Minerva observes this moment of deep emotion in the face of her mother, one of the many women who has suffered the loss of her husband's fidelity; this simple moment gives direct insight into the hopes and losses of Mama, the strongest source of care for the Mirabal family. With the dictatorial power of Trujillo still bearing down upon the Dominican Republic and his recent interest in the Mirabal family, fear is even more prominent in the lives of the sisters and those around them. And the family's loss of their highly fallible father to another woman was not cohesive to the structure and stability of their already shaky world. As a woman, Mama would be expected to fall subject to the wishes of her husband, but it is often seen that her opinion is the one that wins out (probably due to Papa's unstable mentality and Mama's persistent care about the welfare of her daughters). Already dealing with the stresses of taking care of her family and Trujillo's ever-looming presence, Papa's infidelity is a blow to both her self-confidence and the familial structure that she has tirelessly slaved over. …show more content…
When he is freed from his cruel detainment, Papa's appearance is gaunt and his spirits are low, fearing that the crops (their source of sustenance) are spoiled. In an attempt to comfort him (and most likely herself as well), Mama reaches out to her husband through a memory. This memory, though simple and seemingly insubstantial, acts as two things: a pathway back to better times and a link between the now distant spouses. Mama's love for her husband is painted all over her face, and Minerva sees the return of her mother's hope that one of her greatest losses might not be irretrievable after
He comes out and asks her what she wants, but she runs away. When Papa gets home that night, he brings Minerva outside into the garden, where he slaps her. After he slapped her, he says "thats for not respecting me" and she replies "you have lost it". Minerva has also found an invitation to one of Trujillo's private parties in her father's
She always stood strong in the face of adversity and never gave up what she believed in. Moreover, Mama’s plant was another way the playwright showed us how strong Mama’s beliefs were. Mama always wanted a garden to grow beautiful
Although Minerva spends her life battling against the implacable wrath of Trujillo, the two are more alike than Minerva would care to acknowledge. Minerva Mirabal, a rebellious woman aspiring to make a change in the world and Trujillo, a ruthless dictator, have many apparent differences. Despite this, they both share a multitude of qualities: obstinace, contentiousness, and tenaciousness. While walking to the Discovery Day Dance, Minerva makes a candid comment about the severe rain and her sister Patria snaps, "Ay, Minerva, por Dios, keep that tongue in check tonight"(Alvarez 94). Patria believes that if Minerva does not watch what she says at the party, she will put herself in grave danger.
As time passes by many unusual circumstances begins to test the strength of Pedro’s and Tita’s love for each other. The ethical dilemma faced by Tita was whether to either follow tradition and stay by her mother’s side
Antonio is subject to constant expectations by both of his parents of whose legacies they want him to follow. His mother wants him to be a priest, following in the footsteps of his mother’s Catholic family. Meanwhile, his father wants Antonio to be a true Márez, a vaquero, not to be a priest. The way his parents view his life and how it will affect their family are also telling to their perspective of life, and show how Antonio’s perceptions of the world are warped by his parents’
Mama is always hoping that the plant will pull through and survive. She feels the same way for her family. She hopes that they will be able to move into a new house with a garden and live a better life. “ …Big Walter used to say, he’d get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes and say, ‘Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while. ’”(Act 1, Scene 1; 47).
The Last line that relates to Mama is “Does it dry up”. This relates to Mama because she is starting to lose the power in the family and she is giving it to Walter. Mama also doesn’t own anything and is starting to lose Walter, “I ain’t got nothing, don’t own nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you” (106). After she gave him the power Walter started to be more happy and even though Mama lost the money, at least they are
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…”.
In Julia Alvarez’s “A Genetics of Justice” three central ideas are used to develop her autobiography. She uses the ideas of trauma, silence, and voice throughout. Trauma is a main idea in the text. For example, it is present in multiple areas of the text. The text states “...the dictatorship that my parents endured most of their lives...under the absolute control of Generalisimo Rafael Leonardo Trujillo.. families...kept their daughters out of the public eye, for Trujillo was known to have an appetite for pretty girls...
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 and her family have a lot of trauma considering there lives in the dominican republic and living under the dictator,through it all alvarez's parents raised a daughter who would share their story in a fashionable matter that told the story how it was.
In the beginning of the film, viewers realize fairly quickly who the two main characters are because of the dramatic fighting between Vivi Abbott Walker and her daughter, Siddalee Walker. In the start of the film viewers assume or believe Vivi Walker is an over dramatic high class southern mother. Vivi was high string and acted like a child when it came to fighting with her daughter. Siddalee came off as more of the laid back creative type because she is a play writer. The first phone call viewers see between Vivi and Sidalee is very different from the average phone calls between a mother and daughter because Sidalee is begging her fiancé not to answer the phone because she knew it would be her mother.
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.
Mama cares for the plant by feeding, watering and checking all through the day on it to make sure it was still doing well. She also does this for the family. Mama always wants the best for them and would do anything to keep them happy and well. Mama uses the plant as her fuel to always put the family first and to remember her dreams, as well as remind her family of theirs (Shmoop Editorial Team). Throughout the play, Mama’s plant symbolizes many things to the Younger family.