In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia Alvarez, the author of In The Time of the Butterflies, used various writing methods within her story including her personal experiences, history and varying elements of fiction. Alvarez used her personal experiences of living in the Dominican Republic to create the reality and harshness of living there under the rule of Trujillo in the novel. She also put major events that happened during the sisters’ lives in the novel in order to give the reader factual evidence to prove why certain events happened in their lives. She added a great amount of fiction in the novel as well in order to smoothly move the story along and fill in the historical gaps. She used all of these methods of writing to create a realistic view of the Mirabal sisters and their lives in this fictional story. The novel portrays fictional lives of actual women who lived in the Dominican Republic during the dictatorship of Trujillo, joined the resistance and fought for the revolution.

Julia Alvarez began her young life in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Trujillo, therefore, she had first hand experience and knowledge of what it was like during his reign. Her father had participated in the same underground plot as the Mirabal sisters, the main characters of the novel, and real life revolutionaries, had before their murders. Due to her father's involvement in the resistance, Julia and her family had to flee New York City. This happened because the organization, her father belonged to, was found out by Trujillo’s secret police; they arrived in New York City on August 6, 1960. Soon after her family's escape, the news of the Mirabal sisters deaths spread and reached a young Julia Alvarez. “I don’t know how to quite say this but it was as if we were girls again, walking through the dark part of the yard, a little afraid, a little excited by our fears, anticipating the lighted house just around the bend- That’s the way I felt as we started up the first mountain” (Butterflies: 297). In their last moments they were anticipating danger but they did not run from it. The story of the Mirabal sisters stuck with Alvarez and she took every available opportunity she had to learn more about them. "I kept asking myself, what gave them that special courage?” (Butterflies: 323). This is the initial question that sprouted her curiosity. It fueled her determination to learn more about the sisters and their lives under the rule of Trujillo, and led to the creation of her novel. By using her personal experiences of living in the Dominican Republic as a child the story became fictional reality for the reader. The world presented in the story is extremely believable due to her first hand experience in it.

In addition, all of the novels Julia Alvarez has written have had a very strong Dominican element in them. “Alvarez’s novels have taken advantage of her background and experience” ( Butterflies: 333). The first ten years of her life spent under Trujillo’s dictation showed her the major difference between the USA and the Dominican Republic. An example of that would be the subject of freedom, in this case freedom of speech. In the novel, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time could get someone killed. “Compañeros,” I said, starling them in mid-rock with the revolutionary greeting. “I’m going to have to ask you to please keep your voices down. You’re right under our bedroom windows. Remember, you are guards, not guests here.” (Butterflies: 262). There is a part in the book where the Mirabal house is under close watch by the secret police, especially after Minerva and Maria Teresa come home from prison. They had to be extremely careful because they already knew that Trujillo wanted them dead due to the fact that they were women who were resisting against him.

In the novel, In The Time of the Butterflies, gender and social roles in the Dominican Republic were written from historical fact. There is factual evidence that proves men were expected as the dominant decision makers and financial providers in the Dominican Republic during the 1900’s. According to Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs “machismo is the exaltation of all that is “macho” and is rampant in the Dominican Republic”( Baez A.). Machismo was and is still highly practiced in the Dominican Republic, it labels men as superior to women. There are many circumstances in the novel that show machismo “Cosas de los