In the Time of the Butterflies Essay

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

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,

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.

Throughout the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez utilizes the characters Patria, Maria Teresa, and Minerva, to display the daily struggles of women in the Dominican Republic who are fighting in a patriarchal and oppressive society against the regime. All that the Mirabal sisters have ever know is a world where they are thought of as inferior to men. Where male authority defines who they are; women trapped in a community where their voices don’t matter and they should be seen and not heard. As perceived in the novel, Alvarez uses figurative language as well as the theme of oppression to describe the fact that Dominican women are sexulized based upon their apperances.

The ruler is a dominant character whose core desire is to rule, but suffers from the fear of being overthrown. If the ruler had a motto it would be “power isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” (Golden). These characteristics describe Trujillo perfectly. Trujillo’s desire led him to become “[. . .] president in a sneaky way. First, he was in the army, and all the people who were above him kept disappearing until he was the one right below the head of the whole armed forces” (Alvarez 17). Readers are able to obtain better knowledge about Trujillo’s motivations by knowing he is a ruler. Trujillo’s need of control is why he does what he does. If a person does or says something Trujillo does not approve of everyone will “[. . .] be killed. It’s the secret of Trujillo” (Alvarez 17). He carries out such horrible acts because he knows he can and it is his way of scaring the citizens in order for him to keep his

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.

Rafael Trujillo, a dictator of Dominican republic said “ He who doesn’t know how to deceive does not know how to rule”. So that was Trujillo’s plan, while the whole country was celebrating the freedom of their country Dominican republic, he was planning to be the fear of people, and use women however and whenever he wanted. That’s what he did, became a dictator, made people start and end their day with him and used women like a piece of kleenex used it and threw it away. This dictatorship caused a lot of people wanting to overthrow like the butterflies and if women wanted to fight for their freedom, the husband didn’t let them because of the anxiety that of getting killed. In the book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, opposing action done by the government/Trujillo influenced Minerva and Patria’s perspective of their rights leading them to want to overthrow the government, in contrast, Dede’s perception on moving forward as women changed because the negative

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 “before we were free” by Julia Alvarez, tells the story of Anita, who lives in Dominican Republic, under the rule of the dictator Trujillo. She uses metaphor to describe trujillo. Anita is taught to look up to the dictator as a little girl. As she sees his photo hung above the classroom, next to george washington. “Just staring at El Jefe keeps

“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’

The Dominican Republic is a caribbean nation that shares the island of hispaniola with Haiti to the west. In February 1930, Rafael Trujillo became the president of DR, he was a Dominican politician, soldier, and dictator who ruled until his assassination in May 1961. He was assassinated because of the murder of the three butterflies, Minerva,Mate, and Patria Mirabal Reyes leaving the one and only sister Dede Mirabal left alive. Julia Alvarez explores the theme of freedom by sharing the true story of three strong women who stood up to a dictator to change their country. The freedom in Dominican Republic under Trujillo’s dictatorship was limited and by limited meaning little to no freedom.

In Malinche to In The Time of the Butterflies, all written by Latin American women and Maria, Full of Grace directed Joshua Marston, the women struggle with survival in various circumstances of abuse.Violence is created within patriarchal societies that sponsor inactiveness and reliance. Customary religious sophistication, where the Virgin Mary mentors, is unsure and slanted, discouraging sex and depreciatingwomen who boycott the recognized standards. Patriarchal pugnaciousness has grave psychological results for women. Nerve-wrecking conditions of women’s existence indicate drug abuse that fosters introduction to police and organizational pugnaciousness. Refining one’s standard of living and reducing violence for Latin American females should contain the thought of community sophistication, partisan and financial irregularities. Violence against Latin American women is allowed, aggression of Latin American women ought to stop because of psychological mistrust within societal boundaries.

In order to inform others of the truth in his book, The Feast Of The Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa includes intimate details of the characters as well as Trujillo. In his book, Vargas states, “No sweat, no sleep, never had a wrinkle in uniform, morning coat or lounge suit” (118). It can be concluded, that Trujillo aimed for perfection and as a result he was paranoid on keeping everything under what he considered to be order. Vargas uses how Trujillo presents himself as a symbol of how he rules the Dominican Republic. Furthermore, Vargas is able to capture in his writing Trujillo’s paranoidness and then, he gets the message across to the Latin American audience. In addition, Vargas’ work give a voice to those lived under oppression.

In Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, one crucial point in the novel is in its questioning of the well-known tension between writers and dictators. The narrator problematizes the conventional idea that tyrants and scribblers are natural antagonists by claiming that both “just know competition when they see it.... Like, after all, recognizes like” (Díaz, 97). The idea that writers and dictators share similarities is contradictory by itself; but, Díaz plays with this idea through his representation of the Historical Dominican Dictator Rafael Trujillo and characters such as Yunior. While the ties between these two political and creative powers can be made clear through observations of Díaz’s story, the same connection can also be made apparent in other works of art. Written by Hector Oesterheld and drawn by Francisco Lopez, The Eternaut is an Argentina graphic novel that revolves around the main character gaining the power of time travel through his survival of an incoming alien invasion. A subject of various interpretations, The Eternaut is often understood as a massive metaphor that criticizes the dictatorships and the political strifes of its time. This paper will analyze the paradoxical connection between writers and dictators introduced in Diaz’s novel; as well as, compare its connection to the political interpretations made in Oesterheld’s The Eternaut.

This novel is set in the Dominican Republic and shows the assassination of a dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The story shows what happens, after the assassination, from two different people’s views. We see life during and immediately