Summary Of In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical fiction of the narratives of four sisters who defied the typical gender roles of women in the Dominican Republic. On November 25, 1960, three sisters, known as Las Marisopas or the butterflies, were brutally murdered by Trujillo’s people, after the discovery of their plan to overthrow Trujillo’s regime. They became l symbols for empowering women, not just in the small village they were born in, Ojo de Agua, but the whole world. In 1999, the United Nation General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. By fictionalizing the lives of the sisters, author Julia Alvarez makes the sisters both human and heroic. With vivid imagery of small

I would’ve expected the biggest threat to be those who helped spark the underground revolution, and mostly those who had access to ammunitions. In a society that delineates women so much, why did the dictator found women so threating? When in a society, the oppressed rise up to question the authority the foundations of that society breaks apart. Trujillo was able to control the society with his threat, but more than that was how majority of the citizens did not question his regime out of fear. Moreover if a group did rise up, Trujillo was able to punish them and halt the uprise. In a patriachical society, if anyone would rise up, it would be men. Punishing men was easy, either kill them, starve, or labor them to death. In this society, no one imagined women to rise up and fight the dictator’s powerful government. The Mirabel’s were even more threat to the regime, because they lost so much of their lives to the dictator, but they still continued to resist his government. This determination is the reason for the threat to the

As an exile, Virgilio moved from place to place but did not go back to help the country. With his new found freedom, he helped the nation under dictatorship in different ways. Exiling him was, and easy task for Trujillo. But the Mirabel’s were unlike other resistors, who when their safety came into question readily gave up. The Mirabel’s knew on their way back home from visiting their husbands in the mountains on November 25th, 1960 would be their last day. But their fear did not prevail their determination to illuminate their intention to bring down the regime. They faced their death because they knew they couldn’t give up easily. Although Trujillo did not lose his power right away, the death of the Mirabel’s sister did illuminate their cause. The determination and their gender was the main reason why Trujillo, felt