In the time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, is a fictional story about the Mirabal sisters during the time of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic in 1860. The book was is told by the sisters in their points of view.. In the book the sisters represents butterflies, because they show they are free and change. Each sister embodies freedom and changes in their own littler ways, but for different reasons. Dede, the second Mirabal sister is more on edge about the revolution then her sisters. Her feeling for the joining are very uncertain and it makes her feel weak. In the book, Dede starts to build a political view for what is happening, but its shows that she is transforming from being the weak sister. “Lio was right,
In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, three of four Mirabal sisters are murdered because of their opposition to the government. The surviving sister lives to tell their story. The first four chapters come from the perspective of each sister years before they joined the revolution against Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. I picked this book to read because I have always been interested in the story of these sisters and what they have contributed to Dominican history. I have only read the first four chapters, but I am already enjoying the book. What impressed me the most is how Alvarez describes how different in personality each of the sisters are. The oldest sister is Patria, who is very religious. She almost
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 book, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” by Julia Alvarez, she uses similes to
In some cases butterflies represent beauty, freedom, and imagery. In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, The Mirabal sisters represent honor and freedom by the way they react in the book. An example of Minerva Mirabal exemplifying freedom is when she says, “I stare at Manuel de Moya as if pinning him to the wall. ‘I’d sooner jump out that window than be forced to do something against my honor’” (111). This quote explains how Minerva will stick for her true roots, and will not ever do anything to dishonor her family. Minerva and the rest of the Mirabal sisters do what they think is right and will do whatever it takes to stay true to what they believe in. Another example of the Mirabal sisters representing a butterfly is when
In this excerpt from In the Time of the Butterflies, author Julia Alvarez conveys Minerva Mirabel’s change in attitude and her complicated feelings towards her father’s second family through her use of diction, character voice, sentence structure, and literary devices, such as personification and imagery. In spite of her annoyance with the father, Minerva’s empathy and desire to promote womyn compel her to provide the daughters of his family with a proper education. An example of Minerva’s dedication is apparent during her endeavor to deliver the money; she turns “here and there, feeling desperate” (ln 2). Through Alvarez’s use of blunt, concise syntax, the readers appreciate Minerva’s struggle and anxiety. Aware of this clandestine family’s
As the great Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” The book In the Time of the Butterflies is about a family of four girls who are living in the Dominican Republic under a very dangerous dictator. They rebel against him and the government to join a revolution along with many other people from the Dominican. In In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez uses the characterization of Patria to demonstrate the danger of passive religious belief.
In literature, the concepts of foreshadowing, symbolism, personification, and similes convey specific meaning within a novel . Foreshadowing is an important aspect in literary concepts because the passage that accentuates this term indicates or affects what is to come in the future context of the novel. Symbolism has a significant role as well because it is an applied use of iconic representations and allows content interpretation. Furthermore, personification and similes are forms of poetic styles that expresses life of inanimate objects and adds descriptive details. As such, in the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez combines a variety of rich details and significance in the passage, “ [...]
In The Time of The Butterflies, memorializes the lives of Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal, three sisters. The women became symbols of freedom and revolution for the Dominican Republic after their assassination for being involved in a movement to overrule Trujillo. The Mirabal sisters were not only fighting against the Trujillo regime, but also against the Dominican Republic’s patriarchal culture and gender roles. In the Dominican Republic women were expected to abide by the rules and expectations their fathers or husbands set out for them. In the novel, all four sisters reject their stereotypical roles as women in the society by standing up for their beliefs and the revolution.They decided that they would not let the
The final chapters of In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez left me staring at the book for a few minutes. Not only did the deep characters have me enthralled towards the end but also the theme of the novel really spoke to me. In chapter 7 Maria gets a new diary and write about how she has a crush on two of her cousins( which is kind of strange but acceptable in that culture I guess). Late when asked which cousin she picks she chooses neither. Then she goes and moves in with her Dedè and her sons who have stated an ice cream business that fails. Minerva gets married and pregnant. Later she finds out he husband cheated on her and they move. Trujillo then takes away Minerva’s ability to practice law. Maria and Minerva
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
“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.
In the past, women had less power than men for thousands of years. In other words, men played an essential gender role and controlled people all around the world. Obviously, most leaders were males, and there were more male bosses than female`s in companies. This unequal social injustice has existed all around the world, especially in the Dominican Republic. In this country, men always thought the only responsibility of women was staying at home and taking care of the whole family. In addition, men did not care what women really wanted, and the only way was to force women to do what men asked. In the movie In the Time of the Butterflies, which happened in the Dominican Republic, people struggle under the brutal dictatorship of Trujillo between the 1930`s and 1960`s. In this movie, men play the important gender role that women have no right to apply for university, and they have to be obedient to men. However, women work hard to defeat their oppressed unequal fate and seek feminism, especially for the three Mirabal sisters. The Mirabal sisters are normal women who live in a farm with their parents. Unfortunately, their father is killed by Trujillo, so they become revolutionaries. They lead people to dare to start the revolution against feminist resistance. Although the Mirabal sisters understand they will sacrifice their lives, they never abandon due to their respectable ambition to gain equal rights as men.
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.
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