In the Time of the Butterflies Questions and Answers
In the Time of the Butterflies
Why and how did the Mirabal sisters die?
In her work, The Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez tells of the Mirabal sisters' death as narrated by Dede and told to her by various people. There existed different accounts of their death even by...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What is the birth order of the four sisters (oldest to youngest), in the book In the Time of the Butterflies?
The oldest three of the Mirabal sisters were very close in age. Patria, the oldest, was born in 1924. The most religious of the three women, she seemed destined to enter the convent, but...
In the Time of the Butterflies
When Do Butterflies Come Out
Butterfly season varies depending upon what part of the world is being talked of. For example, butterfly season in the New England region of the United States is in their summer during July to...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How does Minerva in In the Time of the Butterflies portray courage throughout the story?
Minerva is arguably the lead protagonist of the novel and shows many acts of bravery and courage throughout the novel. As a young woman she defiantly slaps Trujillo for what she considers...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What literary devices are found in the book In the Time of the Butterflies?
Julia Alvarez deploys vivid imagery in the descriptions of the Mirabal sisters’ Dominican home. To create these images, she often uses similes and metaphors. Another literary device is dialogue....
In the Time of the Butterflies
What is the summary of Chapter 6 in the book "In the Time of the Butterflies? How would you say this most affected...
In Chapter 6, Minerva discovers that her father has a mistress and four other daughters. She also finds that he has been hiding letters to her from Lio. When she confronts him, her father defends...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Summary and main points of Chapter 9?
Chapter 9 in Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies describes Dede's final interaction with her interviewer, as well as her final decision to not join the underground movement. As all of...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How did Papà die in the book In the Time of the Butterflies?
Enrique Mirabal died as a result of his harsh treatment in prison and his failing health owing to the heart attack he had there. Though he doesn't die until 1953, this family still says that it's...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What are some symbols used in the book, In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez?
In Julia Alvarez's book, In the Time of Butterflies, there are several symbols. First, as noted in the title, butterflies are significant. (This supports the theme of "change and transformation.")...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How does Dede change throughout the novel In the Time of the Butterflies?
In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, Dede is the middle sister in the Mirabal family unit of four sisters. Unlike her outspoken and revolutionary sisters, Dede is a play-it-safe kind of...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How does Maria Teresa change as a person throughout In the Time of the Butterflies?
Maria Teresa changes throughout Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies from an individual who values material goods and popularity to someone who values love for her family. This...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the book In the Time of the Butterflies, what are three quotes that show foreshadowing, and three quotes that show...
Chapter 1 of In the Time of Butterflies contains a lot of descriptive details that reveal hidden meanings and predict what is to come later in the novel. For example, in the beginning of the novel,...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What kind of store does Dedé's father run in In the Time of the Butterflies?
Dedé's father is a wealthy farmer and landowner who also runs a general store. Despite his wealth, Papa is actually quite a generous soul, which sets him apart from the economic and social elite of...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What are three examples of figurative language from In the Time of Butterflies, and where do they occur in the novel?
1. In Chapter Five the girls, Dede and Minerva, finish their work at their father's shop and head to Tio [Uncle] Pepe's where they will play volleyball with their friends. But, Minerva has invited...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What is the meaning of the title "In the Time of the Butterflies?"
The title In the Time of Butterflies comes from history. The Dominican Republic was ruled by a ruthless dictator, Rafael Trujillo, from 1930 to 1961. He was brutal and greedy beyond words; however...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Why did the Mirabel sisters choose the butterfly as their symbol of independence?
There are several characteristics of the butterfly which make it a potent symbol for the Mirabel sisters. As they face the violent consequences of a brutal dictator's rulership, as well as strife...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Where can I find quotes and page numbers from Minerva In the Time of the Butterflies book?
Minerva's chapters are as follows and here is a significant quote & analysis from each. Pages numbers will depend on whatever edition you have. (Mine is the Plume paperback edition. Those...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Name three scenes in which rain appears in In the Time of the Butterflies. What does it symbolize?
Rain is used as a symbol of tragic or disastrous events, or as a foreshadowing of doom. The first scene in which it is mentioned is at the end of Chapter 1, "a clear moonlit night before the...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How does Minerva change as a person throughout In the Time of the Butterflies? I need help finding one descriptive...
In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical fiction novel written by Julia Alvarez. The narrative centers around a fictionalized account of the Mirabel sisters, four revolutionaries and...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Explain the relationship between Minerva and Dede Mirabal in In the Time of the Butterflies.
If you look back carefully at Chapter Five of this amazing novel, you can see that the animosity that exists between Dede and Minerva has its roots in the conflict they have over a man. When...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What unsettling realization about Lio does Dede come to in Chapter 5 of In the Time of the Butterflies? What is the...
The unsettling realization about Virgilio, nicknamed Lio, that Dede comes to is that he is really a Communist. Lio is "a radical young man" who, for a period of time, was a close friend of the...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Maria Teresa character analysis Need info on Maria Teresa's character profile and specific quotes for her
In Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies, Maria Teresa, "Mate", the youngest of the butterfly sisters, matures from innocent child, preoccupied with pretty, trivial things, to brave freedom...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How do the four Mirabal sisters compare and contrast in terms of their commitment to anti-Trujillo activity and to...
Dede is the oldest and only surviving Mirabal sister. For much of the time, it seems of the four daughters, Dede is the least committed to the revolution. Dede "had always been the docile middle...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Why can the discussion of Minerva's interests endanger the family according to the narrator's comment in In the Time...
Minerva is the narrator of the novel. She knows that the dictator Rafael Trujillo demands absolute loyalty and subservience from every Dominican. In his thirty years in power he had built up a...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What does Dede think about the American woman who comes for an interview in Julia Alvarez' novel,"In the Time of...
Dede is at first very suspicious of the American interviewer. She has been enduring the questions about her sisters, "Las Mariposas" (the butterflies) for over fifty years (1943-1994,...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What is a summary of chapters 5 and 6 of In the Time of the Butterflies?
In chapter five Dede narrates to the interviewer(1994) a story concerning Virgiho Morales (Lio). She was romantically interested in Lio during his youth. After that, the story goes back to 1948....
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the Time of the Butterflies, how does Maria Teresa's diary help her throughout life and how does her diary save...
As a young girl of 10, Maria Theresa keeps a diary as a way to record her personal secrets, as many young girls do. In another diary she records her college years, and in a third her six months in...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In In the Time of the Butterflies on chapter 11 on April 11 what happened to Mate?
On April 11, 1960, Maria Teresa is tortured at La 40; in undated journals between the 10th and the 16th, she recovers from her ordeal. When Maria Teresa is incarcerated by the Servicio de...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In In the Time of the Butterflies, what are some good imagery quotes I could use for my explication essay?
You might want to look in the first Chapter and at Dede's reminiscence of the family time together in the garden at night. There is one excerpt from this chapter that really helps to set the scene...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the novel "In the Time of the Butterflies," Rafael Trujillo is called "El Jefe." Why? In what ways did he act like...
"El Jefe" wasn't just a physical entity; rather, the Dominican people considered it a metaphysical force that could be conjured up by simply thinking a non-approved thought. "God...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Who is Hilda, and how is she connected to Minerva in the book In the Time of the Butterflies? Why is the connection...
During her last year at Immaculada, Minerva befriends Hilda, a "really rude" young lady who "wears trousers and a beret slanted on her head like she is Michelangelo". Hilda lives in town but...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In The Time of the Butterflies, in Chapter 7, how does Maria Teresa's tone in her diary change from the beginning to...
At the beginning of Chapter Seven (1953-1958), Maria Teresa is very depressed, writing "I feel like dying" because she has been mourning the death of her father. On December 31, she starts her...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What are two good quotes from chapters 9 and 10 on "In the Time of the Butterflies"?
In chapter 9, Julia Alvarez writes: So when she saw her three sisters coming down the path that afternoon, she felt pure dread. It was as if the three fates were approaching, their scissors poised...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the novel In The Time of the Butterflies, how does Patria change throughout the book?
In my opinion, Patricia is the character that goes through the most dramatic changes in the novel. Patricia changes from religious, to being in love, to losing a child, to losing her faith, to...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In Chapter 9 of The Time of the Butterflies, what is a powerful quotation and why?
The chapter concludes with: “A dark night was falling, one of a different order from the soft, large, kind ones of childhood under the anacahuita tree, Papa parceling out futures and Mama fussing...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Tone in In the Time of the Butterflies? What is the impact of tone in In the Time of the Butterflies and where is it...
Because this novel is written in a way that uses all four sisters' voices as individual narrators of their part of the story, you could examine the difference in tone between the four sisters. The...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What were their exact words when Minerva told Maria Teresa she wanted her to grow up in a free country in the book...
Maria Teresa writes, "I asked Minerva why she was doing such a dangerous thing. And then, she said the strangest thing. She wanted me to grow up in a free country. "'And it isn't that already?'...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What are a couple of quotes about how the sisters stood up for what was right and sacrifices they made in the...
In the Time of the Butterflies discusses not only the fact that the sisters stood up for what they thought was right, but also the various processes they each went through to get to that place....
In the Time of the Butterflies
What is the exposition, conflict, climax and resolution of the novel in In the Time of the Butterflies?
This novel has a unique structure in that the first chapter is told in the present day from the voice of Dede, the only surviving Maribel sister who reflects back on the past and on her sisters'...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What happens in chapters 11 and 12?
Chapter 11 covers the time period from March to August, 1960 and is narrated by Mate. She and Minerva are in a cell with twenty-four women. The two sisters turn down the pardon that's offered to...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Did Trujillo do anything good for the Dominican Republic during his rule?
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, or El Jefe, used brutal tactics to rise to power in the Dominican Republic and stay there for over thirty years. Tens of thousands were murdered under his dictatorship and...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Can someone tell me what happens in Chapter 12 of "In the Time of the Butterflies"? The BIG ideas.
Under house arrest, Minerva tries to settle her nerves and adjust to life back at home. She and her sisters can only leave the house with permission from Pena, a SIM guard, and regularly go only...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the book In the Time of the Butterflies, how does the movement impact Dede's marriage?
Although it might seem that the revolution causes the dissolution of Dede's marriage, I think that in reality it merely exposes weaknesses that are there already. As Dede muses in Chapter 1,...
In the Time of the Butterflies
What are some quotes where the moon is used as symbolism in the book In the Time of the Butterflies?
The use of the moon symbolically seems to indicate the level of violence at each stage in this incredible novel. The moon seems to act as some kind of gauge of the level of safety or danger of the...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In In the Time of the Butterflies, how does Dedé keep the memory of her sisters alive, and how does she feel about...
Dedé spends a great deal of time trying to keep her sisters’ memories alive. Recall how at the beginning of the story, she shows pictures of her sisters to the interviewer and recounts stories...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the book In the Time of the Butterflies, Dede came to an unsettling realization about Lio...what did she find out...
In Chapter 5, Dede first realizes the full extent of Lio's revolutionary ideology. Mate reads from the newspaper that "there had been a demonstration at the university, led by a bunch of young...
In the Time of the Butterflies
Explain the organization of In the Time of the Butterflies in terms of narrative structure. What does Alvarez...
What's so interesting about Alvarez's choice to alternate chapters from the different points of view of the three butterfly sisters is that, although the stories are fictitious (though inspired by...
In the Time of the Butterflies
How does each sister lose her innocence or faith in the opening chapters of In the Time of the Butterflies?
Each of the four sisters in Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies loses their innocence and/or faith in the early chapters of the book. Prior to each sister’s realization, each...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, what is a person vs. society conflict?
There are numerous "man vs. society" conflicts in Alvarez's novel. Of course, there is a free society vs. a dictatorship, ie, Trujillo's reign vs. the "movement" for freedom...
In the Time of the Butterflies
In Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies, what does Minerva mean when she says she "got free" after she moved away...
When Minerva says that she "got free" when she went away to boarding school, she is referring to feeling liberated from the restrictiveness of her household. As a bright, inquisitive, and defiant...
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