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Living Under The Time Of Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

881 Words4 Pages

Human rights dictate the power between the people and the government that has control of them. The people of the Dominican Republic during the revolution in the 1930’s through the 1960’s had their human rights violated and completely tampered with. In Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of Butterflies, Rafael Trujillo, the country’s corrupt President, violates the Freedom of Expression, No one can take away your Human Rights, and the Right to Life.
The Freedom of Expression allows you to think, say, and share what you want. Living under the reign of Trujillo during this time period caused this Human Right to be immensely limited. As Sinita told Minerva , “People who opened their big mouths didn’t live very long,” Sinita said, “Like my uncle …show more content…

And, that is in fact, exactly what Trujillo did to the people of the Dominican Republic. He took almost every single one away. “You still don’t get it? Minerva, don’t you see? Trujillo is having everyone killed” (Alvarez 19). Him having large quantities of innocent people killed goes completely against article 5 in the Human Rights document which states No Torture. No torture implies that nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us no matter what the circumstances are. Freedom of Expression is also an enormous Human Right Trujillo failed to follow. “It’s about time we women had a voice in running our country.” “You and Trujillo,” Papá says a little loudly, and in this clear peaceful night they all fall silent. Suddenly, the dark fills with spies who are paid to hear things and repeat them down at security. Don Enrique claims Trujillo needs help in running this country. Don Enrique’s daughter says it’s about time women took over the government. Words repeated, distorted, words recreated by those who might bear them a grudge, words stitched to words until they are the winding sheet the family will be buried in when their bodies are found dumped in a ditch, their tongues cut off for speaking too much” ( Alvarez 10). As Trujillo implies that if they express their thoughts they will be killed is also foreshadowing the death of the Mirabal sisters later in the

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