In The Time Of The Butterflies Feminist Analysis

During the 1930’s, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was the dictator of the Dominican Republic. Corrupt Trujillo ruled with an iron fist and maintained control by using the unscrupulous patronage system for appointing people to important offices, discretely murdering political opponents, and enforcing strict censorship laws. Many countries invested into the Dominican Republic without Knowing the horrors that the Regime was causing for the povern stricken people. Junot Diaz was raised in the Dominican Republic’s chaos and a sense of unity has been forced upon him for survival as a result.

In this novel, Drown, women are simply perceived as objects. The inevitable gender norms dictate what behavior is socially acceptable, specifically for women in the Dominican Republic society, but also encourages the practices of machismo. Machismo is defined as a strong sense of masculine pride; this umbrella term has become the explanation for the actions of males in Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic. Though machismo does not identify the women as inferior, it defines the man as superior. Gender roles in the Dominican Republic set the males as the providers and ultimate decision-makers, whereas women are seen as the caretakers of the home and family.

Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is a work of historical fiction set in the Dominican Republic that focuses on the four Mirabal sisters who bond together to rebel against the corrupt leader of their country, Rafael Trujillo. The four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and María Teresa form closer relationships with each other as they figure out a way to bring down the tyranny of Rafael Trujillo. Although they have a mutual goal, each of the Mirabal sisters has different feelings and thoughts throughout this time period. The theme of coming-of-age and identify is best exemplified through the character of María Teresa, known as Mate, through the ways she matures throughout the novel and becomes her own person who stands up for what she believes in.

Compare and Contrast Essay Outline Template I. Introduction a. General information about DR and Dominican Republic b. Similarities between these two countries c. Thesis statement II. Body a. Body paragraph 1: Differences/people. i. How are they considered - Extroverts vs shy people 1.

After skimming through Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology Literature by Women, I noticed the reoccurring themes of patriarchy, women subordination, and the strength to be creative despite oppression. During the times that these literary pieces were written, women were constantly battling the patriarchy in order to get basic rights. During the earlier time periods, intelligence was seen as a sign of an evil spirit in a woman, resulting in miniscule amounts of literary works written by women. Women were not provided with equal spaces to creatively express themselves, as mentioned by Virginia Woolf. Moreover, they were not given the same publishing opportunities, many women either went anonymous or by a fake male name to have their works published.

The female characters are portrayed as independent, strong willed women that are full of determination to fulfill their dreams, who also defy stereotypes. Minerva is portrayed as a strong woman when she fulfills her dream of getting a form of higher education, which also goes against social norms in the Dominican Republic. She says, “I want to go to the university[...]I’ve always wanted to study law” (Alvarez 98). By attending the university, Minerva is completing her dream and going against female stereotypes. Another example of women being strong willed in the novel is when the Mirabal sisters fight and die for a cause they believed in.

Another popular food they eat is called Mangu dominicano it contains Plantains,meat,eggs,vegetables, and they put other things if they decide to such as spices. They mainly eat it at lunch because that’s one of the most important meal of the day. Merengue Festival is one of the most popular festival’s in the Dominican Republic in July 26-31 which they dress up and dance with a partner as they shake their hips rapidly to their music. Baseball is one of their most favored sport by far in the Dominican Republic. The dominican Republic has the second-highest number of baseball players in Major League Baseball.

Many who get carried away by stereotypes about this group will say that they are dangerous or do not have a good education. For example, women should stay at home doing the housekeeping while the men work. But, this is not far from reality. Many of the women are affected because of the men in this group, they feel superior towards women. These women feel that they can be doing something better in their life, but there is someone who holds them back.

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.

Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is a work of historical fiction which is about four sisters who fight the oppressive leader, Rafael Trujillo, in the Dominican Republic. Dede, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Patria Mirabal are the four sisters who go against Trujillo, that are the epitome of a person’s courage, faith, compassion, and growth. These sisters come together and use these exemplary characteristics to fight an oppressive regime. The theme of the courage and strength to stand up to tyranny in In the Time of the Butterflies is best exemplified through the character of Minerva Mirabel, through her courage to stand up to Rafael Trujillo.

In The Time Of Butterflies was written by Julia Alvarez. Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. She wrote In the time of Butterflies in 1994. The book divided into four sections, which make the sisters to have their own sections. The story took place in Dominican Republic during President Trujillo’s dictatorship government.

The novel, Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic written by Ernesto Sagas explains about Dominicans facing issues of race, particularly inrelation to Haiti and national identity. “Dominican faced with the inescapable fact that their country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, have erected barriers of prejudice and racisms to distance themselves from their poor, dark skinned neighbors.” (SagÃs, Ernesto. Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic) In the first chapter, it briefly talks about the racial prejudices of Spanish colonial society in Santo Domingo.

Awesome Title in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich The feminist movement has grown and spread in the past decade. Women all over the world are standing up for basic rights, such as education, that all people, regardless of gender can enjoy. This movement is not a new one, though. Women from times past had already started paving the way towards some of the rights women have today.

Chapter 1: Cultural Analysis: The chapter focuses and is centralize on the cultural environment and phenomena of Dominican Republic. We have tried to study and determine the cultural factors on how and what our service will be. Along the run our introduction will tell us the main points in Dominican Republic’s Cultural Analysis. I. INTRODUCTION: “Dios, Patria, Libertad”

Feminist literary criticism’s primary argument is that female characters have always been presented from a male’s viewpoint. According to Connell, in most literary works, female characters often play minor roles which emphasize their domestic roles, subservience and physical beauty while males are always the protagonists who are strong, heroic and dominant (qtd. in Woloshyn et al.150). This means that the women are perceived as weak and are supposed to be under the control of men. Gill and Sellers say that feminist literary criticism’s approach involves identifying with female characters in order to challenge any male centred outlook.