Analysis Of In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

The Dominican Republic’s dictator Rafael Trujillo had thousands of people killed because of their disobedience to him. From the 1930s to 1960s the country was under the control of Trujillo. He had taken control of the Dominican Republic and used his power against people who decided not to follow him and his laws. The four Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patria, Mate, and Dede were all risking their lives because of their involvement in the underground, against their harsh dictator. In the book In the time of the Butterflies, the four Mirabal sisters perspectives are impacted by the underground movement against Trujillo because of each of their involvement with the revolution.

As Tim Burton, a famous director and producer once said, ¨one person's craziness is another person's reality¨ This directly applies to the Dominican Republic during the time of Rafael Trujillo's rule. Minerva Mirabal, is a woman who risks her life rebelling against her powerful dictator and his regime. Her ultimate goal is freedom and her rights. However, Minerva has not always shown disdain and hate towards Trujillo. Minerva's views on Trujillo and the regime change throughout the book. When Minerva is a young girl, she thinks of trujillo as a god like figure. After Sinita tells her about Trujillo's secret, Minerva's views of him and his regime change tremendously. Minerva turns against Trujillo and the regime, and has joined the rebellion.

In the Time of the Butterflies during the 1940s, in the Dominican Republic, the ruler or dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo punished people if they didn’t do as he told them and plenty of other cruel things. He ruled for about 30 years, so the people were tortured for quite a long time. He became the dictator by eliminating everyone who had power above him. He even married his wives just to use them to get the the top and control everyone. It was just an unfair way to handle things and an unfair country overall. In her book, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” Julia Alvarez incorporates the history of the famous Mirabal sisters by telling the history of their life and how it was back then for their Dominican Republic country. Julia Alvarez

Throughout history women have always been minimized from social, sexual , and political aspects juxtaposed to men. Just like in the novel  In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, the author uses the Mirabal sisters to demonstrate the inequalities set in the Dominican Republic. The dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo causes the Mirabal sisters to come together and overthrow Trujillo’s regime.Trujillo. Rafael Trujillo was despised by many yet many were forced to worship him like some type of paragon. As the novel progresses, illustrations of male dominance often appear throughout each chapter. The Mirabal sisters: Minerva, Patria, Maria Teresa and Dede each demonstrate the ability to overcome stigmas in order to obtain freedom.

Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies shows the lack of fairness in society and the importance of maintaining a strong family bond. Trujillo was not fair between men and women and granting men the rights to do whatever they want. The Mirabal sisters’ revolutionary against president Trujillo and fighting for freedom of the country and its people. In Saudi Arabia women are now granted to drive, but there some other things that men can do but women cannot. The Mirabal family has a strong maintain of a family bond. Minerva is one of the four sisters who is brave and had the courage to stand for others and started the revolution against the president.

As a young child, Minerva Mirabal always spoke her mind, despite her mother’s wishes that she would bite her tongue but Minerva would argue that women deserve to have a voice in their country, the Dominican Republic, as well. The time in which this story is set is during the regime of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, a strict dictator with suffocating policies. Brutal oppression of actual or perceived members of any opposition was the main focus of Trujillo's rule. If any person spoke out against Trujillo, they were almost immediately assassinated. However, young Minerva possessed strong opinions mostly about the treatment of women, but this would eventually change to become a complete revolt against Trujillo and his policies. Minerva’s coming of age was over a period of time and the biggest change wasn’t directly stated in the novel. Sinita and Lio both played major roles in pushing Minerva to revolt against Trujillo, Sinita passionately telling Minerva of the cruelties of Trujillo and how it affected her family and Lio being a young professor at the university that

In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, written by Julia Alvarez, one of the main characters, Minerva, shows many different types of courage throughout the whole story. The novel is about the true story of how a family is dominated by their countries dictator and the daughters attempt to free themselves and their family.

In the Time of the Butterflies revolves around the Mirabal sisters, women living in a very patriarchal, “macho” society. Their personal struggles are part of the power of their story, as they stand not only as symbols of rebellion against Trujillo, but at the same time as loving, independent women with husbands and children. Alvarez shows how the resistance against women in politics can even be propagated by the women themselves, as both Mamá and Patria initially express sentiments that women are inferior to men, or else are somehow “purer” and so shouldn’t dirty themselves with politics. In talking to the interview woman in the present day, Dedé says that women “followed their husbands,” but she knows that this is an excuse, as she is the

Courage is an important trait that needs to be present in order to affect change. The book in the time of butterflies by Julia Alvarez demonstrates this need for courage in the story of the four Mirabal sisters who acted with courage to create change in the Dominican Republic. They do this by showing great courage in the face of oppression. Minerva was one of the bravest of the Mirabal sisters. She shows: moral, intellectual, emotional, and physical courage throughout her life. These are demonstrated in her leadership and her heroic actions of resistance. Some of her main sources of courage were her childhood friends, her family, her sense of justice, and desire for equality. She shows courage repeatedly sticking up for what is right despite of threats,

In some cases butterflies represent beauty, freedom, and imagery. In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, The Mirabal sisters represent honor and freedom by the way they react in the book. An example of Minerva Mirabal exemplifying freedom is when she says, “I stare at Manuel de Moya as if pinning him to the wall. ‘I’d sooner jump out that window than be forced to do something against my honor’” (111). This quote explains how Minerva will stick for her true roots, and will not ever do anything to dishonor her family. Minerva and the rest of the Mirabal sisters do what they think is right and will do whatever it takes to stay true to what they believe in. Another example of the Mirabal sisters representing a butterfly is when

Why do you think Minerva does not follow Trujillo's ideas? Trujillo states, "I am speaking of

intention of letting Minerva use her degree once she had it. Minerva states, "His gaze falls

Rafael Trujillo, a Dominican dictator, developed a harsh reputation as being one of the most violent and domineering leaders of South America in his thirty-one years of power. In The Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez provides insight into the effects of Trujillo’s infamy by sharing the stories of three Dominican sisters and their struggles to gain independence and speak their truth. The Dominican-American author dramatizes the lives of the Mirabal sisters, three historical women who were assassinated in 1961, for their involvement in the anti-Trujillo movement. Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, a Cuban critic of Latin American literature, provides a bias insight with regards to the novel.

In the past, women had less power than men for thousands of years. In other words, men played an essential gender role and controlled people all around the world. Obviously, most leaders were males, and there were more male bosses than female`s in companies. This unequal social injustice has existed all around the world, especially in the Dominican Republic. In this country, men always thought the only responsibility of women was staying at home and taking care of the whole family. In addition, men did not care what women really wanted, and the only way was to force women to do what men asked. In the movie In the Time of the Butterflies, which happened in the Dominican Republic, people struggle under the brutal dictatorship of Trujillo between the 1930`s and 1960`s. In this movie, men play the important gender role that women have no right to apply for university, and they have to be obedient to men. However, women work hard to defeat their oppressed unequal fate and seek feminism, especially for the three Mirabal sisters. The Mirabal sisters are normal women who live in a farm with their parents. Unfortunately, their father is killed by Trujillo, so they become revolutionaries. They lead people to dare to start the revolution against feminist resistance. Although the Mirabal sisters understand they will sacrifice their lives, they never abandon due to their respectable ambition to gain equal rights as men.

“In the Time of the Butterflies” takes place in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s. The author, Julia Alvarez is a native of the country, but moved to the US at a young age. She first heard about the sisters roughly around 1986 and instantly felt the need to share their story with the world. In the book, Alvarez tells the story of the Mirabal sisters and their fight for freedom against the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Rafael Trujillo reigned for about 30 years until his assassination in May of 1961. Trujillo’s reign of terror began in 1930 and the violence soon followed. The self centered dictator changed the names of cities and murdered roughly about 20,000 Haitians from the neighboring country. The book not only tells the sisters’