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The Time Of The Butterflies Essay

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According to Rafael Trujillo, “He who does not know how to deceive does not know how to rule(azquotes)”. This explains the mindset of the dictator of the Dominican Republic shown in the book The Time Of The Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. In this historical fiction book it explain the story of the Mirabal sister in there fight to stop the oppression of Trujillo. It goes though there life story and gives insight to what the conditions were. Trujillo and the Dominican Republic government oppressed the citizens by arresting if you resist them, Machiavellian control and the deplorable conditions these people lived in. Arresting people for visiting the governments wants can be seen when The Mirabal family was invited to Trujillo’s party and attended it, but Minerva was placed at an “important” table while her family was at one of back tables. Minerva was asked to …show more content…

Nelson, Patrias son, had been arrested with his father, Jaimito, for being part of the revolution. Shown in Patria writings, “Suddenly it all came out, along with the tears. How I had read in the papers about El Jefe excusing minors, how my boy had just turned eighteen in prison, how I wondered if there was anything at all Peña could do to get my boy pardoned(258)”. The fear for her son drove her to become helpless and fall right into what the government wants, which is to hold the cards against people who resists. They use torture, murder, and imprisonment to invoke fear into the citizen on the Dominican Republic. The way Trujillo treats his people are to have them fear him, so he gets his way. The injustice is the extortion he uses against his people so they will go with his ways. Trujillo used manipulative techniques to restrain and dominate his citizens by invoking

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