Intention

The main intention of Sam Anderson’s article “The Truth About Cocoons” is partly to make people reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic and see it in a different light and partly to inspire hope in people in these stressful times. 

Anderson mainly tries to get people to view the pandemic in a new light through the use of the caterpillar metaphor. By drawing parallels between a caterpillar’s transformation inside a cocoon and the current situation where people are quarantined indoors during the pandemic, Anderson shows that sometimes pain is a fundamental part of complete transformation. 

Anderson also uses this metaphor in order to inspire hope in people. He does this by referring to the caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly. Although he points out that tran...