Minerva And Mate Character Analysis

The four Mirabal sisters became legends, despite just being normal people. And they became martyrs for a cause they believed in. In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Minerva and Mate are the most courageous sisters out of the Mirabals. Minerva dances with dictator El Jefe and slaps him in the face, she keeps up the face of the revolution even when she herself isn’t feeling brave, and Mate makes it through horrible torture and imprisonment for a cause she believes in. The scene at Trujillo’s ball is arguably one of the most exciting parts in this whole book. It is the triumph of a good person over a bad person, a classic theme that we can all identify with, and rejoice with. She danced with him, because the characters

Some of Minerva’s most powerful moments aren’t on the outside, but rather the inside. Yes, she slaps dictators, stands up to prison guards, and is a symbol for everyone under Trujillo’s oppressive rule. But one of the most courageous things she does, is after prison, after she had been beaten down and diminished, she still manages to put the face on. Her old self face, as she calls it. Minerva has a hard job, she made a reputation for herself, because of the fiery, unfearing way she goes about her life and the rebellion. Once you make a reputation such as that, it is hard to reverse it. And even after her hopes have been dashed, she still wants to help out. Her husband is still in prison, and her and her sisters are basically only alive because the government didn’t decide to kill them. She was no longer Minerva, high spirited girl with big dreams of being a lawyer, she was now one of three Mariposas, praised and somehow reduced to just a word, Butterfly. During one of their meetings, her friend Elsa gushes over her, ‘“Viva la Mariposa!’ she whispered with feeling. I gave her the bright brave smile she also required of me”’ (Alvarez 265). Minerva is the one most involved in the revolution, the face of the Mariposas, and it makes sense how she brings up the face a lot. The face of patriotism, courage, and unwielding drive to help out. The face that Minerva doesn’t wear too often anymore. Of course how she slapped Trujillo, and all the underground work she did,

The character development of Maria Theresa arguably has the most growth of any of the other characters. She starts out, the youngest, the baby of the family, someone whose whole life is spent looking up on others that are older, bigger, wiser than she is. She really becomes her own when the revolution gets introduced. Minerva and Mate are the most rebellious. We get to see her point of view from different perspectives, she writes in the journal form. Because her story is told from just her point of view without outside perspectives involved, she seems to be more reserved because there aren’t that many examples of her speaking her thoughts. But writing down her thoughts is another way of owning them, making them belong to something bigger than herself. So, in a way, it makes her seem one of the smarter ones. Storytelling is done in 2 different ways, speaking it and writing it down. Mate knows that writing is important, to tell the stings of their torture and make sure people know. She references this feeling in one of her prison journal entries, “It feels good to write things down. Like there will be a record” (Alvarez 227). The security is up in the prison, and an action such as keeping a notebook could make the situation really bad for Mate, Minerva, and possibly the whole cell, but it isn’t out of selfish intentions, she has bigger plans beyond prison, such as making sure her story is told. As the reader, we get to watch her go from a 9 year old at Immaculate