In The Time Of The Butterflies Summary

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In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, the fine line between fiction and history are blurred. In the Dominican Republic, the tyrant Trujillo has taken control and now the Mirabal Sisters are compelled to join the revolution. After their death, they have become mythicized with their true story being lost between the heroic lives of these three women. To truly capture the essence of the sisters, the author has given these girls a more fictional backstory to retrieve the lost humanity in this narrative of courage. Alvarez’s fictional style of writing is highly debated between critics and readers alike; the author’s portrayal helps to humanize the legendary Mirabal Sisters. Many commentators have come to the conclusion that In the …show more content…
Trenton Hickman, the author of Hagiographic Commemorafiction in Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and In the Name of Salomé,” states, “Alvarez still hopes that her readers will come to know the story of the Mirabal sisters on a personal level” (Hickman 102). Hickman’s message has been a common thread through critics that have had positive things to say about Alvarez’s depiction of the sisters. They all believe the style has brought the girls into a new light that introduce the girls on a more personal level. Hickman also wrote, “Alvarez expresses a wish to humanize the Mirabals as much as possible, worried that allowing the Mirabals to become too iconic might ‘rob’ [them] of the dignity of being real human beings and… the dignity of what the sacrifice meant” (102). This statement coincides perfectly with his prior ideas that talk about continuing the authenticity of the sisters’ spirits and intentions. The Mirabal Sisters never wanted to be heroes, they just strived to make a difference. The spirit of the the women have been captured in the essence of Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and is now permanently documented in the author’s
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