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In The Time Of Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

1933 Words8 Pages

What is the significance of a notable event if it does not change a person’s life? The story, “In the Time of Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez portrays the Mirabal sisters as typical girls who grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s on their family farm in the Dominican Republic. The Mirabal sisters had the same hopes, dreams, insecurities, and aspirations of girls in their country, yet the path they each eventually chose for themselves lead them to revolutionary outcomes. Each girl possessed a unique personality and each girl called into civil disobedience came from a unique mindset. Despite and because of their varied experiences each sister chose to join the revolution when each of their most dominant core values were called upon or challenged. Many …show more content…

She highly valued her quest for love, and in time this quest leads her to join the civil disobedience. The moment Mate sensed an opportunity for a deep personal romance of her own; it was a primary factor in her decision to join the revolution. There were many instances where Mate wrote about the boys and finding the love of her life in her journal even at the young age of nine. When she was staying with Minerva in the city to help Minerva with her marriage and child, she met Palomino. Palomino was making a delivery for the revolution, and he asked Mate, “You aren't one of us, are you?”(142) Mate described him as the “sweetest man's face"(141) she had ever seen, and she thought to herself, “I didn't know what he was talking about, but I knew right then and there, I wanted to be a part of whatever he was.” (142) Mate has always been a romantic so she thought by joining the revolution she could be with Palomino. A demonstration of Mate’s guileless is when she told herself, “I don't want to be babied anymore. I want to be worthy of Palomino.”(142) The revolution was an opportunity for Mate to become closer to Palomino and prove she was more capable than just being a loyal little sister. Alvarez uses journal entries to show Mate’s young and romantic mindset and taps into her core value of finding romantic love as a reason to support and work for a Dominican

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Part II of the historical fiction novel In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez focuses on the Mirabal sisters as they grow up. Dedé brings us back to a volleyball game with Lio and Jaimito. One day, when Dedé is reading her mother the newspaper, she accidentally reads too much and her mother learns Lio is a communist and he is no longer allowed in their house. Because of this, when Jaimito and Dedé go on dates, they pick up Lio on their way. One night, Jaimito proposes to Dedé in her father's car and are surprised to find Lio hiding in the back seat.

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Life is presented with a turning point, or life changing experiences, whether it is good or bad. Some people who had a life changing experiences had changed their lives, and also their countries’ lives. Three people that had a turning point in their lives are, Melba Pattillo Beals from memoir Warriors don’t ryWarriors Don’t Cry, Jackie Robinson from autobiography I Never Had It Made, and “The Father of Chinese Aviation” by Rebecca Maksel, which highlights Feng Ru. Melba Pattillo Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru had affected their country, and their lives.

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Imagine walking down an empty, gloomy street deserted of people, engulfed with death, tingling with the sorrow for lost loved ones, and blanketed with the feeling of uneasiness and fear. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson describes this world that the protagonist, Matilda Cook, a fourteen-year-old, lives in during the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia. The book outlines her life and how her personality and feelings dramatically change during the few months of the fever. Towards the beginning of the book, she is lazy and does not enjoy working, but in a few months when the fever turns her life upside-down, she has to mature and work extremely hard to survive.

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According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a martyr is a “person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle” and in Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies, no one encompasess this more than the book’s four protagonists—Dedé, Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria—the Mirabal sisters. Known as Las Mariposas, the Butterflies, these women suffered for the right to pursue freedom in a revolution against the Dominican Republic's oppressive dictator Rafael Trujillo. In their revolutionary efforts, these remarkable sisters have become icons in the public eye of the DR, and have been heralded as great leaders for their bravery and hope despite enduring such tortures as imprisonment and bombings.

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Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is a work of historical fiction set in the Dominican Republic that focuses on the four Mirabal sisters who bond together to rebel against the corrupt leader of their country, Rafael Trujillo. The four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and María Teresa form closer relationships with each other as they figure out a way to bring down the tyranny of Rafael Trujillo. Although they have a mutual goal, each of the Mirabal sisters has different feelings and thoughts throughout this time period. The theme of coming-of-age and identify is best exemplified through the character of María Teresa, known as Mate, through the ways she matures throughout the novel and becomes her own person who stands up for what she believes in.

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Your mother is stranded,your town has become a ghost town and pestilence is roaming . In 1793 the state of Philadelphia battled against a deadly enemy,deadly yellow fever . It took the lives of 5,000 citizens . Matilda’s story may have been fiction however for many people this was very real . In the novel “Fever 1793” by Laurie halse Anderson, Matilda finds herself struggling with the fever.

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“Tomorrow is a new day but it’s not promised” ... In history is was hard for people to take a stand, due to the fact that they feared of getting killed because of their background. Jackie Robinson was a person who made a big impact on society in the 60s. He acted heroically because despite the fact that people treated him unfairly when he played he ignored them and kept his head up high. Jackie Robinson acted heroically because he had broken the color barrier in baseball.

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Mate willingly chooses to fight in the revolution without any influence of her sisters support. Mate can not comprehend how a free nation could be a controlling stratocracy. She even compares God to Trujillo, someone of grace and equality for everyone. Learning about her honorable president’s mischievous ways was unimaginable. Mate expresses, "Everything looks just a little different"(39).

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