Before We Were Free Analysis

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Before we were Free Before we were Free, by Julia Alvarez, captures the experiences and the challenges of twelve year-old Anita de la Torre living in the oppressed Dominican Republic. Anita has spent most of her years as an ebullient adolescent, thriving in the comfort and luxury found within the gates of her family’s lush compound. Anita is torn from her euphoric life around her twelfth birthday in 1960, when the walls of her safe haven seemingly crumble as she discovers more and more about the reality of her broken country, it’s threatening dictator, and her family’s involvement in a plan to overthrow him. Before we were Free boasts a similarity to The Book Thief. Both of these books focus on a torn nation and a dictator. Perhaps the most similar feature in these two books lies in the personalities that they revolve around--teen girls facing increasing dangers, yet managing to persevere even when they feel as though they cannot go on any longer. Although the books revolve around different eras and different dictators, they closely mirror one another. This book explored what it meant to be coming-of-age during a time of conflict. Throughout these times in history, we often …show more content…

Chucha said,“Things will be happening soon for which there is no protection. No protection but silence, no protection but dark hiding places, wings, and prayers” (pg. 50). This quote is so important because it foreshadows the events to come. Throughout the book, Anita and her mother had to hide in a closet, pray for survival, and eventually clamour onto a dragonfly helicopter headed for New York. Julia Alvarez, the author of the book, also utilized a metaphor, the wings, to refer to their plane ride, and also to them “flying free” of their country. Chucha’s message gave the reader slight insight into the future of Anita’s

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