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 …show more content…
Minerva becomes the main benefactor for the people once they realize that she just wants some type of peace. Minerva’s personality is in no way venial, she is an independent and in some ways motherly, but she does things her way. When she meets with Trujillo at her first ball, she slaps him in the face when he starts to use vulgar language about her body. In the direction the outcome was secluding to, she had no idea that what was imminent to her father was because of her actions. When Minerva was a young adult she couldn’t keep her mouth shut, she always had to have the last word. In the end of the confusion her father dies. As if that was not enough for her to handle, she gambles away her body to Trujillo to see if she could win at a game of rolling the dice so she could go to law school. Minerva is one ruthless