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Summary Of In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

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In the book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, Minerva is shown to be motivated to fight for the revolution and for the people. This revolutionary mindset has led her to fight against Trujillo, led her into prison, and eventually led to her death. Her attempts weren’t for nothing though as Trujillo would fall shortly after and Minerva and her sisters would be remembered as leaders of the revolution. Throughout her life Minerva’s relationships and health has been greatly impacted by her revolutionary ideologies because of how devoted she is to her goals, her relationships with her sisters, and her mental health struggles after being released from prison. Minerva’s driving motivation throughout a good part of her life had been …show more content…

Just as the revolution was really kicking off, three of the four sisters began to play a more and more important role. One day, under the goal to unite the whole family under the evolution, the three sisters approached Dede to try and convince her to join the cause: “An awkward silence fell upon them. Dede braced herself. She expected Minerva to make an impassioned pitch for using the family farm, for a munitions storage. But it was Mate who spoke up, the little sister who still wore her hair in braids and dressed herself and her baby girl in matching dresses” (Alvarez 178). With Minerva being the face of the revolution, Dede expects her to be the one to bring up the revolution and be the sole person responsible for trying to rope her into it. She in no way expects it to be Mate who speaks up. This demonstrates the growing rift between Minerva and Dede, aided in no small part by Minerva’s revolutionary ideas and Dede’s husband. While they still care for each other, Dede doesn’t trust Minerva as much any more and Minerva feels like it's her job to unite the family for the revolution. This rift will eventually be the reason Dede lives but she regrets not helping her sisters. After the brutal stay in prison, Minerva and Mate were released and put under house arrest where they could be with their family: “When we were released in August and put under …show more content…

While Minerva was home she was placed under house arrest. She could only go to two places; the prison to visit her husband and the church. During these visits to church she felt pressured to put on a happy face: “I hid my anxieties and gave everyone a bright smile. If they had only known how frail was their iron-will heroine. How much it took to put on that hardest of all performances, being my old self again” (Alvarez 259). Prison had torn everyone apart and had forced them to fight for their survival. Reflecting back on this has caused Minerva pain but she doesn’t want to show weakness when everyone is counting on her as the face of the revolution. These pressures on her cause her to break down mentally while still trying to give “everyone a bright smile” and be the one that they look up to. All this pressure builds up inside of her and she doesn’t know who to reveal it to without worrying her family further. After spending time with her family again, Minerva began to wish to be doing more for the Revolution. While under house arrest she is visited by an old friend and she thinks to

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