Defiance in the name of freedom against the political clutch of a powerful dictator can bring about the consequence of inhumane punishment and loss, however, by preserving and telling the story of a great loss, one honors the memory of sacrifice and can find closure, making the cause worth the fight. The legitimacy of this statement is evidently valid when paired up behind the sacrifice of the three Mirabal sisters in the book by Julia Alvarez: In The Time of The Butterflies. Is any life worth living trapped in fear of harm or even death? How much misery and suffering can one tolerate from a higher power, before they seize opportunity to rise against the greater force. What triggers, and to what severity, drive one to the last resort of risking …show more content…
Afterward, she sums it up: "The complete list of losses. There they are. And it helps, I've found, if I can count them off, so to speak”. That same night, when Dede falls asleep, things are different; she does not hear the spirits of her sisters running through the house. Her telling the of the story of a great loss over to herself, honors the memory of sacrifice and she can find the sense of closure with the heroic tragedy of her dear brave sisters. She ponders the importance of what her sister were fighting for, and in the end, whether or not their relentless efforts were made in …show more content…
Death of course by assassination planned by El Jeffe’s forces that was skillfully carried out to make it look like a tragic accident. Of course it was no coincidence to anyone, it was meant by Trujillo to intimidate potential followers of the ever rising rebellion. Their fight to the end showed how they were proud and willing to fight for the better life and brake the chains of living in oppression. They proved they would not tolerate living miserably under an unjust government and this was truly inspiring. This is a genuine and desirable trait that they held strongly, and it gained them due respect and honor. They’ve set a shining example of how the will to make a difference can have drastic and incredible results effective or not to the immediate situation at hand, it encourages the surrounding people to question the value of their freedom. After the dictatorship fell, the trial of the murderers was on T.V. for a month, and they admitted to killing the Mirabal sisters and Rufino by strangulation. Although they died however, their sacrifice had not gone unnoticed. The memory of their sacrifice is honored today, by a national holiday and monuments, and through these closure is found, but their story is not lost. “Las Mariposas” leave an important legacy that enforces the ever existing
The play M Butterfly is a tale of love and betrayal. But unlike other love stories this tale also shows how Chinese people were perceived by western people in the early 60’s and maybe to this day, M butterfly shows us through gender, capitalism ethnicity and sexuality how three of the main characters all reflect those ideals and how they all relate to each other through those ideals.
Helena Maria Veramontes writes her short story “The Moths” from the first person point of view, placing her fourteen year old protagonist female character as a guide through the process of spiritual re-birth. The girl begins the story with a description of the debt she owes her Abuelita—the only adult who has treated her with kindness and respect. She describes her Apa (Father) and Ama (Mother), along with two sisters as if they live in the same household, yet are born from two different worlds. Her father is abusive, her mother chooses to stay in the background and her sisters evoke a kind of femininity that she does not possess. The girl is angry at her masculine differences and strikes out at her sisters physically. Apa tries to make his daughter conform to his strict religious beliefs, which she refuses to do and her defiance evokes abuse. The girl’s Abuelita is dying and she immerses herself in caring for her, partly to repay a debt and partly out of the deep love she has for her. As her grandmother lay dying, she begins the process of letting go. The moth helps to portray a sense of spirituality, re-birth and becomes, finally, an incarnation of the grandmother. The theme of the story is spiritual growth is born from human suffering.
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.
Through the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez paints a picture of life in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, also known as El Jefe. His rise to power started with National Guard and eventually by 1928, led to the role of Commander in Chief in the new National Armed Forces. By thirty-seven, through the “Secret of Trujillo” – or intimidation tactics, manipulation of his military control, and fraud - he secured the position of president and control of the residents (Alvarez 17). Life under the dictator was very restrained as he had banned anyone or anything that could express dissent, took control of trade and property, and established a secret police to do his bidding. In the
In the Western world, Butterfly represents a stereotype of the Oriental woman. The stereotype of an obedient, submissive, and domestic Asian woman appeals to Westerners through other media beside the opera; for example, the “mail-order bride trade” catalogues and TV spots. The story of the white devil Pinkerton and a sub-missive Asian girl Cio-Cio-San has become a cultural myth in Western world. In M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang parodies and deconstructs this myth. In his play, a French diplomat Rene Gallimard fantasizes that he is Pinkerton and his Chinese lover Song is his Butterfly. However, as Hwang says in the “Afterword” of the play, Gallimard “realizes that it is he who has been But...
Throughout centuries man has witnessed some of this worlds greatest tragedies; the destruction caused by the bubonic plague, the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the Rwandan Genocide. However, none of these can compare to the devastation caused by world dictators. The lives taken at the hands of these tyrannical rulers is unbelievably distressing, and ex-Dominican president, Rafael Trujillo is no exception. Throughout his thirty year reign over the Dominican Republic he is thought to be responsible for the lives of over 50,000 innocent people, none of these devastating losses, however, compare to the tragedy of the Mirabal sisters; three honourable women who did nothing but have a voice. The level of political misconduct and unjustified action was unbelievable and lead the sisters to drastic measures, Patria saying "We cannot allow our children to grow up in this corrupt and tyrannical regime, we have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, including my life if necessary.". In their efforts to try and overthrow the totalitarian they found themselves trapped in a situation where the lives of them and their families were constantly at risk, and in the end it was through their tragical ...
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
The Butterfly is a cinematic exploration with a political edge that fuses the tender relationship between a teacher and a student during the year 1936. Spain was intertwined in the struggle between the Mussolini inspired Nationalist Party and the Republicans. The main character Monchos life is constantly interrupted by the problems brought by the Civil War going on in the country.
Madame Butterfly (1898), a story written by John Luther Long, is perhaps one of the highly acclaimed works that has also been performed worldwide as an opera by Giacomo Puccini. It would later become the framework of David Henry Hwang’s 1988 play, M. Butterfly, which explores and reinterprets the stereotypes of Orientalism that are shown in Long’s original work. Both plays reflect the social ideologies of gender and race that have been constructed behind historical contexts of culture and politics. Despite its similarity in the ideologies, Long’s Madame Butterfly propagates the Western stereotypes of Orientalism in its interracial love story, while Hwang’s M. Butterfly skillfully challenges those stereotypes.
In the opening pages of the text, Mary, nineteen, is living alone in Albuquerque. Vulnerable to love, depressed and adrift, she longs for something meaningful to take her over. Just as she is “asking the universe whether or not there was more to life than just holding down boring jobs”, she takes on the job of helping an illegal (political) refugee, José Luis who had been smuggled from El Salvador to the United States, to adjust to his new life in Albuquerque. She instantly falls in love with him and hopes to start her life over with the new aim of “taking the war out of him.”(p. 4) Providing a refuge for him, Mary, as Fellner suggests, “imagines herself to be whole and complete in the experience of love”. (2001: 72) She willingly puts José Luis as the “center” of her life (p.5) with the hope that “love would free her from her dormant condition” (Fellner 2001: ...
Fifty-seven years ago on an abandoned road in the Dominican Republic, three venerated sisters and their driver were murdered. Their death actuated the eradication of the vicious dictator, Rafael Trujillo. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez illustrates this compelling story: the story of the Mirabal sisters. The author gives life to these women as a tribute to them and as an attempt to share their heroism and bravery with North American readers who were not familiar with the sisters’ impact. Critical reviews of Alvarez’s novel differ. Many critics praise the novel, some identify weaknesses in the work, and one critic categorizes the work as belonging to a new genre.
In the novel Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, we come across many topics we can derive from the book. As we read the novel one of the main topics we came across was Monarch Butterflies. We learned numerous things about these Butterflies throughout our reading. One of the numerous things was how to tell the difference between male Butterflies to female ones. In our paper, we will be giving great detail on the difference between the male and female butterflies based on the research that we have done.
Carolyn Forche’s “The Colonel” discusses the lack of value towards human life by totalitarian government and the United States’ stake in investigating these powers and challenging them. The speaker in this poem recounts his experience meeting the colonel to show the audience both the amount of presence of the United States in this foreign setting and the Colonel’s lack of regard toward human rights. Figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and symbols, as well as the speaker’s first-person point of view descriptions reveal her experiences in El Salvador with a cruel military government. These elements in Forche’s poem successfully convey themes of oppression and cruelty, as well as heavy
The sisters begin leading a rebellion by educating their fellow citizens even though this was at a very dangerous time in the country. The sisters display outstanding bravery and are admirable leaders in their communities. Since this novel is based on a true story, the impacts of the mirabal sister can still be seen today all across the Dominican Republic. The students of Magnificat are called to follow in these courageous women's’ footsteps and positively change the world.
At the end of the play M. Butterfly, a jailed French diplomat turned spy named Gallimard says, "There is a vision of the Orient that I have" (Hwang 3.3.7). In that moment he is implying that there are still beautiful women, as he thought his "Butterfly" was. This is suggestive of the colonial appeal. Colonization is made possible by one society characterizing another in a way that makes it seem like a good idea. The characterization of these cultures, such as the Orient or Africa, is carried out through literature, works of art, and drama. Certainly, plays, poems, books, and stories are only a few of the ways used to convince the masses of a modern nation of the justification to colonize. If one wants to rebel against colonization, one would need to place corruption upon the colonizer so to support the liberation. This approach looks to be accepted in drama, where there are two excellent illustrations of postcolonial literature, M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang, and A Tempest by Aime Cesaire. Both plays are re-worked versions of and Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly and Shakespeare's The Tempest, and retain similar characters and basic plots. Shakespeare's and Puccini's works created symbols of other cultures. Caliban is the black devil, and Cio-Cio San is the timid and beautiful "Butterfly." These symbols have become stereotypes in Western culture, and formed, the justification for colonization.