Brief Summary Of Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies

The book, In the Time of the Butterflies, opens in the Dominican Republic with Dede Mirabal preparing for an interview. The four Mirabal sisters each write from their perspective about living in a time with the dictator Trujillo. The story follows the start of a rebellion that the sisters become the leaders of. Three of the sisters, Maria Teresa, Minerva, and Patria, join the rebellion along with their husbands. Dede is the only one who does not join the rebellion, partly because her husband does not believe she should join. Those part of the rebellion begin to stir up trouble by gathering other people against the government and even collecting weapons to use. This lands them in huge trouble, and they eventually end up in jail, while Dede is home with her mom taking care of their children. At the end of the book, the three sisters in the rebellion die and Dede is the only …show more content…
While the girls are growing up, their father acquires a habit of predicting their futures. It seems to be a joke for most of them until he comes to Dede and he tells her “‘She’ll bury us all...in silk and pearls’” (Alvarez 8). Her father seems to think that if any of them survive, it will be Dede. Dede often compares herself to her sisters, believing that they are the brave ones in the family. She says, “‘ I just have to admit to myself... I could be brave if someone were by me every day of my life to remind me to be brave. I don’t come by it naturally’”(Alvarez 186). By her saying this, Dede assumes that all of her sisters come by being brave naturally and believes she is the only one who does not have that quality. Eventually, being brave is the three sister’s downfall because it ends up being one of the things that kills them. Although Dede does not believe she is brave, she comes to understand that she is brave in her own