In+the+Time+of+Butterflies



 ** **By Julia Alvarez** Published: August 1, 1995 __**Setting **__  //In the Time of the Butterflies// takes place between 1938 and 1994 in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is largely Catholic and has a very influential Church. It is also largely patriarchal, with men holding positions of authority and women are not expected to forego an individual career. This time period is dominated by the political regime of dictator Rafael Trujillo and its aftermath. Trujillo ruled the Domincan Republic beginning in 1930 and ending with his assassination in 1961. Some of the story also takes place in Trujillo's prisons when the Mirabal sisters are arrested.
 *  In the Time of  the Butterflies

**__Characters__** The main characters throughout the entire book are the Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva, Dede, and Maria Teresa. The "Las Mariposas" as they are later known as, become very involved in the resistance to fight against Trujillo's regime. However, Patria, Minverva, and Maria Teresa were much more active in the resistance than their sister, Dede.

**__Plot __**   //In the Time of the Butterflies// is about four sisters' struggle to do away with the dictator Rafael Trujillo. The story begins with Dede, the only surviving Mirabal sister, telling the story of her and her sisters to an interviewer. She begins with describing her life as a little girl living under the Trujillo Regime. As the four sisters grow older, they begin to realize the injustice of the dictatorship. A butterfly becomes their symbol, which represent their main goal against Trujillo's dictatorship, independence. The sisters experience many difficult times and are able to show great bravery. They eventually join an underground resistance, which they become a big part of. In the resistance, the four sisters are given the code name "the butterflies," or "Las Mariposas."

__**<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Themes **__ <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The most common theme in this book is the ruinous effect that dictatorship can have between a nation and its citizens, both emotionally and physically. The effect of Trujillo's Regime on the citizens of the Dominican Republic are revealed through the lives of the Mirabal sisters. Another theme in the book expresses the need for human rights because life is about more than just survival. The sisters begin to fight for these rights when they decide to join the resistance.

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">**__<span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">About the Author __** <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The author of //In the Time of the Butterflies// is Julia Alvarez. She was born in New York City on March 27, 1950. She is also the second born of four daughters. Soon after her birth, the family moved to the Dominican Republic, where her parents were involved in an underground movement to overthrow the Dominican dictator Rafeal Trujillo. Eventually the movement was discovered and the Alvarez family was forced to flee back to New York. They moved to Queens, New York in order to escape imprisonment and possible death. <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Its safe to say that Julia Alvarez based the book on events that occured in her own life. Though the book is based on actual events, the main characters are fictional. The book is told in both first and third person by the Mirabal sisters dipicting the events that took place during their lifetime under a dictatorship. Each chapter is told by a different sister, which makes the lengths vary in each chapter. Hearing the different tales of each sister is helpful to fully understand what was taking place. Each sister seemed to believe similar ideals in the beginning of the book, but those ideals changed slightly for each of them as the book progressed.

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">**__Other works__** <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Julia Alvarez's other works include //How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,// //The Best Gift of All: The Legend of La Vieja Belen, Once Upon Quinceanera, and The Legend of Altagracia.//

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">**__<span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Critical and Personal Assessment __** <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">I personally enjoyed this book very much. It was interessting to learn about how much a dictorship can effect everyone. I also, liked that each chapter was told by a different sister because I got to see how the dictorship effected each of them in different ways. A review from Amazon.com says, "Alvarez's controlled writing perfectly captures the mounting tension as 'the butterflies' near their horrific end. The novel begins with the recollections of Dede, the fourth and surviving sister, who fears abandoning her routines and her husband to join the movement. Alvarez also offers the perspectives of the other sisters: brave and outspoken Minerva, the family's political ringleader; pious Patria, who forsakes her faith to join her sisters after witnessing the atrocities of the tyranny; and the baby sister, sensitive Maria Teresa, who, in a series of diaries, chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and the physical and spiritual anguish of prison life."

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">For more information on the dictator Rafeal Trujillo and his regime, go to <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Le%C3%B3nidas_Trujillo <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">. For more information on Julia Alvarez, go to <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">http://www.notablebiographies.com/A-An/Alvarez-Julia.html <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif;">.