Themes Of Before We Were Free

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.

As human beings, we strive for freedom, and as we see in both our world and the one in the story, no one is truly free. “They know that they, like the child, are not free,” writes the narrator, showing the reader that although the citizens apparently live “free” in a perfect society, inside their souls, they are not free. There are no slaves in this utopia, as described by the narrator, but in actuality, the child’s freedom is taken from it, similar to slavery.

The book’s main appeal and power is the author's use of Estrella, who serves as the focal point of all the large issues. In one particular scene, we see Estrella playing with one a naked doll. Estrella asks the naked doll if she was okay and then shook the doll's head “No”. This conversation with the doll can be seen as the sense of denial that takes place in a child’s mind that is not allowed to openly express herself, her fears, her anxieties, and her hopes. She allows the doll to represent her honest feelings about the lifestyle of living she is placed in. She is a unique and interesting individual, who will not grow up to be knocked down by economic issues, difficult labor, and especially men.

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

The development of characters transpire as a result of significant events in their lives. Events such as learning a new skill have the ability to transform a character’s life. Estrella in Helena Maria Viramontes’ novel Under the Feet of Jesus flourishes into an individual who once got upset over skills she did not have and was upset at the process of learning, but now understands how vital education is. Estrella was infuriated by her lack of understanding about the Perfecto’s tools and the letters on the chalkboard. She was especially agitated when the educators would not give her the answer right away The selection of detail shows the connection between two things she overcame. The tone and figurative language shows more detail about Estrella’s transformation.

Julia Alvarez in her book In the Time of the Butterflies uses lots of describing, connecting and helping us to realize things that happened in 1960, in Dominican Republic. The book genre is historical fiction, in this genre truth is often based on emotion validity rather than factual reality. Author looks up the ways to demonstrate the essence of each person's thoughts, feelings, and emotions. In this book it tells about three sisters that with the revolution have released people of their country from the dictator’s oppression. It is not a secret, for Dominican Republic it was a very hard time. Throughout the novel, Alvarez uses violent imagery, which I think supported the deeper immersion into this time situations. In the book there are four

Though this book is written from a young girl’s point of view, even in the first hundred pages there are various forms of

Julia Alvarez’s book, In the Time of Butterflies, is the detailed retelling of how four sisters lived through an oppressive dictatorship. Throughout the book each sister goes through a great deal of hardships both mentally and physically. The Mirabal sisters’ throughout the book sacrifice so much, by doing this it shows their determination towards receiving their freedom, and their courageousness.

In the novel Before We Were Free, is set in a first person perspective of the story about a young girl by the name of Anita. The setting of the story takes place during the 1960’s in a small family compound during the Dominican Republic. Anita is the main character of this novel, her characteristics helped form the story. Some of the dialogue in the novel is written in Spanish, showing how the character comes from a bilingual family. The setting, dialogue, and character, in this case Anita, had conveyed to the comparison between life in the United States and in the Dominican Republic.

“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

Maria developed three stages of children’s development based on her knowledge and observations. The first stage is the stage of the ‘absorbent mind’, which is from birth to 6 years of age. This stage is when the child is exploring his/her environment, absorbing information, and creating their concepts of reality. The second stage is from 6 to 12 years of age; this is when the child is using skills learned in the first stage. During this stage the child is reinforcing and expanding the skills learned in the previous stage. Maria’s final stage of child development is from 12 to 18 years of age. This is when the adolescent comprehends social roles and trying to find their place in society.

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 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.

The mother begins to rebel against tradition by taking an active role in educating and freeing herself. Through her radio, telephone and trips out with her sons she develops her own opinions about the world, the war, and the domination and seclusion of woman. She loses her innocence as a result to her new knowledge and experience.

The resentment within the young girl’s family is essential to the novel because one can understand the young girl better as she makes her decision.