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Essay on julia alvarez
Essay on julia alvarez
Julia Alvarez contributions
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This book by Julia Alvarez takes place in the Dominican Republic during the time of Trujillo, the dictator of the country. The readers are introduced to a family of four sisters and their parents and are able to read about their experiences throughout their lives and how their oppressive government affected them. The four sisters names are Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa. As the reader progresses into the book, these names start to form characters and personalities that, quite frankly, are shaped in retaliation to the government. In the postscript, Alvarez explains that these girls were real along with the events that happened between 1930 and 1961. These personalities were merely an imaginative work of Alvarez in order to make a story …show more content…
Everyone knew the sisters from the time they were little girls and they could all see how different their personalities. Patria, the oldest, was very strong in her faith and at one point considered becoming a nun and devoting her life to the church. However, she fell in love with the son of a farmer from the next town over while she was washing his feet. Patria and Pedrito married three days before her seventeenth birthday, making her the youngest one to marry. Dede was the second oldest and was told by her papa that she would be the one to bury all of them, which she was. She was a very cautious but loving mother while being an obedient but trapped wife. She married her cousin Jamito and while she was in love with him, he would find other girls to create affairs with and would be very controlling of Dede. She would be the one to hold the family together and bring them to reality when their ambitions reached dangerous or outrageous …show more content…
The entire book was leading up to the murder of the notorious Mirabal sisters which also put into perspective how oppressed these people were. Not only did this book give the reader an insight on the life of a citizen of the Dominican Republic between the years of 1930 and 1960 but, it showed how an oppressive government could affect the people in both negative and positive ways, using the sisters as examples. Obviously, negative aspects included citizens being jailed and killed by their own government. In a situation such as this, fear was in every person, whether they were brave enough to join the resistance or not. Families were torn apart, as shown in the book. Minerva, Maria Teresa, and their husbands, along with Patria’s husband, were taken from their children, home, church and family to be jailed for going against the government. Alvarez vividly describes the hurt that came to the families when they were broken apart. In jail, the sisters and husbands were also physically ill. They were being starved and being diagnosed with pneumonia which was not unheard
When it comes to analyzing the “banana massacre” scene in chapter 15, I found three narrative techniques the author used to describe this scene. Therefore, one can notice that this part of the book is the climax. As a result, one infers what the author is trying to say about Latin American history and politics.
... did not take part in the revolution, her own strength was tested when her sisters were killed by Trujillo, leaving her as the only sister remaining alive. In the Time of the Butterflies allows readers to experience the courage of ordinary people fighting against extraordinary circumstances. The sisters advocated for a change in the Dominican Republic, and without being exceptionally special or extraordinary, they affected the entire county for the better. Today, readers can still learn from this story due to Julia Alvarez’s detailed portrayal of the Mirabal sisters and their story.
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
The poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez dramatizes the conflicts of a young girl’s family’s escape from an oppressive dictatorship in the Dominican Republic to the freedom of the United States. The setting of this poem starts in the city of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, which was renamed for the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo; however, it eventually changes to New York when the family succeeds to escape. The speaker is a young girl who is unsophisticated to the world; therefore, she does not know what is happening to her family, even though she surmises that something is wrong. The author uses an extended metaphor throughout the poem to compare “swimming” and escaping the Dominican Republic. Through the line “A hurried bag, allowing one toy a piece,” (13) it feels as if the family were exiled or forced to leave its country. The title of the poem “Exile,” informs the reader that there was no choice for the family but to leave the Dominican Republic, but certain words and phrases reiterate the title. In this poem, the speaker expresser her feeling about fleeing her home and how isolated she feels in the United States.
The Mirabal Sisters, otherwise known as Las Mariposas, made their mark in history due to their efforts in the revolution against the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic. Julia Alvarez, a native Dominican herself, wrote In the Time of the Butterflies due to an account told by Dede Mirabal about the lives and tragic fate of her sisters Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa. Dede’s three sisters were murdered due to their involvement in the revolution; Dede did not join the revolution, and thus survived to help recount their story. Since the novel’s publication in 1994, In the Time of the Butterflies has impacted various aspects of life, and contemporary culture frequently alludes to facets of the novel. One critic commented that "In the Time of the Butterflies suggests that the Mirabal sisters not only fought against the Trujillo regime, but also against the Dominican Republic’s patriarchal culture and gender roles. They were very
Between all of this, on December 14, 1953, the sisters’ father passed away. This allowed their mother to move to a different smaller house three years later and after their mother died on January 20, 1981, it was then turned into El Museo Hermanas Mirabal (The Mirabal Sisters Museum). As the 4th sister, Belgica was not present on that tragic day she dedicated her life to honoring her sister 's’ death. She later died at the age of 88 on February 1st, 2014. Las Hermanas Mirabal were the bravest women in all of the Dominican Republic given that they were the only ones who actually confronted Trujillo and even gave their life for their country. Visiting Salcedo was very enjoyable. Not only because it was my vacation but also because of how calm it felt to be there. Everyone is very humble and despite the fact that most of them don’t have much, they always offer everything they can to make you feel welcome. I always look forward to visiting Salcedo because even though it isn’t my birthplace, it still feels like home. Salcedo is home to most of my family in the Dominican republic and I can’t wait to
This book is a story about 4 sisters who tell their stories about living on an island in the Dominican Republic , and then moving to New York . What is different about this book is the fact that you have different narrators telling you the story , jumping back and forth from past to present . This is effective because it gives you different view point’s from each of the sisters . It may also detract from the narrative because of the fact that it’s confusing to the reader . This is a style of writing that has been recognized and analyzed by critics . Julia Alvarez is a well- known writer and in a way , mirrors events that happened in her own life , in her book . Looking into her life , it show’s that she went through an experience somewhat like the sisters . I interviewed an immigrant , not from the same ethnic back ground as the sisters , but a Japanese immigrant . This was a very
The novel ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, by Junot Diaz gives a very entertaining insight towards many social dynamics that are relevant to Dominican culture, and it fits very well within the scope of the course; and, although it is a work of fiction, this novel is set in New Jersey, and deals specifically with the Dominican Republic experience under the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. From what I’ve learned after reading the first half of this book, there is certainly a lot that can be discussed. Thankfully the book’s versatile portrayal of vivid topics that are seldom discussed shine light upon these many issues that face such an overlooked culture, especially for the American audience.
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Irene: is the oldest daughter, who enjoyed food. She was heavy as a kid, slimmed down and got married to Gerardo. She was soon heavy again. She was successful in her own right and owned her own restaurant.
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
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” the sisters were revolutionary activist who were against the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The author, Julia Alvarez, uses the four Mirabal sisters to express four different routes of
The Trujillo system in the Dominican Republic, under which the Cabral’s are associated with, exploits women and the Gangster, just like Trujillo did exactly that. This path of life that Beli embarks on is the wrong choice because it is plagued with the fuk. She sees the Gangster as an escape from her current life because he is extremely rich. The Gangster promises her a house in Miami with as many bedrooms as she wants. Beli is nave and does not realize that the Gangster cannot help her escape her life that she is unhappy with.
Many reviews have been written on Julia Alvarez since she is a Dominican Diaspora, a Jew who lived outside of Israel, who wrote in a Latina perspective in the country of Uni...