How Does Trujillo Manipulate The Working Class

Rafael Trujillo, the autocratic dictator of the Dominican Republic during the middle of the twentieth century, leveraged his status in society to oppress the working class for his benefit. In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez exhibits Trujillo exploiting the proletariat to gain wealth and power by creating a hegemony in which the working class knew that they were being oppressed, but did not do anything about it. Trujillo forced the people to idolize him in a narcissistic way, evoked fear in the working class, and used the secret police to give himself an upper edge over the proletariat. A country’s dictator will exploit their people to keep their position in power.

Trujillo forced the people to idolize him in a narcissistic

While in prison Maria Teresa said that “The fear is the worse part” and that “Every time I [Maria Teresa] hear footsteps coming down the hall, or the clink of the key turning in the lock, I’m tempted to curl up in the corner like a hurt animal, whimpering, wanting to be safe” (227). Trujillo was able to manipulate the proletariat so well just by invoking pure horror and trepidation. The people, just like Maria Teresa, were so beyond frightened of what Trujillo would do to them that they would never even try to revolt against him. Trujillo was able to get inside Maria Teresa’s head so well that sheer fear alone was able to keep him in power for so long. The proletariat's fear of Trujillo helped facilitate the hegemony in their society, furthering the difference in class power between Trujillo, and the rest of the Dominican Republic. This is how Trujillo was able to stay dominant and in a position of power for such a long period. In the quote, Maria Teresa said that she was “wanting to be safe” (227). Maria Teresa wanted to be safe because she knew that she was already in danger, due to Trujillo filling her with terror by putting her in prison. Trujillo putting the Mariposas in prison acted as a warning of what he could do to them, their parents, and their families. This warning feared the sisters because they would not want to get murdered, even though they still ended up fighting for

In the note from the author written by Alvarez, she said that even after she moved to New York her parents “still lived as if Trujillo’s dreaded secret police might show up at our door any minute and haul us away” (330). A real-life perspective on the SIM shows how Trujillo exploited the people by using the secret police. The secret police barged into private property regularly to make sure that no one tried to usurp him. This had a lasting, almost PTSD-like effect, on the proletariat, as shown by the fact that Alvarez's parents were still living as if Trujillo’s secret police could break in at any given minute. Alvarez mentioned that Trujillo had a “vast network of secret police and absolute control of all avenues of communication” (330). Trujillo had all forms of communication monitored by the SIM, this ensured that if anyone was a threat towards “El Jefe” or had beliefs that did not line up with his, they could get jailed or killed by the secret police. The SIM would listen to conversations in the proletariat's houses. Trujillo gave no one a chance to have privacy, which strengthened the hegemony in Dominican society. In the main part of the novel the SIM were said to have “broken down the door of their [Maria Teresa’s and Leandro’s] apartment, stormed inside, roughed up Leandro and carried him away” (191). The ruthlessness of the secret police helps