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Struggle For Power In Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies

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Women’s struggle for power in a patriarchal society has been a monumental fight throughout the ages, and even now women around the world fight for the right to simple rights like an education, and voice within society. In Julia Alvarez's book In the Time of the Butterflies the character Minerva Mirabel portrays women’s fight for power through her own personal struggle for power in her home against her father, and in the Dominican Republic society against Trujillo, and patriarchal norms of the time. Minerva’s struggle for power in her family is displayed through her thoughts and actions concerning her father’s patriarchal rule of his household, and her going against what was assumed to be the way a daughter was supposed to behave. She doesn’t follow her father blindly, and trust him simply because of his authority, she treats him as someone equal to her. …show more content…

It’s shown through her fighting against the cultural norms by going into the study of law and fighting against Trujillo’s patriarchal behavior. She isn’t just interested in getting a husband like most girls were and tries to gain power through getting an education,, ”I’m not interested in admirers until I have my law degree (Alvarez 99).” She additionally struggles for power to fight against the patriarchal society, by not just going along with Trujillo’s patriarchal behavior, “The university is no place for a woman these days (Alvarez 99),” Trujillo tells her, playing off the culture and talking down to her using patriarchal thinking as seen in his syntax or structure of his dialogue, after not getting what he wants. However this does not dampen her attempts at grasping for power, and she displays a rather aggressive method of gaining power from Trujillo later on by slapping him after he sexually assaults her, displaying a thought process of her not thinking of him as someone higher, or more equal than

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In the Dominican Republic, women were expected to go by what their husbands and fathers said. Women portrayed to have less power and authority than men. In “In the Time of the Butterflies”, the Mirabal sisters showed something very differently, instead they demonstrated the equal authority they have with their husbands. Their power challenged gender limitations that were forced on them by their patriarchal Dominican culture. Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa all were sisters who became involved in political movements against President Trujillo.

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In the Time of the Butterflies, characters are seen making morally challenging decisions. Maria Teresa, Mate, is the youngest Mirabel sister. She is described as virtuous and fears elementary things. However, Mate and Minerva are held captive in prison. Fortunately, The OAS Peace Committee schedules to interview a prisoner in each pavilion, Mate has been selected.

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Minerva was talking about real pressing items on how Trujillo was a bad person and how many were dying under his reign. She had a serious tone and often never had light topics or talked about her social life at school. Maria Teresa on the other hand most important topic was her first communion. We saw little drawings of what Minerva wore and how a girl stole her diary. It accurately shows the difference in age of the two girls.

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