Analysis Of In The Time Of The Butterflies

“‘The butterflies are sad today,” he noted. That made me sit up and dry my tears. The butterflies were not about to give up! We had suffered a setback but we had not been beaten.” (Alvarez 269). The reader can clearly see that Minerva Mirabal is exceptionally courageous. She did not give up, even when it got hard. When she heard that her husband may be killed in jail, she realized she had to fight to save him instead of dwelling in her sadness. Minerva kept fighting Trujillo for their independence. She did not want him to win and take her loved ones away. Minerva understood that if she gave up, she would never succeed. This is shown when she decides to return to her old, courageous self, and not let Trujillo putting her and her husband in jail, make her weak. Without courage, Minerva Mirabal would not be able to fight her battle in finding her freedom. Minerva realized that without courage she couldn’t succeed. In the end, Minerva chose to fight back, even with the consequences she endured.

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.

The Mirabal sisters are all considered heroines for their work against Trujillo. Three of them

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.

Minvera Mirabal stood as a symbol of revolution to those who wanted to see the downfall of Rafael Trujillo. Her and two of her three sisters were advocates of the revolution until the sad ending of the story in which the three sisters were killed in a car crash. But before the ending of the Mirabal sisters can be discussed, the life of Minerva and the point she developed her political principles must be addressed.

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

In The Time of The Butterflies there were three sisters that would gain courage to fight for their rights and to get rid of Trujillo. They knew what they what they were up against and what some of the consequences could be but they had enough courage to fight for their rights. The three sisters from the story were Mate, Minerva, and Dede. Dede did not have as much courage as her sisters but throughout the book she builds some.

Death is a word associated with loss, grief and sadness, but in the novel In the Time of the Butterflies we see death in a whole new perspective; martyrdom. Strong, independent, caring, honest, and having firm beliefs are all characteristics we see in a martyr especially in Patria. In the novel we explore the wonders of Julia Alvarez’s writing and get to witness Patria as a martyr and an individual who fought for the right of women against a dictator: Trujillo.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” (Andre Gide) In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, written by Julia Alvarez, four sisters are led through a risk infested journey in which they must overcome hindrances with hollow consequences. This historical fiction novel takes us through a rollercoaster of events, incorporating everything from the partialities towards women, to life below the oppressive administration of the Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The events painted by the four sisters give us some insight as to the positives and negatives of life in the Dominican Republic. As the novel progresses, we see the diversity in relation to the

In addition, Trujillo was friends with the head of the armed forces, and friends with his wife’s lover. One day Trujillo told the general about his wife having an affair with another man, and Trujillo became the head of the armed forces soon after the general shot his wife and her lover. (17). Even though the sisters didn’t want to believe it the accusations against their president, but began to realize how true they were. Over time the sisters met others that didn’t agree with their president’s ways, and that is how the Mirabel sisters came to join the Virgilio Morales.

In the fabricated novel In the Time of the Butterflies, written by Julia Alvarez, the author illuminates details of a revolution and the family of the Mirabal sisters. Alvarez’s fictionalized account of the Dominican Republic’s revolution and the Mirabal’s personal lives paints us a vivid image of the events during Trujillo’s dictatorship. We get personally touched by each of the characters in the novel, but Minerva Mirabal, the third sister, stands out with a true heart and spirit of the resistance. Minerva Mirabal has the strongest mind set apart from her sisters and gets greatly invested in the revolution. Her association with the rebel cause highlights the list of the events the sisters endure during their lives. Minerva’s personality is

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.

Mens in the Time Of The Butterflies were kind and sweet they would help the mirabals sisters, some mens were a little rude because they respect trujillo and if they saw something wrong they would said it and out of the sudden they disappear. about minerva and patria these two were in a secret group against trujillo and they were many mens supporting her and her husband manolo and they call her and her sister the butterflies, some people weren’t supporting them until the two sisters got out of the prison. while the were in prison 2 minutes before a man lifting up a flag with a butterfly on it. When the sisters were in the church some people including mens were whispering to her and her sister patris “the butterflies are alive” which means they

Unusual thing that I see in the story was terrible and it makes feel like it wasn't good for them, like for example bleeding. when Miranda younger sister refuses to sleep with Trujillo, he had people put the father of the girls in jail for nothing. The government

“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’