I inched towards courage the best way I could, helping out with the little things.” – Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies
“I got braver like a crab going sideways.
The novel switches between the voices of the three sisters who would eventually be assassinated on a lonely mountain road on Trujillo’s orders, and the reminiscences of Dedé, the sole surviving sister.Īlvarez depicts the voices of the sisters in varying stages of their lives, from teenagers in school to young mothers, from women pursuing careers and families to determined revolutionaries. The Mirabal sisters were known within the revolutionary movement as Las Mariposas, The Butterflies. Alvarez’s story is a fictional imagining of the daily lives of the true-life Mirabal sisters, who lived in the Dominican Republic under the repressive dictatorship of General Trujillo (1930-1961). The novel stood out to me because I enjoy reading historical fiction and stories of women’s lives.Īt its heart, In the Time of the Butterflies is about courage and family, the prices of freedom and regret, and the necessity of sacrifice. I recently turned to the Mary’s Pence reading list from last summer for reading suggestions, and selected Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies. There’s little I love better than losing myself in a book, especially on a snowy spring day in Minnesota. Joseph Worker volunteer for Mary’s Pence.
0 kommentar(er)
