The Moths

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.

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.

In fact, most of them are unidentified and the reader may not identify a specific person that speaks in the different chapters. Thus, the audience may understand it is an embodiment of females focusing on structuring the major theme of the book, which is gender inequality. Additionally, the description of the female characters is equivocal such that the reader has to picture the image of the women. Although the author provides various photos in the book, there is absence of an explanation. Before this, the writer only concentrates on telling the story (Kim,165). Additionally, the author uses poetic approach to explain the setting in the book, which gives the novel distinct styles of writing. In fact, the poems are only meant to provide the reader with a description of the mothers and daughters, and this creates a distinction in the narrative. Resultantly, the audience perceives that when a poem appears in the reading, the author is probably narrating the plight of women. Notwithstanding, the novel uses visual art technique to communicate to the audience. in many instances, the author does not provide a description of an individual such that the reader has to imagine the person. In doing so, the readers are in suspense but the author offers a drawing that may be used to demystify the situation. in support of this style, it is apparent that the visual art may have

The author shows a great example of the power these men had against these women in the village. In the time period this story took place, it was amazing to the author to witness that gender inequality was still a very big issue in some places. The author described how shocked she was when she found out that these women were not allowed to

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 moths first made an appearance as healing method for the narrator's ‘bull hands’, her Abuelita made a “balm out of dried moth wings and Vicks and rubbed [her] hands, shaped them back to size and it was the strangest feeling” (3). Immediately the moths are associated with healing. The dead moth wings are used to heal the wellbeing of the narrator. Later, the moths are part of the grandmother’s death, as “small, gray ones that came from her soul and out through her mouth flutter[ed] to light” (16). At the beginning of the story the moths appeared as resources to heal the narrator, now they are shown

The struggle for equality has existed for thousands of years. The first decree of human rights was drafted by King Cyrus in 539 BCE and is still an evolving issue today (Finkel). The book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a historical fiction novel written to tell the tale of the Mirabal sisters and their struggle against a dictator in the Dominican Republic. As women, the sisters were objects of discrimination by the dictator’s regime. Their struggle against obstacles forced consequences upon them for speaking their minds in a censored society. Through Mate Mirabal, the youngest sister, we see a shift in characterization from a cautious adolescent to a strong woman who helps change her country. Joining the rebellion and spending time in jail changed Mate into a courageous person. In In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez uses the change in Mate’s characterization to describe the impact of oppression and people’s need to have their voice heard.

Even though the acts of the Mirabal sisters are based on true events, Julia Alvarez gives a fictional voice to capture and remember the spirit of their memory and carry out their legacy. Alvarez argues “a novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart” (Alvarez 324). Alvarez successfully does this in her historical fiction novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, by enticing her readers and transporting them as if they were a part of the Mirabal family.

In the short story, The Moths Helena Maria Viramontes uses characterization and symbols to shine light on gender roles and maturity especially for women in the Hispanic culture. This short story was published in 1985 and during this time gender roles were changing. The number of women obtaining a higher education increased, it became more common for women to resist the stay at home and watch the children lifestyle. Hispanics in the US during this time felt like they were losing self-identity due to harsh laws passed by the United States. Knowing this information while I read this story was meaningful because it gave me a better understanding on what the narrator and her family were going through.

It is often said that death is an inescapable inevitability in life. In Virginia Woolf’s narration “The Death of the Moth,” the struggle between life and death is depicted exactly as such—a battle that is not, in the end, ever won. Woolf utilizes rhetorical devices such as tone, fragmentation within the narration, and metaphors to convey this message and invoke the feeling of pity in her reader. As the tone shifts throughout the piece, Woolf’s metaphors and stylistic choices strengthen and drive home the idea that death is the one fight that can’t be won.

Woolf utilizes the different stages leading up to the moth’s demise as subpoints to develop her argument. The moth enters the essay bursting with a fervent energy and vitality that quickly begins to dwindle. Once the moth is forced to start fighting for its life, Woolf metaphorically connects its struggle to humans’ struggle to accept their mortality. Additionally, she compares the moth’s shift in consciousness - from embracing life to fearing death - to the defining moment in an individual’s life when he or she becomes aware and knowledgeable of the power and imminence of death.

With her audience comfortable and trustful, she begins writing about the prejudice and restrainment of women’s rights. However, she continues to gain the conviction of the reader and avoids conflict by not entirely blaming the “opposing side” (in this case hypothetically men) for the problem. Instead, she describes a fault of women, but additionally adds that men share the same fault. By this

The unequal relationship between men and women is clearly shown in this story. The equality between men and women we have today didn’t exist during that time. The men held more power. Women depended on men for shelter, food, and survival. That independent role of a woman was not seen anywhere. During this era, men were considered to be inferior to women. The narrator shows the role of a standard woman living

the same fears and aspirations as the rest of us” (Ghafour). “ Hosseini carefully portrays both Laila, whose parents raised her with a greater sense entitlement and privilege, and Mariam, whose mother taught her to endure by taking control of the conditions under which they lived to the extent that they possibly could and he had very cleverly shown feminism and activism on their part at some extent” (Singh). Readers might ask themselves what brings these two women together to fight off their equal enemy and the answer is hope and love. “ The woman in the novel often work to retain hope while dealing with the realities of political and personal oppression. At significant points throughout the novel, characters express their individual hopes.