How To Struggle In Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of Butterflies

648 Words2 Pages

The novel; In the Time of Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez depicts the story of four sisters under the rule of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The tyranny that resulted from his rule ended many lives of innocent people. This disregard for human life ruined the Mirabel sister’s lives and resulted in the death of three of them. This lasted until his assassination. Throughout the story the author switches between the view points of the sisters in order to tell her tail. It was difficult to find out who was the main narrator of In the Time of the Butterflies was, the author kept switching between different viewpoints in order to effectively tell the story of the Mirabel sisters. The Mirabel sisters spoke in firsthand accounts of what happened to them. It seemed …show more content…

A primary example is when the reader is told, "A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past” (Alvarez pg 10). Dede feels this chill after her father mentions Trujillo in an unfavorable way, and with all of the spies that he has around they have plenty to be scared of. This clearly shows the emotion that is being felt, and portrays the fear that this time period instilled in the people of the Dominican Republic. Minerva shows her emotional connection to her sister by stating, "I pictured myself on a hot day falling, slowly and deeply, into those cold layers of water. I held on tight to my sister's hands, no longer afraid of anything but that she might

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