"IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES" (JULIA ALVAREZ).   Term Paper ID:24559 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critical review of fictionalized account of three sisters killed in Dominican Republic in 1960 by dictator's secret police.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Critical review of fictionalized account of three sisters killed in Dominican Republic in 1960 by dictator's secret police. Paper Introduction: Julia Alvarez, in her novel In the Time of the Butterflies, presents a fictionalized account of the lives and murders of three sisters who were in fact tortured and killed in 1960 in the Dominican Republic by the secret police of dictator Trujillo for their opposition to his tyranny. A fourth sister survived and her fictional spirit contributes to the telling of this enraging, heartbreaking, and finally inspiring story of tragedy and courage. As Alvarez writes in the postscript to the novel, she and her own family were exiles from Trujillo's tyranny, leaving the country less than four months before the murder of the Mirabal sisters, known as Las Mariposas, or The Butterflies. In fact, the author's father was active in the underground resistance to Trujillo, along with the four sisters. Alvarez says that she Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Knowing what awaits Minerva and two of her sisters,the reader cannot help cringing when reading this lighthearted passage: the ones they take out a lot are Sina and Minerva. . They have indeedcome to life in the imaginative hands of Alvarez, and the reader's heart istorn as the sister's first suspect that they are being set up for anambush, and then change their minds, believing themselves to be safe: The sun broke through the clouds, and shafts of light shone like blessings on the far valley. Alvarez carefully drops in many small details designed both tohumanize Dede and her sisters and to assure that they never become cut-outheroines. The survivingsister--Dede--is introduced, some thirty-four years after the murders, andshe is hardly a saint. The sisters who died and the sisterwho survived are sisters in more than blood. Maybe I should just give them a call. Again, at the very end of the book, with the ambush imminent, Alvarezemphasizes the enduring hope that the sisters have, not only that they willsurvive the trip back from the prison, not only that somehow good willtriumph over evil in the Dominican Republic, but also that there is someeternal peace ("the lighted house") waiting just beyond all the strife andstruggle that is so much of human existence: We moved quickly now toward the Jeep, hurrying. Alvarez emphasizes the factthat "what you find in these pages are not the Mirabal sisters of fact, oreven the Mirabal sisters of legend." The author says she has not the factsnor the desire to present a biography of the sisters. . . Perhaps this is the only way to grieve the big things--in snippets, pinches, little sips of sadness (5). In the Time of the Butterflies. We had been silly, letting ourselves believe all those crazy rumors (292). Alvarez uses a flashback technique with a number of significanteffects. As Alvarez writes in the postscript to the novel, she and her ownfamily were exiles from Trujillo's tyranny, leaving the country less thanfour months before the murder of the Mirabal sisters, known as LasMariposas, or The Butterflies. This is not a novel for those who crave the titillation ofviolence. However, the reader is let in on the reality: "Andwhen it doesn't work, she thinks, I get stuck playing the same bad moment.But why speak of that" (7). Trujillo's son Ramfis had come special to question her because Trujillo had said that Minerva Mirabal was the brain behind the whole movement. . The book is not a pessimistic analysis of theeventual victory of evil over good, but is instead a declaration of thegoodness of these sisters, and of others, and, by extrapolation, of humanexistence in general. The ones who died knew thatthey were putting their lives on the line to fight evil, but they did itanyway, willing and finally forced to pay the ultimate price. Once, Minerva came back from one of the interrogation sessions laughing. Instead, "what youwill find here are the Mirabals of my creation, made up but, I hope, trueto [their] spirit. The actual deaths ofthe sisters, in fact, turn out to play a minor role in the overall tellingof the story. However, instead of focusingon the brutality of the men who perpetrated such evil and cowardly actsupon the sisters and upon countless others in the Dominican Republic,Alvarez drops small images which engender not the reader's hatred of evilbut his or her love of these sisters, their humanity, their tragedy andcourage, and especially their innocence and ability to hope, even whileimprisoned by a ruthless dictator, that they will find freedom one day forthemselves and their country. I will not destroy my people. For example, Dede tells the woman that she simply meditates inorder to keep "happy moments" in her head and not have her life darkened bymemories of the murders. All at once, I lost my home, my husband, my son, my peace of mind. I'm very flattered, Minerva said she said. Those two always stand up to those guys. Why not? By the time the ambush is near, the reader has come to know thesisters as individual human beings with flaws and virtues. . The reader who knows the story the book tells and expects the sistersto be portrayed as cardboard saints is immediately disarmed. . However, she does agree to meet the woman, and it is clear that thememory of her sisters is very much alive in her. She hasobviously long ago grown weary of such calls and wants to get on with herlife. Another important particular of the novel is the fact that theheroes are women: "Obviously, these sisters, who fought one tyrant, haveserved as models for women fighting injustices of all kinds" (324). For example, waiting forthe woman, Dede is not aware she has arrived until the car door is slammedwith a "gunshot sound." Dede nervously and accidentally: snip[s] her prize butterfly orchid. She picks up the fallen blossom and trims the stem, wincing. a historical document, but away to travel through the human heart" (324). , I got used to the sorrows heaped upon myheart" (2 ). A fourthsister survived and her fictional spirit contributes to the telling of thisenraging, heartbreaking, and finally inspiring story of tragedy andcourage. But my brain isn't big enough to run such a huge operation (232). First, it allows her to introduce Dede in 1994, some 34 yearsafter the murders, building suspense in the reader because he or she knowsthat at some point the torture and murders will occur. . A novel is not . (288). the arc of His covenant, I thought. The reader, of course, knows what is going tohappen to the sisters, so that when there is a moment of levity, forexample, in the prison, the knowledge of the murders-to-come is even morepainful and poignant. Alvarez' novel is not a theoretical or political argument againstTrujillo or dictatorships in general, or for rebellion against tyranny.Instead, it is an emotionally and spiritually powerful and moving storyabout specific human beings (fictionalized or not) resisting specific evilsand thereby expressing with their lives, and their deaths, their faith ingoodness. Butafter a couple of weeks . As much as the murders might overshadow the book, lurking behindevery word, the courage and endurance of the sisters is far moresignificant. All of these vital and sometimes contradictory aspects of herpersonality bring her quickly to life for the reader, and we are gratefulto have her serve us as a guide through the lives and deaths of her bravesisters. And Dedeshows that the living can go on from such a tragedy, can endure, and caneven finally find salvation despite, or in part because of, the forging ofthe heart in such a hell of experience. It isn't hard to figure out why. As Patria notes in her increasingly religious state of mindand soul: "I don't know how it happened that my cross became bearable. However, Alvarez isnot merely building suspense for the sake of suspense. Chapel Hill, NorthCarolina: Algonquin, 1994.----------------------- 3 The fact that Dede is spared to add her part to the story (or atleast in the fictionalized realm of Alvarez) is emphasized late in the bookwhen the three sisters go to visit their husbands in a distant jail. . . . The message here is not merely one of hope, but rather of a hopewhich has been forged in experience. I don't quite know how to say this, but it was as if 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-- (297). Work CitedAlvarez, Julia. Julia Alvarez, in her novel In the Time of the Butterflies, presentsa fictionalized account of the lives and murders of three sisters who werein fact tortured and killed in 196 in the Dominican Republic by the secretpolice of dictator Trujillo for their opposition to his tyranny. .. In fact, the author's father was active inthe underground resistance to Trujillo, along with the four sisters.Alvarez says that she wrote the book in order to try to understand how thesisters came to have such courage unto death. Themen had been moved far away by Trujillo precisely in order to arrange anambush. Certainly the book does not whitewash the evil of the Trujillo regimeor of any tyranny which Trujillo epitomizes. "How very very handy for [Trujillo's secret police] to have all three of you sitting pretty in the back seat of that rundown jeep with a storm brewing in the north. She shows impatience at yet another caller who wantsto hear her story and help her keep her sisters' memories alive. . To the contrary, the book is about the lives of the sistersrather than their deaths. Dede is joking in part when she says the following prophetic andchilling words: "How handy," Dede said with heavy sarcasm, pacing the room. The time-jumping of the novel is also an effective use of thedifferent voices of the sisters, including and especially Dede, for thesurviving sister, in effect, has living within her the spirits of the deadsisters. The reader is not merely moved around in time by a disembodiednarrator, but is reminded time and time again that these are real (if "madeup" by the author) women who fought and died for freedom and justice, andthat this is a woman--Dede--who could have easily died with her sisters butwho survived in part precisely for the purpose of keeping their memoryalive. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.