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What is courage about minerva
Minerva and courage in the time of the butterflies
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Fighting for Freedom
Although the Mirabals have all had their courage put to the test, Minerva is the most courageous sister. All four sisters have gone through life together. They have had both ups and downs, but how they all have handled the downs is what truly shows their character. Minerva is a mature, intelligent, natural leader, who isn’t afraid to be the first to jump at something that she believes is wrong. She puts others before herself and fights for what is right. Although Minerva is courageous throughout her entire life, there are 2 major times when she steps up when most people would back away. Minerva shows an immense amount of courage when she has to confront Trujillo and throughout her entire relationship with papá.
Minerva
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Trujillo is worshiped and praised by most everyone in the Dominican Republic. Minerva knows that his doings do not deserve to be praised, and she does something about it. The first time Minerva truly confronts Trujillo is when the Mirabals are invited to a dinner hosted by Trujillo. When they arrive to the dinner, Minerva discovers that Trujillo has invited her to his table. She does not have the comfort of sitting with her family but instead is put in the spotlight right next to him. Eventually Minerva dances with Trujillo. While they are dancing together, Trujillo makes some very vulgar remarks about Minerva. Clearly Minerva is not comfortable with his comments. Then Minerva does the unthinkable. She slaps Trujillo in the face. Minerva says, “I can see my hand in an endless slow motion rise- a mind all of it’s own-and come down on the astonished made-up face.” (Alvarez 100). Minerva shows a great deal of courage when she slaps him in the face. Most people wouldn’t even think about standing up to Trujillo because they know the power that he holds over them. Minerva …show more content…
When Minerva is going through papa’s closet she discover that papa has been hiding many secrets from the her and the entire Mirabal family. Minerva feels the need to confront her father because she knows she can’t just let him get away with keeping such important things from her. Minerva says, “ I knew where to find him all right… I knew damn well he wasn’t reviewing the fields if he had taken the ford not the Jeep. I headed straight for that yellow house”(Alvarez 88). Minerva is completely let down and shocked when she discovers that papa has another family with a different woman. Minerva drives to papá’s other families house and makes it clear to both him and the daughters that she knows exactly what he has been up to, and what he has been keeping from their family. This is very courageous for a young girl to do because most people would be to scared and nervous to step up and confront their father, letting him know that they figured out his wrong doings. This act of courage in stepping up to Papá resulted in Minerva discovering that she was a very strong person. After their confrontation, Minerva talks with papa alone. While they are talking Papá hits Minerva, which he had never done before. During this moment Minerva knew that papa wasn’t who she had always thought he was. Minerva says, “I saw his shoulders droop. I heard him sigh. Right then and there, it hit me
Minerva is able to show her courage at a dinner party thrown by Trujillo, the dictator at the time. At the party she went to reluctantly, Trujillo asks Minerva to dance. Knowing of Trujillo’s offensive past with females, she is hesitant to accept, but says
In 1938, Minerva’s father permitted her to go away to boarding school along with her two older sisters, Patria and Dedé. Alvarez’s writing on behalf of Minerva speaks volumes as to the point of view Minerva had growing up. “And that’s how I got free. I don’t mean just going to sleepaway school on a train with a trunkful of new things. I mean in my head after I got to Inmaculada and met Sinita and saw what happened to Lina and realized that I’d left a small cage to go into a bigger one, the size of our whole country,” (Alvarez 13). Minerva’s father, said that out of all his daughters, Minerva should have been born a boy. The other Mirabal sisters said that she was their father’s favorite daughter because Minerva acted the most like a son to him. She almost became the son he had always wanted, but never had. Due to her father’s influence, as Minerva grew up, she aspired to being a lawyer. Something which was unheard of for a woman in the ‘40s.
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 ...
sister is Minerva. Their is 3 great reasons why Minerva is a hero. Minerva stood up for Sinita
Minerva is very rebellious, she doesn't like to listen when told to do something and she doesn't
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...
suggested, (75). The apex of Minerva's encounters with Trujillo (at this point in time). If...
Minerva’s has a friend that’s a revolutionary by the name of Hilda, Mate doesn’t approve of her and soon Hilda gets caught being a revolutionary and Mate soon had to end her diary because her diary has information of Hilda that Minerva doesn’t want anyone to see. Mate is gifted another journal from Minerva and she reveals that her father has died. She writes about how she had a dream how she’d find her wedding dress in her father’s coffin. She repeatedly has the same dream with different people in it. Mate graduated and moves in with Minerva at a university. Minerva soon gets married and moves to another city with her husband
Over the course of the novel, the Mirabal sisters have shown a strong desire to be in the revolution and free their country from the cruel hands of Trujillo and his regime whilst putting their families in danger. Minerva is the first to give into the revolution as she leaves her children with her sisters and mother while she goes on to try and free the country. “I, who treasured my children more than my own life, couldn’t believe my sister would leave her son for anything…..”(155).Though abandoning her child must be a hard thing to do, Minerva does this, which strongly portrays her dedication to the revolution is stronger than her dedications to her children. They allow their homes to be ‘invaded’ by the revolutionaries; allow their hom...
family in the emits of all of this .Minerva is a true hero she had to face with a person that could
Even in the beginning of the story, Minerva shows a powerful rebellious attitude. Minerva’s first encounter with courage comes during her first year at school. A girl she pities and befriends, reveals a major secret to
Even though there are moments where things were serious Minerva still had moments where she felt like she was young again: “We moved quickly now towards the Jeep, hurrying as if we had to catch up with that truck. I don’t know quite how to say this, but it was as if we were girls again, walking through the dark part of the yard, a little afraid, a little excited by our fears, anticipating the lighted house just around the bend – That’s the way I felt as we started up the first mountain,”
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
Mama is a very quiet character in the beginning of the story. The book starts off when papa throws a missal at Jaja for not attending the Communion. The missal papa throws causes Mama’s favorite figurines to fall and break. Mama quietly observes the scene and she cleans it up. Out of respect for Eugene, she has nothing to say even though the figurines were something she favors and cares about. Adichie writes, “She stared at the figurin...
Minerva does not try and escape even though she “is always sad like a house on fire—always something wrong. She has many troubles, but the big one is her husband who left and keeps leaving” (Cisneros 63). Minerva is clearly unhappy, but because she is accepting of her role and she will not leave him. She does not have the power to leave her husband and if she tried she would probably be beaten or worse. Esperanza wants to help Minerva but there is nothing that she can do for her: “Next week she comes over black and blue and asks what can she do? Minerva. I don’t know which way she’ll go. There is nothing I can do” (Cisneros 63). Esperanza knows that she cannot do anything for Minerva. It will take the power of Minerva removing herself from the abusive situation to actually save herself. Minerva having no power in her marriage is a clear relationship back to the theme of women accepting their role with men as their superior.