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Essays on deconstruction in literature
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In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies Dede’s three best friends are dead. She has to figure out a way to carry on without them no matter how much she misses them. These three best friends of course are her sisters who fall victim to the regime of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Before their deaths, Dede cannot imagine a life apart from her sisters, but Dede realizes that she can keep her sisters alive by becoming a living martyr for them by keeping their memory going and carrying on their legacies. This unusual suffering is one where Dede gives up her whole personal life so much that it is now less about her and more about her deceased sisters. Dede is a martyr for her sisters who sacrifices her own life through taking …show more content…
Unsurprisingly, these interviews take up large amounts of time and get very repetitive which is a large sacrifice for Dede. Dede portrays several things about her sisters in these interviews, the first of which it their bravery. One example of this is when she tells about how Minerva stands up to Trujillo when he is sexually harassing her. Dede talks about how her sisters fought in the revolution just to show how incredible their dedication is. This is best seen in how she tells the reporter about how Minerva and Mate refuse a pardon in prison to fan the flames of revolution. The last part of these interviews that Dede must offer up for her sisters is the sheer number of them. The interviewers have pestered her for thirty-four years, yet she still does them on her sisters’ behalf. Dede thinks to herself, “Oh dear, another one. Now after thirty-four years the commemorations and interviews have almost stopped… Every year as the 25th rolls around, the television crews drive up. There’s the obligatory interview.” (3). Dede is a martyr in this peculiar way: speaking for her dead sisters, and carrying out their legacies. This task presents itself to Dede so often that has become a hassle for her, yet she still does it for the love of her …show more content…
Being born less than a year apart from two of one’s siblings, and having a younger sibling-older sibling bond with the other draws Dede very close to her sisters. As a result, she spends much of her time with her sisters and loves them dearly. This is best illustrated when Dede attempts to stop them from going out on the trip through the mountains to visit their husbands. It would be unbearable for Dede to live without her sisters, yet when they die, she must carry on. This in and of itself is a huge sacrifice. The second hard part about Dede outliving her sisters was how she agonizes over how she did not join the revolution and help them. She must spend the rest of her life thinking to herself: “Why them and not me.” Dede dies to herself, and cannot contain her sorrow when she mourns the gruesome deaths of her sisters. It is very difficult for her to keep this emotion from boiling over. Dede thinks to herself at the end of the novel: “…maybe it was for something that the girls had died.”(310). It was at this moment that Dede’s yoke becomes lighter, and she realizes that living without her sisters was a worthy
In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical fiction novel by Julia Alvarez based on events that occurred during the rule of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. This book shows the hardships the Mirabal Sisters had to go through while being part of an underground effort to overthrow the dictatorship of Trujillo. It also shows that ultimately, it was their courage that brought upon their own death. Alvarez wants us to understand anyone and everyone has the potential to be courageous.
In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, takes place in the Dominican Republic during Trujillo’s control of the country. Dedé and Minerva are two extremely different Mirabal sisters, shown by how they respond to Trujillo taking over their country. Dedé and Minerva are only two of the sisters. There are four in total: Minerva, Dedé, Patria and María Teresa. The four sisters take turns throughout In the Time of the Butterflies telling their stories from the 1940s while living in the Dominican Republic. Manipulating her point of view and attitude, Julia Alvarez uses an impassioned style of writing to portray Minerva’s strong leadership and an explicit style of writing to portray Dedé’s willingness to compromise.
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
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.
Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is an account of the four Mirabal sisters’ lives in the Dominican Republic during Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship. Three of the Mirabal sisters - Minerva, Patria and Maria Teresa sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom by participating in the underground movement which opposed Trujillo’s dictatorship. Their participation in the revolution was a threat to Trujillo’s power and this resulted in the three sisters being killed. The novel tells the story from the point of view of each of the four siblings. The sisters, also referred to as, “The Butterflies,” each had a different approach to dealing with life under Trujillo’s reign. Minerva, the first person from her family to join the revolution, was motivated by principles and she contributed consistently to the revolution. Dede is the only survivor from the Mirabal sisters’ family, this is because she did not participate in the revolution. However, she takes care of the deceased children and tells the story of
Despite the various acclamations In the Time of the Butterflies has received, the novel actually received a bit of criticism in the literary realm due to controversial subject matter. One school in Port Washington even decided to ban Julia Alvarez’s novel. A student from this district commented on the school board’s decision stating “The Port Washington school district has a national reputation for diversity and open-mindedness; we should keep it that way. So we were surprised and distressed when we first heard about the school board 's decision to ban Julia Alvarez 's novel ' 'In the Time of the Butterflies ' ' because it included a
A beautiful, captivating, and revolutionary story, In the Time of the Butterflies, was written by Julia Alvarez and is a true account about struggle, courage, and love between four sisters, their families, and the people they encountered in their lives. This captivating story is so easy to relate to, as it’s written by a woman, about women, for women. What comes across clearly throughout the story is the Mirabal sisters’ passion for the revolution and how it overwhelmed their lives and the lives of anyone that was involved, or came into contact, with them. This resulted in the sisters being better revolutionaries than mothers, wives, sisters, or daughters. Their passion for the revolution is what drove them the most and what ultimately drove them to involuntarily put their families’ lives at risk. They participated, and were involved in the revolution in spite of the risk of imprisonment and torture. The Mirabal sisters fought until death for what they believe in and the benefit of their country.
While staying at Mel’s home, the adolescent female narrator personifies the butterfly paperweight. The life cycle begins with the narrator “hearing” the butterfly sounds, and believing the butterfly is alive. The butterfly mirrors the narrator’s feelings of alienation and immobility amongst her ‘new family’ in America. She is convinced the butterfly is alive, although trapped inside thick glass (le 25). The thick glass mirrors the image of clear, still water. To the adolescent girl, the thick glass doesn’t stop the sounds of the butterfly from coming through; however, her father counteracts this with the idea of death, “…can’t do much for a dead butterfly” (le 31). In order to free the butterfly, the narrator throws the disk at a cabinet of glass animals, shattering the paperweight, as well as the glass animals. The shattering of the glass connects to the shattering of her being, and her experience in fragility. The idea of bringing the butterfly back to life was useless, as the motionless butterfly laid there “like someone expert at holding his breath or playing dead” (le 34). This sense of rebirth becomes ironic as the butterfly did not come back to life as either being reborn or as the manifestation of a ghostly spirit; instead its cyclic existence permeates through the narrator creating a transformative
"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." (Patria Mercedes Mirabal)
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
“For the dead and living.” There are two people one there is a story. The other there is a poem called The Butterfly. One is Kristina Chiger and the other was Pavl Friedmann. They wanted to be free from the Nazis. They were living in the Ghetto. This happened during the years 1939-1945. The reason the Germans were killing them was because they were Jewish. Kristina escaped by hiding in the sewer, and Pavl died. Kristina was there for 14 months. Pavl was in the Ghetto for 7 weeks.
... 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.
She passionately raves at length about the horrible deaths and her experience of loved ones dying around her; “all of those deaths… Father, Mother, Margaret, that dreadful way!” The horrific visions of bloated bodies and “the struggle for breath and breathing” have clearly cast a permanent effect on Blanche’s mind. She talks of the quiet funerals and the “gorgeous boxes” that were the coffins, with bitter, black humour. The deaths of Blanche and Stella’s family are important to the play as they highlight the desperation of Blanche’s situation through the fact that she has no other relative to turn to. This makes Stella’s decision at the end of the play seem even harsher than if Blanche had just simply shown up on her doorstep instead of going elsewhere.
Revenge is a fault many would admit to, due to the difficulty of forgiving someone from past experiences with them. Envision a young girl taking music lessons from an older, male, family friend a few blocks from her house. She was kidnapped and eventually tracked down several years later. The police gave up their search for the man, as too many years had passed. The young girl lived her teenage year’s recalling memories of the torture that was inflicted upon her in the past. Imagine being placed in this situation with this being your daughter, girlfriend or wife. After one reads Death and the Maiden, they will understand the atmosphere of torture, sexual knowledge, justice, and revenge. Seen throughout the lives of the three main characters was a similar atmosphere which this young girl was also put through. While observing the interaction of truth and injustice between Paulina, Gerardo, and Roberto one will see the effect that injustice from the past left on their present lives.
... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her look at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation while she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.