Do you have secrets that you would never tell anyone else? In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez formats Maria Teresa’s chapter as a diary to offer the reader a more personal connection to the character and her life story. Maria Teresa, who is eleven and twelve in this chapter, confides in her “Little Book” and tells it things that she would never tell others, like how she cries when others laugh at her (Alvarez 31). Through the reader being able to read her diary, they know something that Maria Teresa’s family and friends do not know giving the reader a more intimate connection with the character. It also allows the reader to become more invested in the story because they now want to see if any of Maria Teresa’s secrets have
Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World is a memoir by Catalina de Erauso detailing her experiences during the early 1600’s in South America and Spain. She was born in 1585 into a well off Basque family and her parents were native-born residents of San Sebastian Spain. This book is one of the earliest known autobiographies by a woman and details the events that took places when Catalina escaped a Basque convent dressed as a man. During this time she served as soldier in the Spanish army, traveling to Peru and Chile, and even becoming a gambler. Being that my major falls under sociology, I will be looking at themes surrounding the constraints of females in Spanish society in the 1600’s and how this affects Catalina.
In the Time of the Butterflies Courage In this essay I will be talking about how Dede’s, Patria’s, Maria’s courage changes throughout the book, what events caused it, what courage means to them, and how they show courage in the book. First we will focus on Patria’s courage. Some of the events that help Patria develop courage is that she realizes that she’s not living free. She figures out that her family and her friends are being lied to that
Because these characters represent their respective nations, the end of their stories portray what their authors predict the future of their countries will be like. In doing so, these novels impact the culture of their countries by providing a voice to groups of people who had none before. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, the downfall of the Buendía family is caused by the repetition of their sins. The family line comes to a tragic end in an event predicted decades ago, as “it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of man,” which happened only because the Buendía family kept repeating their incestuous ways (Marquez 417). They are trapped in a cycle of history, and Marquez predicts the same tragic, yet realistic, outcome for Colombia if the country keeps repeating the same mistakes.
In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez uses the motif of a butterfly to compare the four sisters and depict their experiences. A butterfly undergoes complete metamorphosis, and the larvae grows to become completely different than the adult butterfly. They begin as eggs, then become the larva, or caterpillar. They continuously grow throughout this stage caterpillar stage. After full growth, a caterpillar develops into a pupa, or chrysalis; which is kept protected inside a silk cocoon.
Brave Orchid’s children are not the only ones who have to bear their mother’s impositions. There is Moon Orchid, Brave Orchid’s sister, who has newly immigrated to the United States. She is the “weaker” character and can be seen as a foil character to her sister (Hunt 9). The difference between these two sisters is that Brave Orchid willingly rejects to assimilate, whereas Moon Orchid tries but fails to assimilate into the Western society. She tries to communicate to her nephews and nieces; nevertheless, the gap between them cannot be bound due to the language barrier.
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 Mirabal sisters were revolutionaries who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. During the revolution, they were given the code name “Las Mariposas”, or “the butterflies”. The term “mariposa” suits each sister in a different way. Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and Mate Mirabal each have their one reason to be compared to a butterfly. The nickname “mariposa” shows who the Mirabal sisters are; they transformed from domestic, innocent mothers and wives into brave, defiant martyrs for national freedom.
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.
Marxist Criticism focuses on class struggle and power structure in a literary piece (Davidson). In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez can be analyzed using Marxist Criticism to show how power is maintained in the novel. Trujillo maintains his power by convincing girls to live in his homes, jailing citizens who try to overthrow him, and killing citizens that he has large problems with. Trujillo uses his authority to make all of his citizens obey him so that he can keep his power, or else they must deal with severe consequences. Trujillo acts this way to prove that he is the man in charge and ultimately prove that he is unbeatable.
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).
Imagine you and your family living under a gruesome dictator and having no freedom . Julia alvarez “ a genetics of justice “ is a novel about a young girl and her family living under a dictator with a totalitarian government in the dominican government. In this novel you learn about her journey and how she becomes to be the women she is today . “No flies fly into a closed mouth “is a quote used by her mother through the text. In the novel it also talks about the dictator and is unusual daily life .
Marco Pérez Dr. Rony Garrido The short novel, Aura, by Carlos Fuentes creates a mythical reality to reference Mexican history. He uses Aura, Felipe Montero, and Consuelo as a reflection of the past and the present, where for example, Consuelo represents the past and Felipe the present. In this paper I will explain how the love story of Felipe, Aura, and Consuelo represent Mexican history. In addition this paper will explain how myth breaks down into different elements, such as religion, legends, traditions, and beliefs, all of which are manifested in the different characters and their actions within this novel.
To live life as if you will die tomorrow is the key to a happy and inspired life. The Time of the Butterflies written by Julia Alvarez is a book about the Mirabal family and their fight for freedom. While all of the sister are off fighting a revolution against the tyrant Trujillo, one sister, Dedé is stuck at home. In the end of the book freedom is reached, but not before three of the sisters, Maria Teresa, Patria, & Minerva also known as The Butterflies are murdered in a “car accident”.
The movie Butterfly, is a 1999 drama film directed by Jose Luis Cuerda. In the opening clip, the story takes place in a small town in Galicia, northwestern Spain in the year of 1936 during Spain’s second republic and right before the outbreak of the Spanish civil war. Throughout the film, there are many themes that were introduced such as childhood, loss of innocence, freedom and liberty. One of the biggest themes introduced is childhood which is then abruptly changed with the fragile situation of the Spanish civil war. We are introduced to this theme in the opening clip when Moncho is afraid of going to school because he has heard that teachers hit the children.
