In The Time Of The Butterflies Essay

Words: 752
Pages: 4

“That made me sit up and dry up my tears. The butterflies were not about to give up! We had suffered a setback but we had not been beaten” (page 269). This was said by Minerva, one of the Mirabal sisters. This quote proves that many people struggled with society because of the government. Which caused many conflicts in the Dominican Republic during during the 1940s to 1960s. Throughout the book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, it showed many struggles that most Dominicans faced under the ruling of Rafael Trujillo. One of the many struggles Dominicans faced was the limited amount of freedom they got. Being in the U.S. you sometimes don’t realize how lucky we are to have our freedoms such as freedom of speech. When three Mirabal sisters were under house arrest, Trujillo sent two SIM agents to watch over their house. “Two SIM agents were sitting on our rockers as comfortable as you please” (Alvarez 262). They couldn’t talk freely in their own home. They also were feeling unsafe under Trujillo’s rule. This is understandable since he is a murderer and a rapist. When Minerva was away at school she had a friend who, when Trujillo came to town, was head over heels for him. Things escaladed quickly in their relationship …show more content…
Dominicans faced many limits to their freedoms like the freedom of speech and the feeling of being unsafe in their own home and country. The women had not nearly as many great opportunities as the men had like going to college to get a degree to becoming vulnerable victims to Trujillo. Finally the Dominicans struggled with the government because of the military and Trujillo. Everyone struggles in life but what matters the most is whether you are the person who doesn’t let it stop you or are you the person who curls up in a ball in the corner and does nothing to stop it and just waits for it to destroy