives like “treasure,” and feels they “keep the vultures at bay.”
The unexpectedly deep, beautiful letters Bauby begins receiving restore his faith in the act of reaching out to one’s fellow humans, and allow him to keep the dark “vultures” of his most painful thoughts away for a while longer.
Themes
Isolation vs. Communication Theme Icon
Resilience and Determination Theme Icon
Irony and Humor Theme Icon
Quotes