We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,546,647.77 | Books Available: 800,465 | Members Online: 281

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - In the Time of the Butterflies (Audio CD)

In the Time of the Butterflies - Audio CD
Author: Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is a novel that has substance to support numerous themes. The novel can be used to address themes about loyalty, death and loss, Marxism, and political domination are examples; however, the most overreaching theme in the novel is the empowerment of women and the woman’s role in society. ... more »Empowerment of women and women roles is a broad theme that has many different components that feed into it. Some of the components of the empowerment of women are the loyalty among women and how their gender affects their roles and perceptions in society.

In the Time of Butterflies is about four sisters who set out to change the world in which they live in. Their home country is being dominated by a dictator, who to everyone around them is a wonderful man and needs to be worshiped and respected. The four sisters see the truth about the dictator and are determined, with other supports, to start a revolution and take down the dictator. In this society, the countrymen do not question the dictator’s actions and if they do they are put to death. As the sisters each begin to see the cruel and inappropriate acts that this dictator is supporting, they join the revolution and their bond as sisters is strengthen to a bond of supporters.

The four sisters have a strong family bond and have created close relationships among them. Each sister watches out for the other and will support the sister in what ever she needs. The ultimate act of loyalty comes from Dede Mirabal the sister that survived; she took in all three of her sisters’ children and raised them as her own, along with her own children. The sisters’ loyalty to one another is shown early on in the novel when the youngest sister, Maria Teresa, lies to her principal to help cover up the truth of her older sister’s, Minerva, truancy to school. This act may be small but it is one of the first instances where the reader can see the strength of these women and their loyalty to one another. The women have strong loyalty not only to each other and their families, but a loyalty to their country and government. Their loyalty to the government begins with a respect for the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Trujillo, but once they each learn of the underground activities of this dictator they then have a loyalty to their revolution. These four sisters are women honored as the catalyst that brought the end of the Trujillo regime. Three of them lost their lives for their cause, which shows the depth of their loyalty.

In the society in which this novel is written, women were not to be radical. The four sisters’ father wants them to grow up and become housewives and raise the children. He does not support Minerva’s going to law school and marrying later in life. This suppression of women is also demonstrated by the Trujillo himself. He uses women to his personal advantage and makes sexual advance toward women, including one of the Mirabal sisters. He wants his outward appearance to be that he respects women so he tries to treat them fairly and pardons more women from their arrests than he does men. The four Mirabal women do all marry and have children as their father wished, but they played a key part in the revolution. They represented all the women in the country that were being treated unjustly by Trujillo. The sisters fought for a free and just country. The date of the murder of the three sisters, November 25, became International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women in honor of their effort as political radicals in the Dominican Republic. By the naming of the date of their death a national day to help women who are being treated badly shows the empowerment of these four sisters. The three sisters’ murder helped lead to the end of the Trujillo dictatorship. Their murder outraged the country and Trujillo was assassinated months later.

The story of the Mirabal sisters is a story about empowering women; the novel shows women that if they take their world in to their own hands they can make change. The Mirabal sisters are honored today in the Dominican Republic by the Dede, the surviving sister who spends her time telling the story of the three sisters and the change they brought to the country.

Audio Books swap for two (2) credits.

ISBN: 323334
Publication Date: 1/1/2005
Edition: Unabridged
Rating:

Currently 5/5 Stars.

5 stars, based on 1 rating

Publisher: Recorded Books
Book Type: Audio CD
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Write a Review

Book Wiki

Common Title

In the Time of Butterflies

Genres:

Literature & Fiction >> Genre Fiction >> Historical

Back to the Top ↑

Search - In the Time of the Butterflies (Audio CD)

Book Wiki

Loading...