In The Time Of The Butterflies Analysis

In the Time of the Butterflies is a book written by Julia Alvarez about the four Mirabal sisters and their lives during the Dominican Republic revolution. The revolution was meant to overthrow dictator Rafael Trujillo. Patria Mirabal was the oldest of the four sisters and the most religious. She was convinced that she wanted to be a nun, but later starts to change her mind.

In the beginning of Patrias story, Patria had her heart set on being a nun. She wasn’t under any influence as shown when she says “From the beginning, I felt it snug inside my heart, the pearl of great price. No one had to tell me to believe in god or to love everything that lives” (Alvarez, 44). The words “beginning” and “no one” show that she came to this decision independently and under little to no influence. In fact, her father actually said that she shouldn’t be a nun saying it would be “a waste of a pretty girl”(Alvarez, 11).

It came in the dark in the evil hours when the hands wake with a life of their own. They rambled over my growing body, they touched the plumping of my chest, the mound of my belly, and on down. I tried reining them in, but they broke loose, night after night”(Alvarez, 47). The words “dark” and “evil” shows to me that something is straying her from her path to being a nun. That something is growing up. As she is getting older, she is being more exposed to things seen as evil by the church, such as sexual desire. This is shown when Patria falls in love with a mans hairy feet during a church