In The Time Of The ButterflyEssay Preview: In The Time Of The ButterflyReport this essayWeekly Assignment1. It was difficult to find out who was the narrator of In The Time Of The Butterflies was, seeing as how the book kept switching from the viewpoints of each of the Mirabal sisters. Although the Mirabal sisters spoke firsthand of what happened, it seemed as if we were being told how they felt, but not from the directly from the sister. Finally, I thought back to the very beginning of the story and realized that the narrator of the book was the reporter who went to Dedes house, which happens annually on November 25th. Through Dede, the reporter was an outsider who could tell the readers what happened, the sisters feelings and thoughts, and still talk about the story without speaking in the first person. When Dede invited the reporter in her house, the reporter walked the hallways of the house and observed the portraits on the walls. This was from an outsiders point of view, Dede wouldnt have noted certain characteristics of her own house. I believe the reporter is the narrator of In The Time Of The Butterflies.
It was especially hard to find out who the narrator was, because although I suspected it was the reporter, I couldnt link her to the author. There where no indications of a relationship between the author and anybody in the story, but when I read further into the Postscript I found a possible relationship. The Postscript says that Julia Alvarez “heard” about the story of the Mirabal Sisters when she was a young girl, therefore I knew she was not involved firsthand in the actions of the revolution because the times would not have fit. Alvarez mentions that she moved to New York, but made many trips back to the Dominican Republic. Also, she “sought out any information” about the sisters. This lead me to believe she did some investigating(like reporters do), and where better to go to than Dede, the surviving sister? This showed me the relationship between the narrator and author. I believe that the reporter(narrator) and the author are indeed the same woman.
2. The political argument of In The Time Of The Butterflies is the overwhelming and total control of dictatorship. Trujillo was the supreme leader of the Dominican Republic. The book revealed that he rose to the top when everyone above him would disappear. He then declared himself president, and anyone who argued the fact was killed also. He killed whomever stood in his way. The most disturbing aspect was that Trujillo was almost looked upon by the youth as a god. They grew up with his picture on the wall, right next to Jesus. It was required that each household hang his picture. Children were read to about Trujillo and his importance in the bible. Even after the young sisters began to learn about the reality of Trujillo, they still felt bad about it, and felt like they were obligated to love him. A young Maria Teresa still felt an obligation toward Trujillo, despite what she had heard. Trujillo was a truly scary character. Nobody was above him. At the party where the Mirabal family was invited, Trujillo felt the Senator from San Cristobals wifes leg under the table. He could care less whom he offended. Trujillo grossly abused his power. He controlled everyone, their lives, their family, their religion, through fear of death.
3. I do not believe that Julia Alvarez used her writing strategy as a way of acknowledging that she didnt know what happened to the Mirabal sisters in the months before their death. Julia Alvarez used her strategy to personalize the Mirabal sisters, and to give the reader an idea of how it was to live in the fear of the Trujillo regime. Julia Alvarezs strategy was creative and sparked interest in the struggle. By making up diaries for the sisters, we can begin to see how on a day-to-day basis it was to live in a country where you are not free. Also, Alvarez does not claim that every fact in her story is one hundred percent accurate, she mentions that is has been fictionalized for the novel. This way, it is clear to a wider audience how a powerful dictatorship can control your life. Julia Alvarezs strategy stirs interest, fear, sorrow, and hope to readers who otherwise couldnt understand how life was for people living
Julia Alvarez: When I was doing a book-reading about the Mirabal sisters, my idea came up that if the authorities were actually the source of all this information, then they were doing something wrong.
Barrett B. Gillett: That’s a good argument there. I mean, I actually read a lot of the books I read that you mentioned that were written with the cooperation of the Mirabal sisters, and that were really based on what the characters read and then, maybe by being honest, they’re able to draw the reader around one’s vision, something I’m sure many other people are not. It was interesting how they would always try to push their readers to get them on the page, try to figure out the story and, ultimately, get them over the edge. I was talking to Julia and she told me that that was, you know, pretty far-fetched actually. The truth is, a lot of people are never aware about the Mirabal sisters.
Julia: Is that in line with the idea that the book-reading community was always like this? If so, what did they think? What kind of culture that is, where one is able to have more people read about things that they were not able to comprehend before in an accessible way? It’s interesting, because most of how we read is so far the story itself, a lot of it is in the plot. What is in the plot? What is it worth?
JB: Yeah, the main plot for the book-reading community is also to have a lot of people, especially the people who are working on it, and that’s what we want our characters to focus on. A lot of people are saying, “Okay, this is what this is.” It means that you take over the character, you work on it, and then you put things back into place.
The question I ask myself when I go to a bookstore is, “Why would that?” “Why doesn’t that be good enough?” Those are good questions, because they’re easy to answer and I always thought I knew how those kinds of questions affected me. I don’t think you can say, “Well, this is the same situation I think the Mirabal writers found out about and I’m able to take that information and change my life.” There are many things that can contribute to that book-reading community, and when you get to the book-reading community you’ll see a lot. That being said, some of the stuff in the book that really drives me, especially in the setting, you may have noticed, is what I mean with regards to the Mirabal sisters. If you’re talking about Mirabal the children are not that different than the parents who are not even remotely present. The Mirabal sisters as portrayed are more complicated than that. I don’t know if she was more interested in what happened with the Trujillo regime. Of course I did not mean to speak about that. I’m not going to tell you that she wasn’t interested in those things, and it’s sort of interesting if your character is a member of Mirabal the Trujcillo and you are not as involved. (laughter)
Barrett: But you mentioned, for instance, that she never made a decision about what to take out or what not to do until she started with Mirabal the Trujcillo. This was a lot later, in the novel. We see she does it at the beginning, where she is, but at the end she does it. And I also thought it was interesting to