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Brave characters in the time of the butterflies
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“We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement” (Naomi Wolf). In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, the setting takes place in the Dominican Republic in the late 20th century. At this time, the country is under the control of a dictator known as Rafael Trujillo. The author, Julia Alvarez, provides flashbacks on the lives of four siblings: Dede, Minerva, Patria and Maria Theresa, and they are known as the Mirabal sisters. Before the book begins, it is known that the sisters, excluding Dede will die because of the actions of Trujillo. Machismo, meaning a strong sense of masculine pride, is worshipped throughout Latin America. Men value their
Minerva Mirabal was the most heroic of the Mirabal sisters. Rafael Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic for 30 years; he was oppressive, creepy, and a little insane. The Mirabal sisters were killed because they tried to rebel against him. Minerva is heroic. Because she was the first of her sisters to join the rebellion, she went to law school, and she slapped the dictator with a slap.
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.
Within the novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” Mate, Minerva, Dede, and Patria had to create decisions to overcome obstacles that would transform each of their lives. Throughout the book, all of the sisters changed somehow. They all grew up, matured, and saw things how they never viewed before. While looking at these things at a different perception, they learned to make decisions that were sometimes brave and sometimes cowardly. Each of the Mirabal sisters had to choose whether or not to be fearful and give up, or be courageous and stand her ground, or make sacrifices to show her strength throughout the novel.
Two weeks is all it takes for a caterpillar to completely transition into a butterfly. Compared to our span of life, this seems like a rushed transition; however, there are certain ways that humans can change just as quickly as a caterpillar. Although these are not physical changes like the caterpillars, they still remain significant. In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez the characters experience changes in values, personal opinions, and political views. The character Patria fits the image of a butterfly as she rapidly changes in result of certain situations . Over the course of the book Patria quickly undergoes several momentous changes as she alters her political stance and values.
Out from the kitchen and into the world, women are making a better name for themselves. Although humankind tends to be male dominated, men are not the only species that inhabit the world that they live on. In Julia Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies, the women of the Dominican Republic are expected to grow up to be housewives and lacking a formal education. Women may be cherished like national treasures, but they are not expected to fulfill their truest potentials as human beings.
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
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
Helena Maria Veramontes writes her short story “The Moths” from the first person point of view, placing her fourteen year old protagonist female character as a guide through the process of spiritual re-birth. The girl begins the story with a description of the debt she owes her Abuelita—the only adult who has treated her with kindness and respect. She describes her Apa (Father) and Ama (Mother), along with two sisters as if they live in the same household, yet are born from two different worlds. Her father is abusive, her mother chooses to stay in the background and her sisters evoke a kind of femininity that she does not possess. The girl is angry at her masculine differences and strikes out at her sisters physically. Apa tries to make his daughter conform to his strict religious beliefs, which she refuses to do and her defiance evokes abuse. The girl’s Abuelita is dying and she immerses herself in caring for her, partly to repay a debt and partly out of the deep love she has for her. As her grandmother lay dying, she begins the process of letting go. The moth helps to portray a sense of spirituality, re-birth and becomes, finally, an incarnation of the grandmother. The theme of the story is spiritual growth is born from human suffering.
her grandmother) and grief, Viramontes successfully paints an endearing tale of change. “The Moths” emphasizes the narrator’s oppression by her
Power, especially in the hands of females, can be a force for immense societal changes. Director Sciamma plays with the role of power in the lives of the four girls, predominantly in the character of Lady. Lady’s sense of control, stems from winning hand on hand fights, but the opinion of the men around her lays the foundation of this empowerment. The more fights Lady wins, the more the men appear to respect her, yet as feminist Simone de Beauvoir explains “[n]o matter how kindly, how equally men treated me when I tried to participate in politics, when it came right down to it, they had more rights, so they had more power than I did (Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex- ix),” the “power” Lady obtained was provisional. Lady’s power was directly tied to the opinion of the men around her, in this scene, a portion of the boys sits on stairs physically higher than Lady, invoking a sense of power hierarchy and control. The boys only valued Lady when she successfully participated in the their world of violence, but this participation came with boundaries as “[w]omen can never become fully socialized into patriarchy- which in turn causes man to fear women and leads then, on the one hand, to establish very strict boundaries between their own sex and the female sex (Feminist theory 142).” The men had never truly incorporated Lady into their group, she had just
Gallimard’s supposed ignorance of Song’s sex in M. Butterfly illustrates how an individual’s desire for something or someone can create a fantasy that masks the truth. Ignorance is bliss. Desire allows an individual to create their own truth which can, in turn, be damaging. The theme of desire in the play is seen through Song and Gallimard’s relationship. Gallimard longs to be desired. He associates being desired with power and masculinity, and this desire to be desired makes him ignorant of Song’s true identity. He experiments in testing Song’s desire for him throughout the play. Because Gallimard associated women desiring him as “power”, he did not see through Song’s feminine mask, or perhaps he did not want to. Desire allows Gallimard to believe he is the masculine form dominating a relationship when, in fact, he is being dominated by his own desire which Song is using against him. Gallimard is unaware, or chooses to remain unaware of Song’s masculinity, looking at the world through rose colored glasses of desire. In the final scene of M. Butterfly, we see Gallimard succumb to his own desire. He realizes what he desired was a lie and refuses to accept the truth.
A person may search their whole life for love. Some are lucky enough to find the perfect someone, and some are not. The one’s who are not as lucky can sometimes create their own idea of their ideal partner, but never actually find them. In D.H. Hwang’s play M. Butterfly, a man by the name of Gallimard creates his own idea of the perfect partner. He falls in love with a woman by the name of Song, who turns out to be not what he expected. Song is actuality a Chinese spy disguised as a woman. Hwang illustrates in the play M. Butterfly, people are not always who they perceive to be. Through Gallimards love for song, his portrayal for the East and West, and Gallimards obsession with power, M. Butterfly, demonstrates the different views of power and weakness that symbolized masculinity and femininity.
For example, in Act 1, Scene 1 of “Trifles”, when Mrs. Wright is being held accountable for her husband’s death and she worries over the state of her jars of jam, Mr. Hale makes the observation, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Act 1, Scene 1). In this excerpt, we determine this play portrays women as their stereotypical stay-at-home figure whose significant worries in life are mere trifles, hence the play’s name. Moreover, in comparison to “Trifles”, the women in “M. Butterfly” are portrayed as tractable females in the eyes of a man. For example, in Act I, Scene X, Gallimard assures himself of Song’s involuntary infatuation for him by stating, “She is outwardly bold and outspoken, yet her heart is shy and afraid. It is the Oriental in her at war with her Western education.” (Act 1, Scene X). Gallimard perfectly outlines the stereotypical feminine attribute: timidness. Here, Gallimard is asserting the attributes of shyness and fear are reminiscent of Oriental’s; a cultural stereotype Gallimard believes due to the perceived submissiveness of his Oriental mistress:
In Latin America, women are treated differently from men and children. They do lots of work for unexplainable reasons. Others for religious reasons and family orders and others because of the men involved. Women are like objects to men and have to obey their orders to either be rich or to live. Some have sex to get the men’s approval, others marry a rich man that they don’t even know very well, and become slaves. An important book called Chronicles of a Death Foretold is an example of how these women are treated. Purisima del Carmen, Angela Vicario's mother, has raised Angela and her sisters to be good wives. The girls do not marry until late in life, rarely socializing beyond the outsides of their own home. They spend their time sewing, weaving, washing and ironing. Other occupations include arranging flowers, cleaning up the house, and writing engagement letters to other men. They also keep the old traditions alive, such as helping the sick, comforting the dying, and covering the dead. While their mother believes they are perfect, men view them as too tied to their women's traditions. The men are afraid that the women would pay more attention to their job more than the men. Throughout the book, the women receive the respect they deserve from the men and others around them.