Summary Of In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

In the Time of the Butterflies, a novel by Julia Alvarez, tells the story of four sisters living in the Dominican Republic during Trujillo’s reign in the nation. The novel details the sisters’ fight for freedom against the dictatorship, as well as giving readers a personal glimpse of these women’s lives. It shares all four sisters’ fictionalized perspectives and shows their opposition to the regime from beginning to end. When people think of heroes, they think of individuals that show courage, that stay strong in the face of danger and what they stand for, whether they be superheroes or people like firefighters. Most people remove themselves from the idea of accomplishing heroic feats because of the separation between the “ordinary” and the heroic. However, that gap is much smaller than many would think,

When Minerva is sent away to convent school and learns the truth about Trujillo, she can’t fathom the reality that someone she has been taught to look up to for so long isn’t as he seems: “It was as if I had heard Jesus had slapped a baby or Our Blessed Mother has not conceived Him the immaculate way” (Alvarez 17). Having her perception of Trujillo turned upside down in this way turns Minerva’s world upside down as well. It shatters her childish innocence, so to speak. Additionally, in the same timeframe, Minerva learns about menstruation from the nuns at her school. She’s a bit confused and scared about it because of the wishy-washy language used and eventually starts it: “Sure enough my complications have started” (Alvarez 20). This is a big change for Minerva and something many refer to as “becoming a woman”. She is growing up and is not going to stay the same nave little girl she once was. Through the duality of these two events, Alvarez is able to construct a metaphor of Minerva growing up tying deeply with her opposing the