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In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

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The concept of contraction bias is a broad theory of why people are the way they are, directly relating to how past events affect someone psychologically. Researchers have found how large changes in life, such as the loss of a loved one, can alter the way a person perceives things, thus adjusting the person as a whole. This conception of contraction theory is prevalent for Dede Mirabal who is one of the main characters in the novel, In the time of the Butterflies. This is a story about the Mirable sisters’ journey to put an end to the unjust oppressive leader, Trujillo, who constantly abused the people of the Dominican Republic in the mid 1900s. Julia Alvarez views Dede’s desperation as she guides herself through the hardest time of her life.

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...How often have you looked up at a butterfly soaring away on the breeze and wished you could do the same? Butterflies often symbolize change and freedom, so it comes as no surprise that the Mariposas dedicated their lives to free both their country and themselves. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez shows through the Maribales’ struggles how freedom is so precious and important, it is worth dying for. The main plot of the book revolves around the sisters and their struggle to find freedom under Trujillo’s authoritarian regime. The use of a cage symbolizes how the girls constantly feel trapped. Most prominently, Minerva describes her journey from her father’s house to going to school as “I’d just left a small cage to go into a bigger...

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...In the Time of the Butterflies In the Time of the Butterflies takes place in the 1950s while the country of the Dominican Republic is under the rule of Dictator Rafael Trujillo. The Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa rise up against the government and join a group to overthrow Trujillo. The Mirabals have many goals they want to achieve as they work to further their education. The Mirabals’ work in the Dominican Republic united the nation against the corrupt government against Trujillo. Unfortunately, Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa were killed on November 25, 1960 by Trujillo in an effort to stop the uprising. The novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a fantastic book that needs to stay in the curriculum...

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...History has not always been ideal or pretty. In fact, there are many things in history that should never be repeated or experienced by any human being. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is used to give the reader a taste of what the people of the Dominican Republic went through under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. She gives the reader this experience by looking at the world through the eyes of the four Mirabel sisters: Dedé, Minerva, Patria, and María Teresa. The wrath of Trujillo was shown through the use of friends and family of these sisters and what that endured during these years. Rafael Trujillo came to power in 1930 after the United States occupied the island. In 1924, the United States left Trujillo in charge...

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Time of the Butterflies

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