Maya Angelou said “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently”. In The Novel, The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, Minerva Mirabal shows a lot of courage. The novel tells the story of four sisters including Minerva. She was the first to get involved in the underground revolution against the Trujillo regime. There are three types of courage physical, moral and intellectual. During a difficult time period in the Dominican Republic’s history, Minerva Mirabal stepped up and showed all three types of courage when it was needed the most and risked everything to challenge Trujillo's regime.
Even at a young age Minerva showed a lot of moral courage by taking action even though she knew of the potential consequences. When Minerva went to school at Inmaculada Concepcion she befriended a girl named Sinita. Sinita told Minerva stories about Trujillo and how he killed her uncles …show more content…
Trujillo took advantage of many young women during his regime. Minerva first discovered this when her friend Lina at Immaculada Concepcion “fell in love” with him. Trujillo would visit her and bring her gifts. Unfortunately Lina left the school to be with Trujillo. After that Minerva knew that she could not let the same happen to her, so she showed physical courage at a crucial moment. “El Jefe smiles cynically. “Anything else bother you about my dress I could take off?”He yanks me by the wrist, thrusting his pelvis into me in a vulgar way, and I see my hand in an endless motion else- a mind all it’s own- and come down on the astonished made up face” (Alvarez 100). After what Trujillo did to other young women he deserved to be slapped and Minerva knew it. Her experience at the dance increased her distrust of Trujillo and eventually led her to join the underground