Human rights dictate the power between the people and the government that has control of them. The people of the Dominican Republic during the revolution in the 1930’s through the 1960’s had their human rights violated and completely tampered with. In Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of Butterflies, Rafael Trujillo, the country’s corrupt President, violates the Freedom of Expression, No one can take away your Human Rights, and the Right to Life.
The Freedom of Expression allows you to think, say, and share what you want. Living under the reign of Trujillo during this time period caused this Human Right to be immensely limited. As Sinita told Minerva , “People who opened their big mouths didn’t live very long,” Sinita said, “Like my uncle
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And, that is in fact, exactly what Trujillo did to the people of the Dominican Republic. He took almost every single one away. “You still don’t get it? Minerva, don’t you see? Trujillo is having everyone killed” (Alvarez 19). Him having large quantities of innocent people killed goes completely against article 5 in the Human Rights document which states No Torture. No torture implies that nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us no matter what the circumstances are. Freedom of Expression is also an enormous Human Right Trujillo failed to follow. “It’s about time we women had a voice in running our country.” “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). As Trujillo implies that if they express their thoughts they will be killed is also foreshadowing the death of the Mirabal sisters later in the
The book combines a modern interview and a series of flashback memories to tell the girls’ story; the author’s use of rotating perspective also helps the reader gain specific insights into each sister’s life during the Trujillo regime. The late twentieth century was a period
The year 1960, Dede Mirabal life was changed forever, she lost three of her sisters’ in a car accident. Rafael Trujillo and the dictating government of the Dominican Republic was responsible for the sisters’ deaths. Trujillo put the sisters’ through an abundance of hardships while in power; he raped, tortured and drugged Minerva, the third sister. Trujillo may not have tortured all of the sisters’, but his impact was felt by all of them throughout the book. Minerva was against the government, hence the reason Trujillo committed all of those crimes, and lead many political movements against the government.
In 1960, three sisters Minerva, Patria, and María Teresa are members of a secret movement against Trujillo-- all except for Dedé, the surviving sister. Throughout the novel, all of these sisters develop in many areas. One of these important areas include the struggle of being a “good Catholic girl”. María Teresa (Mate), the youngest of the Mirabal sisters, goes through many struggles that gradually develops her
While he was there Bell remembers : “They kept us under guard at a private club. There were men with guns around all the time. We could leave the club only two days a week. I don’t know if they were trying to protect us or to keep us from getting away. I do know that one of the guards told me, ‘If you don’t win they’re going to kill Trujillo.’
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.
In the Dominican Republic, women were expected to go by what their husbands and fathers said. Women portrayed to have less power and authority than men. In “In the Time of the Butterflies”, the Mirabal sisters showed something very differently, instead they demonstrated the equal authority they have with their husbands. Their power challenged gender limitations that were forced on them by their patriarchal Dominican culture. Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa all were sisters who became involved in political movements against President Trujillo.
By killing the Mirabal sisters, Trujillo maintains his power by showing everyone else what he is capable of doing. Killing the Mirabal sisters instills fear in others around them because everyone knows what Trujillo is capable of. Trujillo instills this fear in people so nobody else will question his
It provides a role in character development shown predominantly in Patrias character. It shows the extent of Trujillo’s actions against the Dominican people by showing Patrias desperateness for her son. These examples depicted in the book show how the theme of religion has an impact on In the Time of the
The setting allows the reader to understand how people without honour are seen as outcasts of the society and the existence of a woman’s virginity is seen as a measure of her honour, as well as a precious commodity, which can purchase the family’s social advancement, through a marriage of convenience. Ángela states that Santiago deflowered her, but since “…she looked for it in the shadows…”, even though “She only took the time necessary to say the name.” we question this piece of information and its reliability, due to it being precise but also vague at the same time. Due to their sister stating this, Pablo and Pedro Vicario are ordered to reinstate their “…sister’s lost honour…”, ironically by their mother, to meet the expectations of the community and it is up to them to spiritually retrieve their sister’s virginity by killing Santiago. This means the brothers cannot back down from “…the horrible duty that’s fallen on them…” as “…there’s no way out of this…”.
When applying Marxist Criticism to the novel, readers can see that one way Trujillo is able to maintain his power is by convincing women to live in his homes. Trujillo owns many homes and has a woman live in each one. He uses his power to manipulate women to live secluded from their friends and family. The only thing that Trujillo gets out of doing this is having a fling, but he is able to show
In paragraph 27 it states ,”there were still old cronies of the dictator around who would love an excuse to go after my family after my father ,after her ,” the cronies were loyal servants to the dictator even when he was dead so alvarez's mother thought they were still in danger of being captured or killed ,because of the cronies the mother would live in fear unlike alvarez who didn't fully believe they would come after them . Alvarez wrote her novels knowing they may wreak havoc on her family members who were still in the dominican republic and maybe her parents and sisters. In paragraph 29 and 30 it talks about the last novel she wrote about the island and how her mother thought about it ,”I don't care what happens to us i'm so proud of you ,” her mother says ,alvarez wrote the novel at the risk of her family but her mother and her new the story had to be told and the things the people had to go through
It can be said without question that the Mirabal sisters made extreme sacrifices in the name of social justice. They gave up their time, their energy, their families, their safety, and finally, their lives. But did those sacrifices really make a difference? After all, they were killed before they could see Trujillo’s regime topple. And the sisters arguably did little to impact Trujillo’s reign and his assassination several months after their deaths.
From the moment that the Dominican republic was free from Trujillo’s dictatorship, contrasting viewpoints have come up regarding the sacrifices of the Mirabal sisters. While some argue that the Mirabal sisters sacrifices were not beneficial and worthwhile to the revolution because it resulted in the orphaning of their children and three young lives were lost. Others argue that the Mirabal sisters sacrifices were effective for the revolution since it changed the future of their country. I deem the sisters sacrifices are justifiable because their sacrifices had an important purpose. Isn’t it true that Trujillo's was absolutely in power for 31 years however, because of the three young sisters his cruel regime ended.
This paper explores the topic of freedom of expression. An important distinction to note is the difference between freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Freedom of speech constitutes any form of speech, this could include a statement that could be oral or written. Freedom of expression encompasses freedom of speech, it is an individual’s right to express their ideas freely through speech, writing and other communicative forms like comics, posters etc. In this paper, I will argue in favor of Scanlon’s Millian Principle; proving it is the most broadminded approach to the complex issue of freedom of expression- striking the perfect balance of preventing harm by appealing to an individual’s autonomy and preventing the censoring of opinions,
In addition to that, another great relevance of Pinochet’s extradition requests in Europe, was creating a political will for prosecutions at home, finally giving visibility to decades of militancy of victims, human rights advocates and lawyers in whole Latin America and in other parts of the world. In Chile, According to Stacie Jonas, the perception that the international community considered Pinochet a criminal, brought human rights issues back to the headlines and gave victims back their voices. His arrest motivated people to submit an avalanche of new cases against the former dictator. The Chilean courts removed many of Pinochet-appointed judges and promoted a reinterpretation of the country’s amnesty law.