Both men had adulterous affairs, Trujillo with Minerva’s school friend Lina Lovaton while Enrique Mirabal had another family altogether, two circumstances which led to Minerva’s disillusionment with the very men she had been taught to love and respect. Another similarity between these men is that both of them attempt to control Minerva but fail due to the sheer force of her will. Enrique Mirabal was reluctant to send Minerva to boarding school and away from him but is forced to send all four daughters to school while Trujillo tried to manipulate Minerva into having sexual intercourse with him by putting her father in jail. However, not only was he forced to release her father but also has to allow Minerva to attend law school, a first for women …show more content…
in the Dominican Republic. Although Minerva was not allowed to practice law or punish her father to a further degree than ruining his car, she emerges triumphant because she rebels against these men and their patriarchal unjust behaviour by creating a more inclusive egalitarian idea of community and family. She does this by fighting against Trujillo’s brutal regime for the sake of a community/nation/family that needs to be egalitarian and free at a political level. Additionally, at the family level, she not only acknowledges her step sisters and gives them the monthly checks her father asked her to but also gives them a share of her inheritance, going above and beyond of what her father expected of her. She realises that it was the men like her father and her sister Dedé’s husband Jaimito who were sexist and content with the status quo and kept people like Trujillo in power. “In his own way, Papá was a trujillista,” Minerva announced. All her sisters looked at her, shocked. “Papá was a hero!” Dedé fumed. “He died because of what he went through in prison. You should know. He was trying to keep you out of trouble!” Minerva nodded. “That’s right. His advice was always, don’t annoy the bees, don’t annoy the bees. It’s men like him and Jaimito and other scared fulanitos who have kept the devil in power all these years” (ITTOB 349). Just like Trujillo and Enrique Mirabal, Jaimito is domineering and controlling, refusing to let his wife Dedé be a part of the revolution or even help her sisters by letting them bury contraband in his land.
In turn, Dedé represents that part of the Dominican population that is well aware of Trujillo’s brutality and excesses yet is too scared to take a stance against him out of fear for their families and their own lives. Family under Trujillo’s regime becomes a conflicted site, one that needs to be both protected and defended yet these actions are understood very differently by different individuals. For example, Mate initially felt only love and respect for both her father and Trujillo. However, after the revelation of her father’s infidelity, Mate is severely disillusioned and wears a love and hate spell, one for Trujillo and one for her father. Tellingly, Alvarez never informs the reader which spell is for which man because the point being, as Mate would soon realise, that both men are more or less interchangeable because they were both selfish and controlling. Like Minerva but far later on in her life, Mate would realise that her definition of family would need to be broadened and become more inclusive for the revolution to be successful. If in every family, the “head” of the family acted like Trujillo and replicated the latter’s behaviour of needing to be controlling, exploitative and unchallenged, then revolutionaries would need to start first by changing their …show more content…
definition of family to create a more egalitarian and just structure, which is what the Mirabal sisters came to realise. The bonds of sisterhood are a concept that the sisters understand and negotiate with in their own ways.
For Mate, unlike her sisters Minerva and Patria, the personal and the immediate, in terms of family and family loyalty, had for a long time been the driving force behind her actions. For example, while marching in the opening ceremony parade for the World’s Fair, Mate marched because all young women were required to unlike her sister Minerva who marched despite being pregnant, because “there was no way she was going to let all her compañeras endure this cross without carrying her share” (ITTOB 266). For Minerva and Patria, the abstract concept of community became part of the personal, while for Mate, the process is reversed and the personal has to broaden to include the idea of the community. She evolves from a girl who initially only empathised with individual women, for example, when she wonders the following about Trujillo’s daughter Angelita during the abovementioned parade, “I wondered if she knew how bad her father is or if she still thought, like I once did about Papá, that her father is God”(ITTOB 267). Her time in prison, however, helps her to empathise with women in general, to see beyond the immediate to the invisible but essential community of women that needed to come together against a patriarchal exploitative society. Minerva encourages Mate to share her possessions so as to not replicate in prison the unequal social system that exists outside. This
transformation in Mate’s understanding is revealed to the reader when the author depicts how despite being the one who yearns for home most deeply, Mate realizes that she will deeply miss the sisterhood that has been created in their jail cell. The time spent in prison forces Mate to look beyond herself and her family and engage with different types of women from the economically weaker sections of society. She teaches a few of the women to write their names, helps them with their chores and at one point takes over from Minerva as the head of the “Little School” (ITTOB 454), where the women in the cell discuss various political and social matters, when Minerva is in solitary confinement. At this point, when Mate discusses the need for women to support each other, she realises that family is formed not just through blood or marriage, but it is rather a larger concept and that it is crucial for women to support each other, especially in such a patriarchal society.
He had to get back at her by going through her family instead of going directly to her. Minerva was brave enough to slap the dictator. She was stronger than him, and she was incredible. Minerva was the most heroic of her sisters. She introduced her family to the rebellion.
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 ...
At the hands of Trujillo’s secret police and cabinet members, the Dominican people faced oppression and fear in the midst of his tyranny. Opposition to Trujillo's
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...
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
Upon returning to the Dominican Republic after many years, Yolanda decides to take a trip across the island––something her family views as ridiculous. “‘This is not the states’ . . . ‘A woman just doesn’t travel alone in this country.” (9) This quote highlights the sexism inherent in Dominican society. Yolanda’s family is asserting that women are not individuals capable of taking care of themselves. On another hand, Yolanda’s close friendship with Mundín causes tensions as their mothers confront them about crossing gender lines. “My mother disapproved. The outfit would only encourage my playing with Mundín and the boy cousins. It was high time I got over my tomboy phase and started acting like a young lady señorita. ‘But it is for girls,’ . . . ‘boys don’t wear skirts.’” (228) This is an example of how Dominican societal norms and gender roles have impacted the sisters. Yolanda and Mundín were the only boy-girl playmates out of all the García children, yet this was frowned upon by both of their parents as to not impede the seemingly inevitable growth of Yolanda’s femininity, and conversely, Mundín’s masculinity. Moreover, this shows how societally-prescribed gender roles were instilled in Yolanda at a young age. However, this is not the only way in which women’s freedoms are
Similarly, Emily doesn’t fully understand the love that she shares with her father, and it leads her to dangerous encounters. In the Cabral and de Leon families, violent love is the only love they know. Abelard, who was an extremely intelligent man, wasn’t smart enough to avoid the tragedy of love and violence. Beginning with Abelard and ending with Oscar, the only love the family could relate to was one that included violence. In Abelard’s case, he was protecting his daughters out of the love he had for them.
Rather, it criticizes this culture through its portrayal of women. The narrative is focused on a male and is told by a male, which reflects the male-centered society it is set in. However, when we compare how the narrator views these women to who they really are, the discrepancies act as a critique on the Dominican culture. Yunior, who represents the typical Dominican male, sees women as objects, conquests, when in fact their actions show their resistance to be categorized as such. Beli, whose childhood was filled with male domination by Trujillo and the family she worked for, attempts to gain power through sexuality, the avenue the culture pushes women toward. This backfires, creating a critique of the limited opportunities available for women. La Inca portrays a different side to this, working quietly but in ways that are not socially acceptable through self-employment. Society attempts to cage these women, but they continue to fight against it. Diaz, in an interview, quoted James Baldwin, stating, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced" (Fassler). He exhibits the misogyny in the system but does not support it, rather critiques it through strong female characters. By drawing attention to the problem, the novel advocates for change. Diaz writes, at the end of part 1, “Nothing more exhilarating… than saving yourself by the simple act of waking”
“Jaimito think its suicide. He told me that he will leave me if I get mixed up in those things”. Here is where Dede confesses the truth about her participation with the Mariposas. Although later on she claims to be leaving Jaimito. Dede knew that she needed to join her sisters this was the only way she was going to show her loyalty to the “Mariposas”. Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa husbands were all involved with the “Mariposas” movement. Could this be the reason why they were so committed and involved with the “Mariposas” movement? The support that all their husbands gave them through the journey guided them to influent the change, and to them it was very important. We all ask ourselves could this be another reason why Dede felt so strong about getting people to hear he story, to find the interest in it. Dede made her family home into a museum, this way people can see how they lived when it all began. There is also a monument that tourist or native Dominican that would like to know the story of the Mirabal Sisters. Why is this so important? Its known that a lot of Dominican or people all around the world do not know the story of the Mirabal sisters and what they died for; the truth behind the lies and the unrealistic story telling. Dede’s accomplishment was to let everyone now what happened to her sisters to her father and how Trujillo dictated
This is evident in two key moments in the story, both of which involve Minerva’s sisters. In the first, the manifestation of her inspiring Maria Teresa comes when Maria Teresa stands up to her. Behind the virgin mary, maria teresa is infuriated that Minerva won't tell her what they’re talking about so she confronts her about their conversation. This is very similar to the attitude that Minerva would have had in this situation, further illustrating Minerva’s inspiration of Maria Teresa. A second demonstration of Minerva’s inspiring courage in others, once again, comes through Maria Teresa joining of the revolution. While some will say that Maria Teresa’s real reason for joining the revolution came in the form of the man delivering guns, it’s clearly evident that without her sister's involvement in the rebellion, she would not have joined. This shows Minerva true inspirational impact. Even without being the principal reason for her sister’s decision to join the rebellion, the fact that she was a major part of the rebellion, a leader of the rebellion even, was enough for Maria
Diaz describes Trujillo by writing, “You might roll your eyes at the comparison, but, friends: it would be hard to exaggerate the shadow of fear he cast over the Dominican people and the shadow of fear he cast throughout the region” (224). Trujillo put so much fear into the people of the Dominican Republic that Beli did not know it would ever affect her. In a world where no one gives her such feelings, the Gangster makes Beli feel beautiful. But, the Gangster is a pimp and exploits women, which shows the degradation of women such as Beli.
Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.
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.