“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…” This quote was stated by Patria in relation to religion. “I had heard, but I had not believed. Snug in my heart, fondling my pearl, I had ignored their cries of desolation. How could our loving, all-powerful Father allow us to suffer so? I looked up, challenging Him. And the two faces had merged!” she went on. Patria had begun struggling to keep her faith in God after she had lost her baby. She shows her disbelief in how callously God is behaving toward her. Throughout In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez’s Patria Mirabal develops from and optimistic young Catholic girl to a woman who doubts. …show more content…
One of those spirit babies, alela, as the country people say. My mind, my heart, my soul in the clouds. It took some doing and undoing to bring me down to earth.” Here, Patria was an adolescent. She was spiritual and this helps her effortlessly love others in the future.“I’d see those boys and think, Ah yes, they will come to Sor Mercedes in times of trouble and lay their heads in my lap so I can comfort them,” Patria pictured herself being connected with boys in a saintly way to assist them through tough
In the Time of the Butterflies, written by Julia Alvarez, creates a fiction story about the true events of the Mirabal sisters and taking over the Dominican Republic’s government. In the Time of the Butterflies contains the classic war between passion and responsibility. Personal causes, love, a desire for revenge, determination to redress a wrong, or other emotions or drives conflict with moral duty. In In the Time of the Butterflies, many characters confront the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. Patria, the oldest Mirabal sister, struggles with her faith, and deciding whether to join the revolution with her sisters, or to follow her faith. Patria’s religion was an important aspect of her life since she was very young and throughout the course of the story, she attains and loses her faith in God.
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
She then starts to focus on helping take down Trujillo and his men. She gets caught and ends up going to jail, which alters her life to fear and pain. In the time of the Butterflies, the author Julia Alvarez appeals to Maria’s emotions of love, fear, and pain to convey the importance of fighting for justice. The reason we used the language fear and love is because of her fight during imprisonment.
She went from stabilizing herself at her house for years to risking her life for her children and her country. In “In the Time of the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez, Patria gets through the journey and burden of losing her family and home by becoming closer to God. Patria is losing her faith because of the terrible burdens she has to carry. She feels everything is corrupt and it won't get better. Patria says, “I don’t know how it happened that my cross became bearable.
Patria becomes overwhelmed because she is very thankful for what Jesus did for everyone and mourns his death. She is the passive recipient of religion, meaning that she lets the religion control her and her emotions. The phrase “in a state” is significant because it shows that Patria is letting her religion come upon her and make her feel this way. She cannot control her religion yet and is letting it control her. The religion gives her a feeling that she can’t control and she has a passive religious belief. Alvarez characterizes Patria as a very religious person when she was at a young age in the beginning of the
Juana’s trauma controlled Juana and she chose to hope and depend on other people to find Miguel and tell her. To conclude Juana’s metamorphosis through trauma. Juana went from being religious, innocent, and independent to a guilty, atheistic, dependent character. Juana’s perspective of faith towards the saints and La Virgen de Guadalupe vanished and can be seen as being atheistic since she wants her trauma of constantly praying and not being answered to go
“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 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’
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.
My boy grew into a man, my girl long and slender like the blossoming mimosa at the end of the drive. Pedrito took on a certain gravity, became an important man around here. And I, Patria Mercedes? Like every woman of her house, I disappeared into what I loved, coming up now and then for air. I mean, an overnight trip by myself to a girlfriend’s, a special set to my hair, and maybe a yellow dress.
This image illustrates how Trujillo's system truly brunts the lives of Patria, her sisters, and their fellow people. To them, Trujillo is almost godlike. He usually gives them arcane commandments, smites those who contravene his power, and is delimited by wealth. Patria shows her disbelief in how callously God is behaving toward her because of her child's death. Throughout In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez’s Patria Mirabal develops from an optimistic young Catholic girl to a woman who doubts; subsequently, that educators can further come to understand the influence of God on one’s actions.
Within the novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” Mate, Minerva, Dede, and Patria had to create decisions to overcome obstacles that would transform each of their lives. Throughout the book, all of the sisters changed somehow. They all grew up, matured, and saw things how they never viewed before. While looking at these things at a different perception, they learned to make decisions that were sometimes brave and sometimes cowardly. Each of the Mirabal sisters had to choose whether or not to be fearful and give up, or be courageous and stand her ground, or make sacrifices to show her strength throughout the novel.
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.
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 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