Jacob Sutton 808
In
the Time of the Butterflies
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is
the true story of the four Mirabal sisters during the horrible dictatorship of
Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic from 1930-1961. In this historical
fiction story, the sisters are outspoken opponents of Trujillo and his
government and are doing everything they can to put an end to his vicious
regime. He is ruling his people in total
fear. The people that don’t vote for him
or disagree with his point of view get killed.
This shows others not to disagree with him or they surely will be killed
too. In the process they are harassed,
persecuted, and put in jail like so many others. This is all while their family is being
taken, one by one, by the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) under Trujillo’s
command. He is doing this because he knows that the four sisters are trying to
overthrow him and his regime and he is doing everything he can to try to stop
them
Told in a journalistic style, the
voice changes from chapter to chapter, reflecting the point of view of each of
the four sisters. The book starts with Dede.
Dede is the second Mirabal sister. In general, Dede is the more cautious
sister and is not as certain about the revolution as her sisters are. She has mixed feelings about joining the
revolution, and in the end, does not join. Jaimito, her husband, doesn't want
her being “killed” in the process. Dede doesn’t want to be killed either but
she also, like many others, hates Trujillo and wants to help her sisters. Dede
and Jaimito’s differences almost tear their marriage apart. She is always
worrying about her sisters, telling them they'll be killed. Eventually her
predictions come true. She has three boys, Enrique, Rafael, and David.
Minerva is the third Mirabal sister.
She is quite intent on law school as a young girl, and succeeds in completing her
studies as an adult. Trujillo denies Minerva
her law license as revenge for her actions to overthrow the government. She meets Manolo in law school and marries
him. She has one daughter, Minou, and one son, Manolito. In the story, while Minerva is in jail, she
“preaches” to the other inmates that they should join the Trujillo sisters in
rising up against the Trujillo government.
Patria, The oldest of the Mirabal
sisters, is very religious. While looking for her calling from God, she gets
married to Pedrito at age 16. She takes
the death of her third child as a punishment from God. She is keen on the
revolution as well. Patria has three
children: Nelson, Noris, and Raul Ernesto.
Maria Teresa, the youngest of the
four Mirabal sisters is very creative and smart. She is married to Leandro who
she met when he was delivering weapons to her sisters for use in the revolution.
Maria Teresa has one daughter, Jacqueline. She joined the revolution because
she wanted to feel worthy of Leandro. María Teresa matures into a strong
revolutionary woman.
I like how you described about the sisters, and showed how each and every sister had a different character trait, like Patria was the oldest sister that is very religious and Maria the youngest sister is very creative and smart. The first paragraph of the summary you typed, was very detailed by the conflict of how bad dictatorship Rafael Trujillo had in Dominican Republic and how the sisters are trying to overthrow him because the fear he is causing, is wrong. Your blog makes me interested in trying this book to read, since the conflict is very serious and the descriptions of the sisters, are encouraging for the courage they have for overthrowing Rafael Trujillo and putting their lives in risk.
ReplyDeleteI like how you wrote the summary of your book. It was really descriptive and made me want to read the book. I also liked how you organized your paragraphs and how you wrote one for each of the sisters.I like how you described each of them by saying things like how Maria Teresa is very creative and smart.
ReplyDelete