A Review Of Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies Book Review The novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a story about the four Mirabal sisters living under the Dominican Republic dictator Trujillo. Throughout the novel, Minerva, Dede, Maria Teresa, and Patria tell their own stories about their lives and how they were lived. In the beginning, an interviewer visits Dede to learn more about her sisters’ famous death. The questions the interviewer asks cause Dede to reflect on the times with her sisters during their childhood. When she was younger, Minerva dreamed of becoming a lawyer and attended a boarding school with her oldest sister Patria. She meets a student, Sinita, who expresses her secrets about the dictator Trujillo, changing Minerva’s

I appreciated the different sisters’ stories and perspectives while trying to live their lives as best they could. The way the novel jumps from past to present throughout the chapters is very interesting to me. For instance, Dede was brought back to present day when speaking to the interviewer, but seemed to be “going back into the past after hearing certain things about certain people” (Alvarez 66). She would often change back and forth throughout the chapter, keeping the reader involved with what events were happening during the time. Also, when the interviewer asked questions, “Dede feels as if she cannot carry off her responsibility by talking about the terrible past” but she realizes that this is the best thing to do for her family (Alvarez 65). The main reason I enjoyed In the Time of the Butterflies was because of all the emotion and heartbreak the family was put through. Alvarez did an amazing job at pulling the reader into the novel, making them read more and more. At the end, after her sisters were murdered, Dede screamed, “Assassins!” out the window when driving past the SIM post” (Alvarez 308). She told her husband that she did not care if she was killed; she just wanted to be with them. The overwhelming power of emotion in In the Time of the Butterflies created more of a story line and encouraged the reader to read more. On one trip to visit Minerva’s husband in prison, “Manolo’s mood had changed, saying it was over for them and insisted on goodbyes” (Alvarez 268). Clutching Manolo’s hands, Minerva wept when she realized the men were being taken out of their cells at night in small group and killed. These strong emotions were placed all over the book, making me enjoy the pages as I read even more than