Silence In A Genetics Of Justice By Julia Alvarez

In the literary nonfiction story “A Genetics of Justice”, Alvarez’s purpose is to advocate human rights by demonstrating how oppressive dictatorships affects its citizens and generations beyond. She uses three major claims to reveal her purpose; trauma, silence, and freedom. She expands on these ideas to further advance the understanding of how living in an oppressive society takes a toll on its inhabitants and how they remain in that mindset until freed. One of her claims focuses on trauma, and the hardships her mother endures under the tyranny of Trujillo. Alvarez informs us that in “1937, [he] ordered the overnight slaughter of some eighteen thousand Haitians” (par. 5), to show the readers his barbarity and viciousness. She illustrates

Silence is introduced early in the story in paragraph 3 when she tells the readers that even her mother’s parents were “afraid to say anything...against the regime” (par. 3). She goes on to say that the “nation of Dominicans had learned the habits of repression, censorship and terror” (par. 17). This suggests that not only was it her family that was affected, but the entire nation. Even when her family moves to America, they were burdened with silence. Her parents’ refusal to discuss events in her home country show that they are so controlled by Trujillo that they are continuing his “mandate of silence” with their own family in America (par. 21). Her mother says “No flies fly into a closed mouth”, metaphorically meaning that as long as one does not speak out, that person can not get into trouble (par. 21). Trujillo also demanded tributes, and her parents had to simply comply without protest, or else they could leave the country. Alvarez also has conflicting thoughts when contemplating whether or not to publish her second novel, “could I really put my work above the lives of human beings...if I shut up, wouldn't I still be fanning the embers of dictatorship with its continuing power of censorship” (29). This suggests that she is also being affected by Trujillo’s mandate of silence continued by her