Within the novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” Mate, Minerva, Dede, and Patria had to create decisions to overcome obstacles that would transform each of their lives. Throughout the book, all of the sisters changed somehow. They all grew up, matured, and saw things how they never viewed before. While looking at these things at a different perception, they learned to make decisions that were sometimes brave and sometimes cowardly. Each of the Mirabal sisters had to choose whether or not to be fearful and give up, or be courageous and stand her ground, or make sacrifices to show her strength throughout the novel. Out of all the Mirabal sisters, being courageous was Minerva’s specialty to show how she feels without being verbal with her emotions, and to get her point across. Right from the beginning of the book Minerva chose to create actions that were not only courageous, but reckless. After Minerva found out about her other sisters she crashed her father’s Jeep into his Ford at his other lover’s house. As always, she wanted to make a scene, “My voice was as commanding as his. ‘You’ve lost my respect,’” (Alvarez 89). Her father was extremely disappointed with her, but she wanted him to know that what he was doing was extremely wrong. Crashing her father’s cars was definitely brave, and especially since she did it in front of her other family without any second thoughts. Towards the middle of the book, Minerva informed Mate about some things she did not know, “Manolo and Minerva have explained everything. A national underground is forming,” and this is when Minerva explained more about how they created a national underground to try to get everybody freedom no matter what happened (Alvarez 142). This national underground was a h... ... middle of paper ... ...just to protect others she cares about. Throughout the novel, all of the sisters viewed points at a different perspective. Each sister had courageous, fearful, and sacrificial moments, though some of them displayed one of them more than another. In the end, many of these moments allowed the sisters to gain power to overcome obstacles. Even though all of the sisters, except Dede, did not make it to live out their whole lives, they did the most they could to stand up for what they each believed in. It takes guts to follow your heart, but when you do, you gain courage and strength to do so. The Mirabal sisters might have not been the cliché super heroes in a book, but they showed what true humans would and would not do, which makes them a whole lot more respectful. Works Cited Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies. Chapel Hll: Algonquin Books, 2010. Print.
Minerva and Maria Teresa are two characters in Julia Alvarez’s In Time of the Butterflies. Minerva is one of the four main characters of the novel, as well as Maria Teresa. Minerva is the second youngest of the family and is very caring and kind. She was talking to her friend Sinita, who was one of the girls she met at school, and told her, “Tell me Sinita, maybe it’ll help” (Alvarez 16). Her friend Sinita told her the story about her brother’s death and Minerva felt sympathetic for her lost. Maria Teresa is the youngest of the Mirabal sisters and the ...
In The Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, the rule of Rafael Trujillo directly affected all four Mirabal sisters, Patricia, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Mirabal.
In The Time of the Butterflies, chapter six briefly explain why Minerva action against Trujillo led to the sister death. Minerva slapping Trujillo in the face was a sign of bravery that she was not going to let Trujillo dilated her action like he did to a bunch of other women. It was clearly shown that Trujillo wasn’t going to let this slide by, instead build various events to make her suffer, making her commit to this actions which eventually will give Trujillo a reason for murdering the sisters’.“ pg 83-101”. This evidence shows that Minerva is willing to break out from the barriers that society and Trujillo dictatorship is implementing on them, and make a change for the better. “Women hold their beaded evening bags over their head, trying to protect their foundering hairdo after Minerva slap Trujillo”(pg 100). This shows how during the era that Trujillo govern fear was upon every individual that step in the shadow of Trujillo even if you didn 't have anything to do with it. “But el jefe has other plans for me,” A mind of her own, this little cibaeña”(Trujillo), her smirks, rubbing his cheek, then turns to Don Manuel”(pg 101). This evidence shows that Trujillo had other plans to handles his
The Mirabals were farmers in the Dominican Republic. The mother's name is Mercedes Reyes Camilo and the father's name is Enrique Mirabal Fernandez. The whole family grew up in a middle- class environment. They didn't have many options of what way to live since they had to life in a time filled with harsh dictatorship. Minerva wanted to go to school instead of staying on the farm all the time.
In any culture women are often confined by expectations of womanhood. In both stories the female characters challenge those expectations. The main characters of In the Time of the Butterflies are all females who stand up for what they believe in and don’t give up. “’What if I can’t’ Dede’s voice shook. ‘Jaimito thinks
Two weeks is all it takes for a caterpillar to completely transition into a butterfly. Compared to our span of life, this seems like a rushed transition; however, there are certain ways that humans can change just as quickly as a caterpillar. Although these are not physical changes like the caterpillars, they still remain significant. In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez the characters experience changes in values, personal opinions, and political views. The character Patria fits the image of a butterfly as she rapidly changes in result of certain situations . Over the course of the book Patria quickly undergoes several momentous changes as she alters her political stance and values.
“had to be brave for Sinita.” (19). This “hero’s attitude” is further evident in Minerva’s interactions with her sisters. One poignant example of this heroism is seen when Maria Teresa confronts minerva about why she was going to secret meetings at Don Horacio’s house, and asks her why she's doing such a dangerous thing. Minerva responds that she wants maria teresa to grow up in a free country, perfectly illustrating how minerva is willing to sacrifice herself so that the people around her can grow up in a better
Minerva changed to become something she wasn't ; when all along she never was Minerva. She was everyone but herself;Minerva was great at influencing her sister for the better. But when her life took a turn for the worst, she became more violent and leaned towards the Revolution. Minerva says " A soul is a deep longing in you that you can never fill up but you try." Minerva becomes an individual that everyone decides on who she is and how she lives.
Fear influences people to make irrational decisions and take extreme measures. Often times, these actions are done to protect one’s reputation. Fear causes people to lie and manipulate to those they care about in order to escape what they are scared of most. Fear of failure has caused higher levels of anxiety, and has made society put blame on each other, rather than owning up to their mistakes. Fear can also cause one to forget one’s true identity and lose one’s values. There are two options that one can take when being faced with a fear: run away from the fear, or go through it and learn a valuable lesson in the end that will make you a stronger person. Fear is a harmful emotion that everyone has to go through in order to succeed.
Out from the kitchen and into the world, women are making a better name for themselves. Although humankind tends to be male dominated, men are not the only species that inhabit the world that they live on. In Julia Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies, the women of the Dominican Republic are expected to grow up to be housewives and lacking a formal education. Women may be cherished like national treasures, but they are not expected to fulfill their truest potentials as human beings.
Minerva influenced Patria by helping her understand why she hated Trujillo. While Patria was gazing at the picture of the Good Shepherd in comparison, Minerva said “They're a pair, aren't they?” (53). It then hit Patria, “That moment, I understood her hatred. My family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo, just as before, losing my baby, Jesus had not taken anything away from me. But others had been suffering great losses” (53). By comparing Trujillo to the Good Shepherd Minerva was able to get through to Patria. Though her constant tangents and speeches about the bad in Trujillo didn't seem to budge Patria, Minerva was able to connect the way Trujillo was depicted, to something that meant much more to Patria, her religion. This marked a turning point for Patria because she now truly believed and saw that Trujillo was bad. The Church gave Patria the opportunity to fight. “I couldn’t believe this was the same Padre de Jesús talking who several months back hadn’t known his faith from his fear! But then again, here in that little room was the same Patria Mercedes, who wouldn’t have hurt a butterfly, shouting, 'Amen to the revolution.' And so we were born in the spirit of the vengeful Lord, no longer His lambs” (163, 164). The church, being the thing that meant the most to Patria, was ready to fight. So Patria suddenly became ready to. Having
In the French revolution, some important catalysts were the winter famine, the raised food prices, and the poor spending of money by the French monarchy. Due to the lack of resources and food, people were fighting over resources. These events contributed to the French citizen’s angry attitude with the monarchy who they blamed for raising the already high food prices and poorly spending their already low sum of money. Similarly in In The Time of The Butterflies, each sister has a specific catalyst that encouraged them to join and support the revolution earlier than they would of. One sister’s catalyst that particularly stuck out was Minerva and the catalyst that convinced her to join the revolution. “Because Lio presented a very real opportunity to fight against the regime…. Minerva was never the same…”(66,Alvarez) Lio, who was a popular revolutionary, “presented a very real opportunity” for Minerva to actually transform her thoughts on the revolution and the regime into actions that actually could make a difference. Lio influenced and sparked Minerva’s thoughts for she “was never the same”. “Never the same” meaning the same Minerva, but a Minerva who thought proactively. In relation to this, the French Revolution would have later or never happened if the famine, high prices, and poor spending had not occurred. All in all, without a catalyst, social change could not
However, it is more important to remember that had the sisters not made the sacrifice, their movement would not have gotten the publicity and support it got after the acts by Minerva and the sisters’ brave move of going to visit their husbands even though they knew it was dangerous. Therefore, it is clear that the sacrifices that the Mirabal sisters made were very much worth it and instrumental in achieving social
In the poem “Crazy Courage” the author Alma Luz Villanueva tells the story of a man she went to school with named Michael B. In her poem she explains how Michael came to her fiction class as a man, then later on the same day he showed up to poetry class dressed as a woman. Michael got up in front of the poetry class for a reading
... perfect exemplars of how an ideal innocent women, can face undoubtedly tragic fates. Despite much strength in their characters, both Daisy and Desdemona exhibit the vulnerability of their innocence, the ability for others to take advantage of them, and glaring weaknesses. They are unaware of their surroundings, which lead to questionable actions. Their inevitable tragedies occur because of how each character dealt with these situations placed in front of them. All in all, Daisy and Desdemona are responsible for their tragedies because they are women placed in unfamiliar positions and are unable to deal with situations placed in front of them.