In The Time Of The Butterflies Patria Essay

They say about families that if you knock on the door, they have to let you in. Family will always be there no matter what. The book, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, tells the true story of the four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and María Teresa and their fight for freedom against the harsh dictator, Trujillo, in the Dominican Republic. In the book, Alvarez uses the theme of family loyalty to show that no matter what happens families fight and work for each other because they’re family no matter what. This ethic of loyalty to each other is shown throughout the book from the time when life is uncomplicated and simpler, to the most dangerous moments of the political resistance. The sisters never give up on each other and their families.

In the beginning of the book when Patria was young, she is described as and acts very religious. When Patria went to Sor Asuncion’s office, she thinks:

Out from the kitchen and into the world, women are making a better name for themselves. Although humankind tends to be male dominated, men are not the only species that inhabit the world that they live on. In Julia Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies, the women of the Dominican Republic are expected to grow up to be housewives and lacking a formal education. Women may be cherished like national treasures, but they are not expected to fulfill their truest potentials as human beings.

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.

“That moment, I understood her hatred. My family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo, just as before losing my baby, Jesus had not taken anything away from me. But others had been suffering great losses” (Alvarez, 1994, p. 53). This quote had been stated by Patria in relation to religion.

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.

“Chapter Nine: Dede” “‘Tell the butterflies to avoid the road to Puerta Plata. It's not safe.’ The butterflies, Lord God, how people romanticized other people's terror!” (Alvarez 199). " The irony of Dede’s distressed response to being called a “Butterfly” characterizes her nervousness and reluctance to being a national icon.

“The moment I understood her hatred, my family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo just as before losing my baby. Jesus had not taken anything away from me. There was the Perozos, not a man left in that family and Martinez Reyna and his wife murdered in their bed and thousands of Haitians murdered at the border. Making the river they say still red. I had heard but not believed. How could our all loving father let us suffer? I looked up challenging him and the two faces merged” (Alvarez 53).

Furthermore, the tyrannical ways of Trujillo are palpable in the quote, “They stripped me down to my slip… I had never known such terror.”(Alvarez 254) Here, Maria Teresa is being tortured in order to persuade her husband into doing something. Clearly these acts are unacceptable to us, and it was definitely viewed as immoral to Alvarez. The reproving manner is evident here as Alvarez is trying to instill some provocative thoughts in the reader by giving us examples as to the severity and atrocity of Trujillo’s methods. Her use of phrases like these are definitely justified as in reality, Trujillo is doing bad things and should be considered a dictator. Eventually, it comes down to the underlying idea that Alvarez uses words like “terror” and “fear” to connect to the savage ways of Trujillo, making the dictatorial theme apparent.

In the Time of the Butterflies, Minerva learns the truth about Trujillo from Sinita. Up until this point, she has always thought that he was a good president, but she understood more after Sinita told her about how her uncles, father, and brother died. The author uses many different strategies to help explain the text more such as pathos, diction, and lots of imagery. The author uses pathos to appeal to the reader and show how Trujillo is a bad guy.

What Does Brian Caswell want to tell the reader about Being Different In the novel, A Cage of Butterflies? What Does Brian Caswell want to tell the reader about Being Different?

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 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’