Obstacles In Minerva's Life

“‘The butterflies are sad today,” he noted. That made me sit up and dry my tears. The butterflies were not about to give up! We had suffered a setback but we had not been beaten.” (Alvarez 269). The reader can clearly see that Minerva Mirabal is exceptionally courageous. She did not give up, even when it got hard. When she heard that her husband may be killed in jail, she realized she had to fight to save him instead of dwelling in her sadness. Minerva kept fighting Trujillo for their independence. She did not want him to win and take her loved ones away. Minerva understood that if she gave up, she would never succeed. This is shown when she decides to return to her old, courageous self, and not let Trujillo putting her and her husband in jail, make her weak. Without courage, Minerva Mirabal would not be able to fight her battle in finding her freedom. Minerva realized that without courage she couldn’t succeed. In the end, Minerva chose to fight back, even with the consequences she endured.

Minerva is trying to learn of the secrets of Trujillo and the bad things he has done. She wants to

In the book, Trujillo himself directly causes violence. This evidence comes from Minerva’s chapter at the Discovery Dance when Trujillo is dancing with her. “And then literally, he draws me to him, so close I can feel the hardness of his groin pressing against my dress… He yanks me by the waist, thrusting his pelvis at me in a vulgar way…” In this quote, Trujillo himself is directly causing the violence.

In spite of this, Minerva Mirabal did not take no for an answer even during imprisonment and torture. As the boldest sister of them all, she always saw the light, even when the darkest path never shined it. Her eagerness and trail-blazing ways led her to problems with the law. However, Minerva stood for what she thought was right even if she was the only one standing. Minerva Mirabal surely lived by the saying of “Better to die standing than live on my

We must let the committee know the real situation or this hell will go on” (Alvarez 244). She was willing to do anything to overturn their country’s dictator, even if her life was on the line. Ultimately, Minerva had very different beliefs with Trujillo and his way of leadership which drastically affected her perspective.

While the Mirabal family was thought to have been a loving family, Minerva’s father had a second family, because he wanted to have a boy. It took Minerva a while, but she was the first to acknowledge them. She eventually wanted to meet them, “I waited for things to settle down inside me. Then I said, ‘I want to meet them. They’re my sisters, after all’” (Alvarez 91). Minerva figured out that justice means justice for all, not just for those one likes. Minerva wanted to go to law school, but she had to face off against Trujillo. She decided to gamble with dice, “I can guess what he wants. But I’m so sure I can beat him now that I know his secret. ‘I’ll toss,’ I say” (Alvarez 115). Minerva was so sure of herself, so she just did a very risky move. Minerva, combined with her empowerment by knowing Trujillo’s secret, and knowing that she wants justice, combined, created a strong idealism for her to

even died for this cause. Minerva Mirabal is a heroine because of the way she stood up to

Minerva was a truly incredible person. She was just as ordinary as anyone else, but

Trujillo was being a pervert, and Minerva slapped him. "He yanks me by the wrist,

Trujillo was not fair between men and women and granting men the rights to do whatever they want. Minerva says, “I’ve always wanted to study law” and Trujillo responds, “A woman like you, a lawyer” (Alvarez, pg.98)? He means women are not brave enough and they are useless when it comes doing what men does. Women are not meant for this kind job. He says that men and women cannot do the same things. Women cannot have the same rights as men. Trujillo does whatever he wants to women and whoever goes against him, he kills them and makes their death an accident. "He's got many of them, all over the island, set up in big, fancy houses. Lina Lovaton is just a sad case, because she really does love him, pobrecita.' Right there

Minerva shows emotional courage when talking with Sinita for the first time. Emotional courage requires one to confront the full spectrum of emotions, at the risk of encountering the negative ones. While talking, Sinita brings up the topic of how she’s planned an extreme revenge plan on her family. Minerva is terrified by the story and starts crying, “I started crying, but i pinched my arms to stop. I had to be brave for Sinita” (Alvarez 19). After being told a tragic story that made her cry, she told herself she would stop for Sinitas sake. So she decided that causing herself physical pain to make herself stop crying is, in her mind, equivalent to being brave for her friend.

As a young child, Minerva Mirabal always spoke her mind, despite her mother’s wishes that she would bite her tongue but Minerva would argue that women deserve to have a voice in their country, the Dominican Republic, as well. The time in which this story is set is during the regime of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, a strict dictator with suffocating policies. Brutal oppression of actual or perceived members of any opposition was the main focus of Trujillo's rule. If any person spoke out against Trujillo, they were almost immediately assassinated. However, young Minerva possessed strong opinions mostly about the treatment of women, but this would eventually change to become a complete revolt against Trujillo and his policies. Minerva’s coming of age was over a period of time and the biggest change wasn’t directly stated in the novel. Sinita and Lio both played major roles in pushing Minerva to revolt against Trujillo, Sinita passionately telling Minerva of the cruelties of Trujillo and how it affected her family and Lio being a young professor at the university that

A rebel’s goal is to overturn what is not working with the strategy of disrupting or destroying (Golden). These characteristics fit Minerva to a T. As soon as Minerva learns who El Jefe really is, she becomes the brains behind the Fourteenth of June Movement with the goal of destroying him and disrupting the regime. Jokingly Minerva says, “the goat is going to die” as she “[draws] her index finger across her throat and [lets] her tongue hang out of her mouth” (Alvarez 178). Knowing Minerva is a rebel, helps readers understand her motivations. Minerva wants fairness and will do everything in her power to retrieve it. When Dede asks “Minerva why she [is] doing such a dangerous thing. [. . .] She [says] the strangest thing. She [wants her] to grow up in a free country” (39). Minerva’s risky actions are a result of her want for a better future for herself, her family, and her fellow

the revolution against Trujillo for women’s rights, but that isn’t her entire story. She lived with her parents for many years because of limitations. Her father (Papa) owned a plantation which got plenty of money so that they could live in a sort of richy way. Minerva went to Inmaculada Concepcion (a school) with her sister, Patria, where Minerva finally felt free. After months of school, Minerva had made friends with an assortment of people. Minerva, and her newfound friends Sinita, Elsa, and Lourdes, decided to do a play about how they won independence a hundred years ago. Their play was very much liked, so they got to perform in front of Trujillo. The play had a few

Along with educational issues women also faced domestic violence. Minerva, Dede, Maria Theresa, and Patria ended this suffering along with gaining freedom for everybody. Although Alvarez did not include the domestic violence view in the story she did show how women were not treated the same. When Minerva when to the university to study law, upon graduate Trujillo did not award her the license to practice. (Alvarez,138) Along with her being a women doing a man’s job Trujillo allowed his personal feelings dictate that decision and it added more to her rage against his way of ruling government. “...If they kill me, I shall reach my arms out of the grave and I shall be stronger.” and stronger she was. (Mirabal, 2006)