Analysis Of Julia Alvarez: A Genetic Of Justice

It’s the secret of Trujillo’” ( Alvarez 17). As the Trujillo’s dictatorship begins, people started to afraid of saying things because he killed every single individual who is bad mouthing about him. In fact, when Lina’s story was unfolded, Minerva said, “ Lina Lovaton had gotten pregnant in the big house. Trujillo’s wife Dona Maria had found out and gone after her with a knife. I guess there was a whole other pretty girl now taking up his attention” ( Alvarez 23).

This novel is a historical story for four sisters who lived through the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Three out of the sisters had direct involvement with Trujillo’s regime and had a huge impact on their country’s history. Their impact left a mark on the Dominican people of national martyr’s that spoke out against injustice in their country. Through the novel “In the Time of the Butterflies” it is clear that these sisters were raised from a middle-class family of famers and had their future before them. Unfortunately, their future was dictated by Rafael Trujillo.

Through the De Leon family along with various characters who themselves are writers tried to unearth the otherwise the dark past of the Dominican Republic. Distinctively each of the writers within the story tried to show the dark history of the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, or as Yunior mockingly mentions in the very first footnote of the story: “For those of you who missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican History; Trujillo, one of the twentieth century’s most infamous dictators, ruled the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961 with impeccable ruthless brutality.”(Diaz 2). While Oscar’s stories are filled with misery, the narrator seems to put a peculiar interest on how Oscar trying to fall in love completely takes over his life as well as his writing, just as how a

Reading through the intrepid journeys of this novel, we come to learn about each of the four Mirabal sisters, along with her attitude and actions towards her merciless leader. In Julia Alvarez’s In The Time of the Butterflies, readers are introduced to four sisters living under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, the head of the Dominican Republic. All sisters harbor an intense hatred for the state, but among them, two sisters in particular bear stronger differences than the others—Minerva and Dedé. Minerva is an adamant character who delves deeper into the secrets of Trujillo and the coming revolution, whereas Dedé’s character shies away and lingers in the back.

The Mirabal sisters, also known as La Mariposas, have been known throughout the Dominican Republic for participating in a major revolution against their unjust ruler, Rafael Trujillo. After years of the sisters’ hard-work, along with the others who were involved in the revolution, their work paid off when Trujillo's regime ended with his assassination. However, in order for them to have taken part in this act against Trujillo, the Mirabal sisters had to sacrifice several things from their lives, most importantly, their freedom and their relationship with their family. Many people believe that these sacrifices were not necessary because the sisters didn’t need to go to the extent where the end result would be them orphaning their children. Nonetheless,

“You and Trujillo,” Papá says a little loudly, and in this clear peaceful night they all fall silent. Suddenly, the dark fills with spies who are paid to hear things and repeat them down at security. Don Enrique claims Trujillo needs help in running this country. Don Enrique’s daughter says it’s about time women took over the government. Words repeated, distorted, words recreated by those who might bear them a grudge, words stitched to words until they are the winding sheet the family will be buried in when their bodies are found dumped in a ditch, their tongues cut off for speaking too much” ( Alvarez 10).

Julia Alvarez: The Voice of the Mirabal Sisters Numerous accounts of families affected by oppressive dictatorships exist all around the world. Julia Alvarez, an author whose father was involved in a resistance group to such a regime, is a prime example of one of those stories. After leaving her childhood home of the Dominican Republic, Alvarez struggled to adapt her lifestyle to match that of an average American. During this time period, Alvarez recalled her experience under an authoritarian government and combined it with her impressive storytelling skills to create a fictional documentation of another family just like her’s.

But how did Trujillo truly affect their lives in a negative way throughout his reign in the Dominican Republic? The Mirabal sisters have experienced a struggle that have affected them personally in their decision making. Maria Teresa struggles after discovering her gender codes and societal

She has a couple of hobbies, like multitasking in hobbies. This Beautiful person is named Julia Alvarez. She moved from the Dominican Republic back to New York City when she was ten. That fact is important because she got involved in the underground and soon my family was in deep trouble. They left hurriedly in 1960, many of Alvarez’s works are influenced by her experiences as a Dominican in the United States.

Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).

Alvarez unfolds how Trujillo impacted her mother in a chronological order in a revealing way. Alvarez explains at first that her mother adores Trujillo. It was the way of life for the Dominican Republic people. She was raised to be this way in a life of her eyes revolving around this dictator who showed to be really good, but was not good at all. An example of a false representation of the dictator is Stalin or Hitler.

It was useful for Alvarez to apply literary and rhetorical devices to enhance the appropriate understandings of her symbols, and foreshadowing in her novel. The four sisters were most known as “Las Mariposas”, which in the English language translates to Butterflies. “Even in the church during the privacy of the holy communion, Father Gabriel bent down and whispered “Viva la Mariposa”” (Alvarez 259). Butterflies are known for its beauty, freedom, and short term lives. Which all three known facts represents the Maribel sisters, they had the face of angels but strong and determined to fight against Trujillo and the regime.

The memoir centralizes on the life and perspective of young Reyna watching her family drift apart from one another, and how she perseveres through tough situations. By reading through the eyes of a female, the readers are able to understand the innocence of a young girl, to watching her grow up to become a mature woman with values in comparison to her mother. Each female character represents different values of showcasing a strong female character. A prominent character that best

The narrator, a journalist and former friend of the victim ventures back to the small unnamed Caribbean town where twenty one year old Santiago Nasar resided. Santiago Nasar was a twenty one year old wealthy aristocrat. There he lived with his mother Placida Linero twenty seven years after the murder took place. The Bishop is coming to town at an arranged time and Santiago heads into town to attend the viewing of the Bishop with the rest of the town.

But this candy becomes a prayer for the safety of Mr. Pirzada’s daughters. Lilia’s awareness of the contrast between her situation and daughters of Mr. Pirzada is an eye opener for her to the complicated political struggle on an individual level.