Commentary on In the Time of the Butterflies Essay

In the Time of the Butterflies

I read the book In the Time of the butterflies, the author, Julia Alvarez, talked about four sisters who grew up in a town with the government, The Trujillo Dictatorship. This book takes place in the Dominican Republic between 1930 to 1961. Patricia, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Dede talk about living under the Trujillos military and political repression.

Rafael Trujillos personal interests dictated the direction he took the country in many ways. He had a law that said if you were caught harboring any enemies of the regime, even if you yourself were not involved in their schemes, you would be in jail, and all your belongings would be owned by the government. This is just one of the examples of how Trujillo governed the country. For example, when the Mirabal familys dad had gone to prison, the government took away their two cars. Trujillo was not really nice guy either. He would have women dress up for him, and then have sex with them, and if they got pregnant, he would ship them away. During a party that was being thrown by Trujillo, the four girls all went and Minerva was getting touched by Trujillo a lot and she didnt like that. So she slapped him and since she didnt give him what he wanted, he tortured her dad while he was in prison and he died because of that. Trujillo past a law saying that women couldnt go to college, and Minerva really wanted to go to college, so she betted with him and in the end she won. Another example of how Trujillos personal interests dictated the country in a bad way was by having anyone killed who tried to live in his country who were not born there. Throughout the book the four sisters join in an underground movement trying to overthrow the government, but went to jail, and later let out of prison. Trujillos military took Patricia, Minerva, and Maria Teresa from their car and beat them to death.

There are other people out there who have the power but dont use it for the good. Someone who is an obvious no brainer is Adolph Hitler. He ruled Germany from 1934 to 1945. When Germany became a dictatorship and Hitler ruled, six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. He thought that was the right thing to do and he thought Germany lost World War I because of the Jews. He also believed that women should take care of their husbands, families and houses. Hitlers rules could not be legally changed because they were supreme rules.

In the Time of the Butterflies was a book that showed four sisters who were a great example of strength, courage and bravery. On November 25th, which is the day the girls were murdered, is marked as the International Day for Elimination of Violence against women. Basically this book is all about standing up for what you believe in and thats exactly what the Mirabal sisters did.