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Are The Loss Of Faith In Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies

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In the movie ‘Heaven Is For Real’ while Todd Burpo’s son, Colton, lay on his hospital bed in critical condition, Todd becomes infuriated with God and says, “You made me suffer and I took that. You made my family suffer and I took that. Now you want to take my SON?!” How could a loving God do such a thing? This is the question most people ask when someone precious to them passes away, while they sulk and go on a ‘I Hate God’ rampage. After, this results in a loss of faith. They might wonder could they have saved their loved one and if God was so angry with them that He would punish them by taking a family member. Yet, they rarely stop to think think what they’ve gained from that loss. In Alvarez’s book ‘In The Time Of The Butterflies,’ Patria goes through this same mental struggle …show more content…

While waiting in line to get to the altar Patria looks at a picture of the Virgin Mary as Mate begins to pray. When she turned back and looked out into the pews she felt her faith ‘stir’ and come back to life. As she joined in with the prayer she questions the Virgencita saying “Here I am, Virgencita. Where are you?” And unexpectedly, she received her answer “Here, Patria Mercedes, I’m here, all around you. I’ve already more than appeared.” This showed that even though she abandoned the Lord, the Lord didn’t abandon her and he even sent the Virgin Mary to her but since she had lost her faith she wasn’t aware of her presence. Through the rest of the book Patria is faced with troubles yet she doesn't give up on her faith. When the church is being bombed she continues to pray. After she watches a young man die, she joins the revolution with the church. While in meetings she would cry out “Amen to the revolution!” And during her sisters’ imprisonment, she kept the house filled with prayer. This part in particular shows that even though she had lost her sisters, she kept her

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Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is the inspiring story about the four Mirabal sisters who grew up in the dictatorship of the Dominican Republic. The novel depicts the events that leads up to the deaths of three of the sisters: Patria, Maria Teresa, and Minerva and shows how the remaining sibling, Dedé, deals with both grief and regret. Alvarez explores the dangerous history of the Hispanic Caribbean through fiction in hopes that her readers will be able to truly grasp the impact the lives of the Mirabals had on the Dominican Republic. While many different topics are discussed in the book, the violation of human rights and political unrest is what drives the plot of the book.

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In chapter 11 of In the Time of Butterflies, a positive aspect of prison for Maria Teresa is the strong relationships she built with the other women because it gave her something to depend on while she was going through tough times. On April 8, Maria Teresa wrote about her conversations with the other women in prison. Her and another lady Magdalena started talking about the strong connection that all the women shared in jail. After the conversation began between the two, the other women came over to Maria Teresa and Magdalena and started to share their ideas and opinions. All the women were starting to come together as a group and their relationships were getting stronger.

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In How to Write a Memoir, William Zinsser gives information to encourage his writers. Such as, “Be Yourself,” “Speak Freely,” and “Think Small.” Some memoirs follow what he does, and some do not. In this memoir, “Soul Surfer,” Bethany Hamilton supports Zinsser’s writing ideas through her use of her own point of view, honest storytelling, and a lot of small and past memories. Zinsser says that the best memoirs are written from a child’s point of view.

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Liliana Villa In this section of In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez uses various literary elements specifically interior monologue, and figurative language to show how Mate discovers she is willing to sacrifice herself for the movement. Mate was taken by officers in hopes she could be used as persuasion towards Leonardo through torture. When Leonardo tells the officers to leave her out of it, the officers in turn beat Leonardo. Mate, being in shock, began screaming for them to stop, she claims “It felt like my very own stomach was being punched”, which shows at first Mate was only thinking about what was happening to her own life.

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I have waked at night many a time and found her in a corner, readin’ of a book. Now what do you make of that?” and “It discomfits me! Last night- mark this - I tried and tried and could not say my prayer. And then she closed her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly-

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As a reader just being introduced to the character Patria with this quote you can clearly tell Julia Alvarez’s intent on how we look at Patria. The author intends to show and describe the character as a

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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.

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Focusing on Patria, after listening to advice about joining the revolution she has made her final conclusions about what she wanted to do about the situation. Julia Alvarez uses Patria's faith in God as an illustration of courage. Patria is a very religious person. She used her faith in God to help her get through difficult situations demonstrating moral, physical, and emotional courage in time of danger.

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she’s comparing God and Trujillo, by saying they have become the same person. Patria gains courage from this because she realizes that God might not be so great as she thought him to be. At a young age, Patria also showed signs of a motherly-figure. Patria, like any mother, loves her child no matter what. Another example from the novel is, “That moment, I understood her hatred.

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