Summary Of In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

From February of 1930 through May of 1961, the Dominican Republic fell subject to the tyranny of General Rafael Trujillo. Throughout his dictatorship, Trujillo relentlessly abused his power of authority and exploited the rights of his citizens. Meanwhile, underground resistance movements began to form, all with the intentions of expelling Trujillo from power. Though these resistance movements were mostly comprised of men, it is the Mirabal sisters who are likely the most notorious of these revolutionaries. In her novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Dominican-American author Julia Alvarez tells the story of Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria Mirabal, known then by their codename, Las Mariposas, or The Butterflies. Though the novel is

As children, the Mirabal sisters are unaware of corruption within the political system. In fact, in the early pages of María Teresa’s diary she lauds Trujillo, writing that she “feel[s] so lucky that [she and her family] have [Trujillo] for a president” (Alvarez 37). Because she is so young, María Teresa is oblivious to the corruption within the Dominican Republic. However, as the plot develops, Alvarez details María Teresa’s coming of age story, emphasizing instances in which she and her sisters are exposed to the truth about Trujillo and his dictatorship. Eventually María Teresa realizes the true horrors Trujillo has caused. When she discovers Minerva is involved with “a national underground [that] is forming… [she tells] Minerva right out, [she] want[s] to join” (Alvarez 142). Her diary, once a collection of schoolgirl gossip, is now used to detail the missions and meetings of the resistance. No longer is María Teresa conforming to the societal expectations of women. She has now grown enough to recognize Trujillo is not the deity she once thought him to be, and her partaking in the rebellion against him allows her to challenge the traditional role of women in the Dominican Republic. In her article “Talking Back to El Jefe”, English Professor Charlotte Rich at Eastern Kentucky University addresses the connection between coming of age and the Mirabal sisters joining the

In fact, it is the love for her family that eventually provokes Patria to challenge the traditional role of women by joining her sisters in their fight against Trujillo. While on a religious retreat in the mountains, Patria and her companions are caught in the midst of a shelling where they witness a young revolutionary die at the hands of Trujillo’s followers. This young revolutionary reminds Patria of a child she had lost many years ago, for he is about the age her unnamed child would have been had he not died at birth. As she watches the young revolutionary die, Patria feels as if she has failed him, referring to him as her “stillborn of thirteen years ago” and her “murdered son of a few hours ago” (Alvarez 162). Patria sees this young revolutionary as the child she never knew, and watching him die feels as if she is once again losing her unnamed son. Though tragic, the death of this young revolutionary inspires Patria to join her sisters in the fight against Trujillo. She prays over the body of the young revolutionary, vowing that she will never again “sit back and watch [her] babies die” (Alvarez 162). Patria, having just witnessed the destruction of innocence, fears that her children will be next to die if Trujillo remains in power. His forces have now murdered an innocent child- a child whom Patria sees as her own- and Patria’s love for her real children provokes her