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Fight against racism, indignity, injustice, inhumanity, and fight for survival are the main themes in Julia Alvarez’s 1994 novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, set in the Dominican Republic (Alvarex, 1994). In the novel, the main characters, the Mirabel sisters are not freedom fighters or revolutionaries but are homely sisters who if left alone, would be content to get married, have children, and lead an uneventful life.
But fate willed it otherwise and when faced with human suffering, torture, and tragedy, they preferred to come out of their shells and rebel against the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. The author explores how the four Mirabel sisters, Minerva, Mate, Patria, and Dede, got awakening calls and attempted to fight the system and which ultimately cost them their lives. While their struggle had a common theme, there were certain differences in how they became aware of the great human tragedy that befell their country and their people. This paper does a comparative study of two sisters Patria and Minerva, explores how they awakened to the cause and the symbolism of the Butterfly.
Patria is the eldest of the four sisters, is strong, independent, and deeply religious. Her devotion to the Church and her fervent prayers attract the attention of the nuns who ask her to become a nun and enter the sisterhood. She becomes more involved when she meets Pedrito González and washes his feet as a sign of devotion and is attracted to him and marries him. They have two children and their third is stillborn and this affects her so much that she almost loses her faith.
She regains her faith when she listens to the voice of the holy mother during a meeting of the people. The awakening call for the freedom movement came later on when her son Nelson takes up revolutionary activities and she joins the movement. The death of a teenaged boy during the attack of the Trujillo army converts her to the cause of the freedom movement.
Minerva is the second youngest and was a fighter right from a young age when she decided to become a lawyer. Her awakening call came very early when she was in school and heard the story of her friend Sinita Perozo. Her friend’s parents were murdered because they fought the system and this changes Minerva’s attitude and she begins her fight for justice against the tyranny of Trujillo. It was Minerva who finds that her father has another wife and has four other daughters but rather than turn them away, Minerva takes them into her care and educates them. She is not the one to take indignities and during a dance, she slaps the dictator who made sexual advances.
Now Minerva was initially drawn to Lio Morales and after she joins a law school, she falls in love with Manolo Tavárez a revolutionary, and has two daughters. It is from this meeting that Minerva becomes a convert and assumes the name of “Mariposa” – “The Butterfly” and becomes a leader of the movement.
The Butterfly in the novel has the symbolism of grace, beauty, and a certain frailness but it still has a spirit of freedom. To the author, the butterfly represents a free spirit that is delicate and not yet afraid, that is vulnerable but still would fly out, that knows how to weather a storm and when to do its work. This is the spirit that the author has attempted to convey.
The author has related a story that is perhaps repeated in countless countries, homes, and families. While the dictator could be a cruel father or a dominating husband, the novel shows the true power of women and their spirit to struggle against all odds and soar like a butterfly to triumph and briefly shine before falling.
References
Alvarez Julia. 1994. In the Time of the Butterflies. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
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