Dedé Mirabal: The One Left Behind

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

Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, fictionalizes the real-life story of the four Mirabal sisters: Patria, Maria Teresa, Minerva, and Dedé. Dominican dictator, Trujillo, has Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa killed for their participation in the revolution. Though not all of the sisters gave their life, each of them sacrificed a great deal. Throughout the novel, all four sisters heard the call to motherhood. This call to motherhood is not the only call heard by the Mirabal sisters, however, along with this call to motherhood, each sister is also called to sacrifice. For each sister, this call to sacrifice is answered in a different way.

During the year in which the Mirabal sisters grew up their country the Dominican Republic was being led by a wicked dictator of a President, Rafael Trujillo. The sisters fought vigorously to change their country for the better; Minerva being the first of the sisters to stand up against cruel and unjust governmnet, and inspiring the hearts of all those around her including her sisters, who fought along side her to get rid of the corrupt government. She was the backbone of her sisters and the voice of the people.

"Sadly Frances had many misfortunes is her future. Her family suffered through war and loss, but she always kept her faith. While her husband was fleeing capture, soldiers destroyed her home. Instead of moving she cleared up the rubble and turned it into a hospital for homeless people."

She is the only one who survived because she really did her best to stay out of the revolution against Trujillo unlike her three sisters did. For Dede, courage develops both before and after the deaths of her family members. To her courage means sho stay and help her family and herself instead of being selfish and running away. After her sisters passed away, she had many people that wanted to ask her questions like how did she survive and why is she the only one that lived. This was hard for Dede to handle because some of the questions that some people would ask are very hard to answer. Also, in some cases, she is even still searching for the answer to these

The novel In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez and the play Antigone by Sophocles, both include similar characters, situations, and actions that react to the idea of a dangerous growing authority. The characters Dede from the Time of the Butterflies and Ismene from Antigone both strive to stay out of trouble with the government; however Dede’s approach is more effective as she becomes an oracle character by the end of the novel, for she lives to tell the story of the Mirabal sisters. Dede uses her relationship with her sisters, as well as her own family to survive through the dangerous reign of Trujillo. When facing a regime such as Trujillo's regime, the survivors who live to tell their story, like Dede, are crucial to understanding and analyzing important historical moments. These survivors live through real tragedies, so they are primary resources with personal opinions and experiences.

In the beginning she didn’t show a lot of courage she didn't want to be involved in the revolution. Both of her sisters would ask her to join the revolution and join them. Dede would really start to begin and question her marriage and about joining the revolution. When her sisters were in prison she would gain courage and fight for them. Dede was the only sister of the three that would survive. After her sisters died she would go and share stories about them. Dede would show a lot of courage because when both of your sisters die and with every thing that is going on in her life she would still go out and share their

In the book Alvarez informs us that this takes place during Trujillo 's reign over the Dominican Republic in the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Throughout history dictators have risen and fallen all across the world. Many have been seen as evil, and sometimes good to others, but no matter what a persons view tend to be there are some who even consider them god. Due to a dictators extensive powers and complete control over every aspect of a persons life this is what comes to be. Trujillo is just the same, at first his true motives were questioned and it wasn’t apparent to all what he really was. As the Mirabel sisters grow up it becomes clear that Trujillo is in control of more of their lives than it may seemed. Trujillo leads a complete authoritarian rule over the Dominican Republic with spies everywhere, this can suggest that he trying to assume the role of a terrible god, who is always watching and ready to punish. While all

She is too constrained as a woman. Regardless of the actual cause of death, I interpreted her disappearance as an outlet to finding herself (liberation). Her death signifies that there was void that could not be filled in the “real” reality. She is liberated to another world through her mysterious “death”. Because these deaths are not voluntary, the message sent from Castillo to the reader is not the lengths that these women go through to reach that freedom and liberation, rather, it is that it took an unexpected accident for these women to be removed from an unhappy and unfair life, away from reality, to a new one.

Dede’s biggest motivation and fear inducing factor was her family. In chapter one we learn that Dede is the only sister left, the only one who survived. She says “I don't want to be the only one left to tell the story”, sadly by that point she is the only surviving sister and has to make sure that her sisters stories don't get forgotten and erased which she regrets and gets a lot of survivors guilt from but she has the courage to speak up and keep telling her sisters story. Earlier in her life she shows this same type of courage when in chapter 5 Dede battles her feelings and not knowing who to marry but she chooses the safe option. She is motivated by what keeps her safe.

Call points out that Alvarez emphasizes the unique process of female identity formation as a means of illustrating the brutality of the Trujillo’s dictatorship. “Women not only define themselves in context of human relationships but also judge others in terms of their ability to care” (Call 15), since the Mirabal sisters grow in connection with others, they place high priority on the relationships and needs of others in their lives (Call 10). Carol Gilligan and Lyn Mikel Brown write, “Women tended to speak of themselves as living in connection with others and yet described a relational crisis: a giving up of voice, an abandonment of self, for the sake of becoming a good woman and having relationships” (Call 24). In general, Female development is often described as a process that focuses on connection and relationships to others. Alvarez’s depiction of the Mirabal sisters reflects these principles as her characters mature into strong women by learning the value of “selflessly caring for others” (Call 9). By contrast, the Mirabal sisters’ concern for people contrasts to Trujillo’s character, which Alvarez portrays as violent, selfish and petty (Call

This passage was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in The Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It is about Divina Flor who explains to the writer why she did not warn Santiago Nasar that he was going to die. She recounts that, as a child, she was sexually assaulted by him. This passage is so important to this book because it brings out the themes of women's roles in Latin American Society, power and culture. These themes help the Marquez bring out the important contexts of the story so readers can understand the importance of the story. In The Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel uses structure techniques, symbols, contrast, foreshadowing, imagery and figurative language to bring out the theme of gender roles.

All four sisters reject their stereotypical role as women in the society by standing up for their beliefs and the revolution. When Minerva said,” It’s about time we women had a voice in running our country,”(Alvarez ?Chapter 1?) shows how outspoken she is about her country. The way Minerva demands equality shows the influence that men have over women in the Dominican culture. During the 1960s, the men expected women to be housewives, and to just cook and clean. In the book when Jaimito says,” The Mirabal sisters like to run their men, that was the problem. In his house, we was the one to wear the pants.”(Alvarez, 176-177) That shows that men expect women to be below them.

Both Sadie and Bessie Delany were the two characters that left a lasting impact on my life. After reading all about they have been through in their century long lives, a huge impression was left on my life. The Delany sisters have inspired many of their readers to live life to the fullest. They lived through many hardships in their lives and were

Hoover also indicated about the brave story of Maldonado about learning a new language and handling many other things in her life. I agree with that and her story is very similar to our story but the difference is just that she will stay in her new place but we will go back to our country after graduation. Also, she has more difficulty than us because she misses her family a lot. The feeling of being immigrant is very harsh because people who migrate always feel that they want to stay in their home but their situation force them to be immigrant. What she felt leads her to explore and learn new things. It is the same to us the feeling of studying abroad leads us to learn new thing such as being independent, rational and educated. She also said