In the Time of the Butterflies Group
Question:
Can "In the Time of the Butterflies" be seen as a historical text in understanding the Mirabal sisters and their ongoing value to the DR?
Answers:
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linda-allen Teacher
High School - 10th GradePosted by linda-allen on Saturday May 31, 2008 at 6:21 PMThis novel falls into the subgenre of historical fiction. What that means is that it is a fictional story that deals with real historical events and includes real people among the characters.
The real event that "In the Time of the Butterflies" deals with is the Trujillo dictatorship of the Dominican Republic. Rather than write a nonfiction account of those years, Alvarez chose to use the novel genre to dramatize the story of the real-life Miranda sisters to describe what it was like during those years and why so many people left that nation.
The "ongoing value" of this work and others like it is that it serves to document that era and expose the abuses and evils of such a government. As the old saying goes, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
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