Time of the Butterflies
“Life is what you make out of it: one can go through it and let things pass them by, or a person can actually go out and get what he or she wants in that life.” These are common words repeatedly embedded into my head by my father, as maybe the same from one of your parent’s. In the Time of the Butterflies is a book about sisters that fight to take their god-given right of freedom in the Dominican Republic. To win this freedom, the Mirabal sisters had to give up their safety, give up their childhoods, and give up their lives. Julia Alvarez, the author of the book, takes the readers through these sisters journey’s of fighting against their dictator Trujillo, and the many hardships while under this political oppression. It is evident in the book that some sisters had to be the leaders of the group and some had to be the followers. The Mirabel sister that is believed to be the leader and the strong one is Minerva. Minerva, although strong-willed, is still not as strong of an individual as she would like to believe she is.
Minerva is the individual that always makes sure that she is perceived as strong; however, in actuality this strength and desired image is only a deception of herself. Many heroes, courageous leaders, and brave characters in stories never have health problems or other character flaws exploited. However, Minerva is shown in the book to always have problems with her health. She is always described as being sick, weak, and needing rest. Another down flaw of her character exploited in this book is that she gets captured and thrown in jail. Once in jail she breaks down – loosing control of herself and ultimately loosing her drive that she once had. These exploitations in the novel show that Minerva can be broken down and make Minerva a more average human being, rather than an audacious hero as everyone would like to believe.
“I was hurt that he hadn’t even said goodbye…Mama, of course, noticed the tightening in my face. My bad headaches and asthma attacks always worried her. “You need rest,” she prescribed one afternoon and sent me to bed in Papa’s room, the coolest in the house.”(Alvarez 87). As one can see here, Minerva is worn down and needs rest. One can also observe how her mama always has to worry about Minerva’s health.
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.
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 ...
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...
Alvarez, Julia. In The Time of the Butterflies. New York, NY: Penguin, 1994. Print Hardback. 31 Oct 2013 - 8 Dec 2013.
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
For this assessment, I have chosen the movie Real Women Have Curves. The movie follows a traditional Mexican family and their struggle to survive in America. The film focuses, on the youngest American-born daughter Ana. Ana lives in a Hispanic community in East Los Angeles the daughter of Latino working immigrants from Mexico. Her family unit consists of her parents, two brothers, older sister and her grandfather. The movie shows the conflict Ana faces between the clashes of the two cultures. The film shows that Ana goes to great lengths to attend school every day. Ana has had a successful school career, as her peers are getting ready to attend college. She’s expected to get a job to financially help her struggling family. She
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
In the French revolution, some important catalysts were the winter famine, the raised food prices, and the poor spending of money by the French monarchy. Due to the lack of resources and food, people were fighting over resources. These events contributed to the French citizen’s angry attitude with the monarchy who they blamed for raising the already high food prices and poorly spending their already low sum of money. Similarly in In The Time of The Butterflies, each sister has a specific catalyst that encouraged them to join and support the revolution earlier than they would of. One sister’s catalyst that particularly stuck out was Minerva and the catalyst that convinced her to join the revolution. “Because Lio presented a very real opportunity to fight against the regime…. Minerva was never the same…”(66,Alvarez) Lio, who was a popular revolutionary, “presented a very real opportunity” for Minerva to actually transform her thoughts on the revolution and the regime into actions that actually could make a difference. Lio influenced and sparked Minerva’s thoughts for she “was never the same”. “Never the same” meaning the same Minerva, but a Minerva who thought proactively. In relation to this, the French Revolution would have later or never happened if the famine, high prices, and poor spending had not occurred. All in all, without a catalyst, social change could not
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”
A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team 's work into manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge. defines the work breakdown structure as a "deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team”. Basically the work breakdown structure is something that is put together which defines the scope something that project team can understand. On the other hand, project requirement is kind of a document which tell management, what has to be produced and the exact date of completion. It also is based on responsibility factors. Requirements are the expectations which the product need to fulfill. Requirements are collected from the customer, stakeholders and Sponsor.
In the beginning of the book, we as the readers learn about Zit’s and his past. He has been through a lot and everything that has happened has lead to Zits having very violent thoughts. With all of his aggression built up inside him, Zits often talks a lot about his violent thoughts of
Even in the beginning of the story, Minerva shows a powerful rebellious attitude. Minerva’s first encounter with courage comes during her first year at school. A girl she pities and befriends, reveals a major secret to
The idea of the federal government’s measurement of US poverty was developed by one single person. This idea was developed by Mollie Orshansky in the early 1960’s. Poverty was first determined by the amount of food families received (Author). Poverty on the national level is said to be caused by education, health, and crime (Author). “Impoverished families tend to have less education, more health problems and less access to nutritionally adequate food” (Author). The author in from the US poverty article argues that one is more likely to achieve a more secure economic future when they have a more advanced education (Author). Skills and knowledge are needed for any job or career. When it comes to health influencing poverty, this is meant that poor people don’t often have the opportunity to get medical assistance. This leads to them being at higher risk for disease and mortality rates, which therefore makes their income lesser and economic future less bright (Author). There are many government programs that were made to help the poor. They include but are not limited to: Head Start, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Job Corps, National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs and Family Planning Services
The Civil War was a huge piece of American History. Without this large blanket of events, the United States would not have developed to be the way it is today. The Civil War, which has also been called the first “modern war,” was an extensive, dirty one. The constant struggle of the North versus the South went on for a little over four years. This struggle lasted so long because each side had its own challenges to face, along with benefits of their own. The North, though it possessed various advantages in terms of their military, socially, economically, and politically, still had multiple disadvantages. The South went by the same idea, possessing their own benefits, but having some costs as well.
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.