“Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.” This quote perfectly describes Patria who is one of the sisters in the book, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. This novel takes place in the 1900’s in the Dominican Republic while it was under the rule of Trujillo. Trujillo ran a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic for over 30 years with strict rules and harsh punishments. The story follows the real lives of the Mirabal sisters and each chapter is through one of their perspectives. Their family is extremely close, but all the sisters have very different personalities. Throughout their life they are heavily exposed to the corruption and injustice of the Trujillo regime and eventually all the sisters
…show more content…
Chapter 8 written in 1959 is from Patria’s perspective. Patria is pregnant but still decides to go to a mountain retreat hosted by four priests. During this same time there a rumors of invasion and Trujillo declares a state of emergency. Patria decides to go with the priests to Constanza for the retreat and ignores the rumors. While one of the ceremonies was happening, the mountainside was bombed. Patria has to watch a boy as old as one of her sons be shot down and killed. After this event she writes, “Coming down the mountain, I was a changed women. I may have worn the same sweet face, but now I was carrying not just my child but that dead boy as well.” (pg 162). When Patria says how she still wears the same “sweet face” she’s saying how she is still the kind person that she’s always been. Her “sweet face” represents her inner kindness that isn’t lost even after a terrible event like the bombing. Patria also uses figurative language to describe her change, she says, “Now I was carrying not just my child but that dead boy as well.” Patria is saying how watching the little boy die will forever be in her heart and she’ll have to carry around the memory forever. She’s not literally carrying the dead boy, but she has to carry around the image of him dying. This causes her to become strong for her not only her children but herself. This was a turning point for Patria because she had never shown this type of strength before. This event made her a stronger person which wasn’t a characteristic she used to possess. It gave her the courage and strength to finally fight for something she believed
Chapter 8 written in 1959 is from Patria’s perspective. Patria is pregnant but still decides to go to a mountain retreat hosted by four priests. During this same time there a rumors of invasion and Trujillo declares a state of emergency. Patria decides to go with the priests to Constanza for the retreat and ignores the rumors. While one of the ceremonies was happening, the mountainside was bombed. Patria has to watch a boy as old as one of her sons be shot down and killed. After this event she writes, “Coming down the mountain, I was a changed women. I may have worn the same sweet face, but now I was carrying not just my child but that dead boy as well.” (pg 162). When Patria says how she still wears the same “sweet face” she’s saying how she is still the kind person that she’s always been. Her “sweet face” represents her inner kindness that isn’t lost even after a terrible event like the bombing. Patria also uses figurative language to describe her change, she says, “Now I was carrying not just my child but that dead boy as well.” Patria is saying how watching the little boy die will forever be in her heart and she’ll have to carry around the memory forever. She’s not literally carrying the dead boy, but she has to carry around the image of him dying. This causes her to become strong for her not only her children but herself. This was a turning point for Patria because she had never shown this type of strength before. This event made her a stronger person which wasn’t a characteristic she used to possess. It gave her the courage and strength to finally fight for something she believed