In the Time of the Butterflies (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Julia Alvarez
- First Published: 1994
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: 1928 to 1994
- Setting: The Dominican Republic
- Principal Characters: Dedé Mirabal, Minerva Mirabal, Patria Mirabal, María Teresa (Mate)
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Family or family life, Caribbean, Power, personal or social, Politics, Murder or homicide, Middle classes, Revolutions, Courage, Social issues, Brothers and sisters, Oppression, Farms, farmers, or farming, Adultery, Sisters, Heroes or heroism, Dominican Republican or Dominicans
- Locales: Dominican Republic
The Novel
In the Time of the Butterflies is the fictional story of four real persons, the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic. In 1960, three of the sisters, members of the underground movement opposing the regime of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, were ambushed on a lonely mountain road and assassinated. Alvarez’s novel, made up of three sections and an epilogue, intersperses chapters for each sister. All except Dedé’s are first-person narrations; Dedé does narrate the epilogue, however.
Section 1 of the novel (“1928 to 1946”) opens in 1994 with a...
[The entire page is 2349 words long]
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