Sisters Fight for Freedom In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

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Recommended: Impact of trujillos dictatorship on the dominican republic

Minerva Mirabal The Mirabal sisters never thought they would grow up to fight for their freedom, but as they get older they start to realize what is really going on in the Dominican Republic. This book takes you for a wild ride through their lives from their point of view. "In the Time of the Butterflies" is about four sisters that grow up under the corrupted ruler known as Trujillo. It is written in first person from all of their perspectives. From all of their perspectives you can tell Minerva is the most wrapped up in the revolution. She is very rebellious, she makes friends with people of the underground, and she is the one that is most concerned about the revolution. Minerva is very rebellious, she doesn't like to listen when told to do something and she doesn't like doing the same thing as everyone else. Minerva thinks "And that's how I got free... I mean in my head after I got to Immaculada and met Sinita and saw what happened to Lina and realized that I'd just left a small cage to go into a bigger one, the size of our whole country" (pg. 13). This is when she starts to get re...

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    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.

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    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,”

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