In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a novel that highlights the struggle of being a woman while being under the regime of General Rafael Trujillo. In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, the protagonist, Minerva Mirabal, plays one of the most important roles by starting a revolution and believing that she could change the ideal image of a woman in the Dominican Republic. Minerva and her three sisters are demonstrated in a way that emphasizes the hardships of being a woman during that time. Julia Alvarez traces one of the strongest historical narratives about the Mirabal Sisters during the regime that took place between 1930 and 1961. Patria, Minerva, Dedé and Maria Teresa Mirabal were four strong women that fought against the stereotype established in the Dominican Republic.…
Minerva Mirabal’s Courage Maya Angelou said “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently”. In The Novel, The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, Minerva Mirabal shows a lot of courage. The novel tells the story of four sisters including Minerva. She was the first to get involved in the underground revolution against the Trujillo regime. There are three types of courage physical, moral and intellectual.…
Segregation from the society “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don 't matter, and those who matter doesn’t mind.” – Bernard M. Baruch. In today’s society teenagers are more concerned about fitting in with the widely held groups that they forget to discover their own aptitudes and faculties. This book hints on the issues of the young people who find it difficult to fit in. The Cage of Butterflies is a book inscribed by Brian Caswell in 1992.…
The Girl Who Won For most kids, growing up is pretty tough. For Julia Alvarez, it was even harder. The twisted paths of adolescence became blurred and incredibly confusing to Alvarez after she was, along with her family, forced to leave her native Dominican Republic for the strange United States. This culture shock was difficult to digest at the beginning, but then Alvarez became fueled by the bullies who taunted her accent and the missing pieces that being a “Dominican hyphen American” left in her life (Haley).…
Friendship will thrive On the planet the human race can rarely find peace with one another. Right now, brave individuals risk their lives in wars around the globe. A never ending battles between friends and foes. Although, some individuals just want peace in life. “Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye, tells the reader that individuals should care for one another through kindness and respect like a parent cares for a child.…
Comparing 'Storm on the Island' and 'Exposure' Both poets portray nature as powerful and something which cannot be controlled by man. In both poems the weather contributes to the overall effect on the reader. In 'Exposure' Owen uses weather to achieve effect at the beginning of the poem with the quotes: 'the merciless iced east winds' , 'mad gusts tugging' and 'clouds sag stormy'. These quotes set a theme for the rest of the poem, of pain, suffering and anticipation.…
The female stereotype is typically considered to be weak, passive, and marginalized; this notion can limit females’ ideas of what they can do and are allowed to do. In The Time of the Butterflies Julia Alverez, tells the story of the four Mirabal sisters living in a society where they are being repressed, through their family roles and expectations of being just a wife and mother. As they resist the dictatorship of Trujillo, they find their voices to speak out against the patriarchy suppressing them and change the ideas of the female gender. Alverez uses the Mirabal sisters’ experience of defying the stereotypical portrayal of females to demonstrate the power of resistance in response to patriarchal dominance. Alverez shows Minerva demanding…
An Anthology Of Rain by Phillis Levin is about The narrator trying to get the readers to watch the rainfall, to focus on the little things about the rain, on the little droplet and how it flows, and on where they go. She also encourages readers to say whatever comes across their mind. She is trying to say that no matter what you do the rain will…
The main character, Okonokwo, loses his first crop to a drought. Then, later in the novel, the rains wash away his and most of the other villager’s harvests. In the same respect; the good weather brings life and abundance. In the lives of this tribe; the goddess, Ani, plays an important role.…
“In the Time of the Butterflies” is a historical novel by Julia Alvarez, relating an account of the Mirabal sisters during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Maria Teresa is the youngest of the four Mirabal sisters. She is very superficial and materialistic in the beginning of the story, but she becomes a resilient, strong-willed revolutionary hero. Further, Maria Teresa is willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of her family’s right for a liberal nation. Maria Teresa is very artificial and bourgeois in the beginning of the story, but she becomes a robust, determined revolutionary hero.…
In the twentieth century Dominican Republic, soldier Rafael Trujillo rose through the military ranks, eventually becoming leader of his country. From there, he imposed a brutal regime, limiting human rights and freedoms. While citizens publically expressed approval of their government in order to avoid arrest, many belonged to underground groups that supported a revolution. Three of the most prominent members of this group were the Mirabal sisters: Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa. Minerva Mirabal was the first of the sisters to have these revolutionary ideas, and was the most radical of the three.…
In The Time of The Butterflies the book, like the movie is about four sisters who are set out to change the way their country is set up. During this time the Dominican Republic is dictated by Rafael Trujillo, also known as El Jefe, who to everyone around them is a man who needs to be worshipped and respected. All the sisters exhibit courage in their own way and take part in a revolution that are shown individually in both the book by Julia Alvarez and the movie directed by Mariano Barroso. Throughout the book the points of views vary within the sisters but in the movie the whole story was told in Minerva`s perspective.…
Transformation of Patria and Maria Teresa – Literary Analysis In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez takes the reader through the lives of the Mirabal sisters as they are living in the Dominican Republic under the rule of Trujillo and leads up to the death of the three sisters, which, was ordered by Trujillo on November 25, 1960 (“In the Time of the Butterflies”). Trujillo was a dictator who controlled his country in every aspect and exterminated those who opposed him including three of the Mirabal sisters who are “symbols of both popular and feminist resistance” (Rohter). Over the course of the novel, Dede and Minerva transform in a variety of ways with societal and governmental changes; however, Patria and Maria Teresa transform…
In the poem Porphyria’s Lover, by Robert Browning, I believe that the central theme is obsession. Throughout the poem, the narrator has what I believe to be an unhealthy obsession with a woman named Porphyria. The lover’s twisted and warped idea of love ultimately leads to Porphyria ’s, and possibly his own, death.…
While “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays” differ in the attitudes and tones of their speakers, they are alike in the complex family relationships and themes of familial love, masculinity and sacrifice, and nostalgic youth that they communicate to the reader. A close-reading of the poems, with special attention paid to the speakers and the ideas they are trying to get across, can end up telling far more about Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden than they may like. The speaker in “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a small boy having a grand old time waltzing with his father in the kitchen before bed. His father is a little rough with him, keeping time on his noggin and accidently scraping his ear against his belt buckle on every…