...history, people often look over Latin America and their fight for independence is often forgotten. One instance of a disremembered independence is the Dominican Republic’s underground revolution against dictatorship under Trujillo. In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez retells the story of the Mirabal sisters and their sacrifice for change. The four Mirabal sisters (Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa) work as a unit along with others to raise awareness against oppression. Although Dede is the only one to survive, the sisters are well known in Latin America for their efforts. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s speech, “The Solitude of Latin America,” his statement rings true when he explains that “In spite of [a history of violence],...
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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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...The Death of a Butterfly “Las Mariposas”, The Butterflies, is the codename given to the Mirabal sisters upon their emergence into the Dominican Revolution. While the name grew from Minerva’s underground name, it also took on a symbol of hope, change, and transformation behind the suppression of the Dominican people. Throughout the novel each sister represents a different stage of the butterfly life cycle: Dede as an Egg, Patria as a caterpillar, Maria as a Pupa, and Minerva as an adult; each respective stage symbolizes the different levels of courage and sacrifice devoted to their country’s freedom from tyrant Rafael Trujillo. Alvarez uses symbolism in “The Time of the Butterflies” to suggest that the price of freedom paid by the Mirabal Sisters was not worth the cost when butterflies have such short lives. Butterflies have grown to symbolize a variety of different meanings throughout history and culture. Their metamorphosis is typically construed as a representation of change, purity, and rebirth, while some cultures view butterflies as a depiction of the soul or a transition between lives. Dede takes on the “Egg” stage of the butterfly life cycle as her character faces many obstacles despite being the least involved sister. Like the egg, Dede remains planted firmly where she was laid. “A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she doesn’t want to be the only one left to tell their...
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...In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a work of historical fiction about the Mirabals sisters fighting the dictator regime of Rafael Trujillo in the 20th century Dominican Republic. The Mirabals, Dede, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Patria, all grow up under his reign. As Minerva becomes a radical figure against Trujillo, each sister has their own reaction and develops their own identity. The sisters each become a symbol of national hope for taking part in an underground revolutionary movement, being called “Las Mariposas”, or The Butterflies, by radicals across the country. Minerva, in particular, is a huge symbol for the nation even while she battles her own identity problems with her father and her own self. In In the Time of Butterflies Minerva’s identity changes dramatically as she becomes a public figure of resistance, moving away from the innocence of childhood to change into a strong woman. Minerva Mirabal is best known as a leader and this begins in her teenage years. During her childhood, she gets a reputation for being feisty, not going with the crowd. This becomes prominent when she and a group of...
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..."Every decision you make shapes your own destiny." In the time of the butterflies, Julia Alvarez has two characters by the name of Minerva and Patria Mirabal. This book is a great book to read.The Mirabals were farmers in the Dominican Republic . The sisters grew up in a middle class, cultured environment raised by Enrique Mirabal Fernandez and Mercedes Reyes Camilo. The four sisters married and raised families. Unlike her sisters, Dede never attended college, and instead worked as a homemaker and helped out run the family business in agriculture and Cattle. "Family is all you have sometimes." The Mirabal sisters are a very interesting group of people. I will be comparing Patria and and Minerva. Minerva and Patria are both pretty girls. They were both married, and we're both very sensitive and nice. Now in the book the sisters go through a lot of hard times. They almost get killed and some do get killed. It was almost as if they were slaves being held captive by a white man yet it was them being held captive by Trujillo. Back then the girls weren't treated as girls they were basically treated like a man if you would say so. But it seems as if as long as they have each other they'd be fine. Even though their dad died and all that other bad stuff they still had each other and they still survived until basically the end of the book. "When love is unconditional, life is good." There is so much love in this book. That's why people get married, that's why people join together...
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...In Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of Butterflies, the bond of sisterhood displayed by the Mirabal sisters proves that even in the toughest of times a sister provides and shows strength to one another out of love and loyalty no matter the circumstances. For example, when Minerva first tells Maria Teresa about her secret meetings, MaTe overwhelmed with knowledge, fears not what knowing the truth about her country means “but that [Minerva] might let go” of her hand in that moment. (39) Although frightened, MaTe dreads losing her sister, who represents a lifeline of sanity to MaTe, more than Trujillo’s wrath. Minerva gives MaTe the strength to comprehend and accept the actuality of their plight in the Dominican Republic, and courageously jump...
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...The Mirabal sisters are honored and recognized as heroines in the Dominican Republic. They were all bright women who fairly took their piece of education at a time when it wasn’t affordable for women.Except of Dede she stayed at home, taking care of the household.All three sisters were natives of a Dominican Republic. Patria, the oldest, wanted to go to school to be a nun but as she got older she didn’t want to be a nun anymore because she wanted to get married.Dede, the second born, wasn’t going against Trujillo because her husband told her not to. Minerva, third born child, She wanted to go to law school. Last Mirabal sister is Maria Teresa, she always wanted to be with Minerva so she went to the college as well as the rest of the sisters. The purpose of the group was to get over on Trujillo without getting killed. We also have the Dictator, the man The sisters was going against, Trujillo who killed everyone who tried to come in between his ways, he was a real monster. The Butterflies were from a well known- provincial family. They was beaten, put back in the car, and thrown off a nearby cliff. It is important to recognize what the sisters did for their country and how their past actions still...
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...At first, In the Time of the Butterflies seemed like a classic story about some heroic girl at a high school or something by the cover, but it ended up being really intriguing. I enjoyed the fact that it was a fictional story based on historical facts. The Mirabal sisters’ story is truly a unique one that piqued my group and I’s interest. I was oblivious to fact that the Dominican Republic had a dictator about the same time as World War II. Trujillo or El Jefe was a horrible man who brought terror into the country and tricked many people into believing he was a good leader. I learned about some of the horrible acts he did with his power. For example, he murdered every man in Minerva’s school friend, Sinita’s family. Not to mention he was partially...
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...Davine Francis Mrs. Piernicky World Literature, Block E 13 September 2017 Gender Roles The roles of a woman in the Dominican Republic (DR) has changed drastically since 1943, where “In the Time of the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez was based on. Gender roles in the DR delegate males as the financial providers and decision-makers, while the women are seen as the caretakers and tenders of the children and home. Julia Alvarez did not make it hard to believe that this was in fact true. Mercedes (Mama), took care of Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Mate, while Enrique (Papa) would be out working to help provide money to pay bills and make sure that everyone had food and shelter. Alvarez focuses on the achievement of the sisters to prove gender...
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...The four Mirabal sisters are still honored and recognized as heroines in the Dominican Republic and some parts of the world. The four sisters always stuck together through everything. They really paved the way for female in the Dominican Republic. They stood up politically against their dictator Trujillo. They were imprisoned a few times, and they always found ways to beat the but they eventually ended up dead. Nobody officially knows how though… It was said they ran off of a cliff, but some believe that they were set up by Trujillo. There is much evidence that points to the second option. On the other hand, six months after the death of the sister’s death Trujillo was assassinated. He was set up by the CIA on May 30, 1961. The CIA...
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...Experiencing a traumatizing event in person creates a ripple effect that lasts a lifetime. Throughout the novel In the Time of the Butterflies written by Julia Alvarez, the Mirabal sisters become radicalized from the effects of intimate confrontations with Trujillo himself. Most of the sisters are quite different when they are younger, but as they grow and become more acquainted with the world they are living in, they become more involved and more passionate about saving their country. Through the stories of Minerva, Mate and Patria, Julia Alvarez shows that experiencing personal encounters with tragedies cause people to become more radicalized. When Patria is younger, she bears the qualities of an innocent and faithful child, but once she...
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...Alex had an admirable relationship with his wife and his two children. Alex decided to be unfaithful to his wife with Danielle. He left his wife to go after what he wanted, which was Danielle. He was risking the love of his children and his commodity of his old life. Alex story relates to the quote, “To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else,” by Bernadette Devlin. The interpretation of this quote is in order for a person to get what they want; they have to be willing to lose everything. Like Alex the characters in In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez are willing to risk everything through the characters of Lina, Patria and Minerva. Those characters agree with the quote because they are willing to lose everything in order to get what they want. In the Time of the Butterflies, Lina, a student, meets Trujillo, the president of Dominican Republic, at Inmaculada Concepcion. Trujillo had been watching Lina over a balcony near the school and insisted on seeing her. When they met Trujillo gave her a medal. After the meeting, he would visit her and send her gifts. Sinita asked Lina if she had fallen in love with Trujillo and Lina answered, “With all my heart,” (22). The day of Lina’s birthday Trujillo throws her a party. Then goes on a week vacation with him or so the girls at Inmaculada Concepcion thought. The girls at the school loved and adored Lina and didn’t understand why she didn’t want to come back to them since they treated her...
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...“Women were victims of Trujillo since the beginning of his reign. He rose to power and believed that he could have any women he wanted to.” (Ramirez) In the Time of The Butterflies, the culture in the Dominican Republic under the Trujillo regime is revealed as Alvarez tells the story of the sisters from each one's points of view. The book follows the Mirabal sisters as they work to take down Trujillo, or El Jefe. They each contribute to the cause using their individual skills. MInerva is the smart and rebellious child, and the first sister to become involved with the rebels. Maria Teresa is the sweet, romantic one who quickly grows up in prison and becomes strong enough to withstand torture. Patria is religious and a doting mother, she is old...
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...There has always been a struggle with women having the basic rights that men do for over hundreds of years. In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, feminism is portrayed negatively throughout the novel. The Mirabal sisters were the symbol of strength and power in the Dominican Republic. They fought for what they believed in, which was to fight for an ethical government even if there were gender limitations forced upon women in the Dominican republic. This novel is significant to the world around us because as we all know, it is hard to be strong and stand up for yourself in tough situations. While Dede had a hard time standing up for herself at the beginning, she then grows into becoming stable and allows her opinions on the regime to shine through. Dede recited a gringo saying to her, “If you don’t study your history, you are going to repeat it”(Alvarez 175). When Dede goes against her husband Jamito, feminism is encountered in a nasty way. He threatens to leave her and takes the children to his mother’s house not letting her know where he went and stripped the house of all of their...
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...varied occupations, education, interests, ethnic origin, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation. Gabriela Women’s Party seeks to harness the potential, initiative, skills, and leadership of marginalized women towards empowerment, justice, and equality. Her Story Women’s role in Philippine society has been shaped, by and large, by the Filipina’s demand for social justice, equality, freedom and democracy. That yearning and her consequent struggle have had a long and glorious, albeit invisible, history. Almost 400 years after she led a regional revolt against Spanish colonizers, Gabriela Silang remains a model, a beacon, and an icon to women of the Philippines. She was the seminal Filipina, leading long after her death her sisters to the struggle against social inequities and foreign domination. In 1984, fuelled by the resistance against the Marcos dictatorship and an overwhelming need for significant economic and political change in the archipelago, women from all walks of life – worker, peasant, urban poor, indigenous, middle class, artist, religious – banded together to set up a national women’s coalition. They took the name of the 18th century woman general. They called their coalition GABRIELA. Founded on October 28,2000, Gabriela Women’s Party is an offshoot of the biggest alliance of women’s organizations in the Philippines, GABRIELA. Rich with experiences and lessons of having been at the forefront of the Philippine women’s movement in its over 20...
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