Perseverance In Before We Were Free By Julia Alvarez

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Perseverance is the continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez is about eleven-year-old Anita, who is faced with coming of age during a chaotic time where both friends and family are faced with difficult, life threatening decisions. Everyone is living under a cruel dictator named Rafael Trujillo in the 1960s in the Dominican Republic. Anita’s family has to endure hardships as they try to overthrow the dictator, which her father and uncle are in a plot trying to assassinate him. Anita’s family made sacrifices that showed perseverance because the family was monitored by the SIM and the family also changed overnight.

The first sacrifice Anita’s family made that showed perseverance was that the family was monitored by the SIM. Anita
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When in reality he is a cruel dictator. The Mirabel Sisters, also referred to as The Butterflies (Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa) were all brutally murdered because they involved in the movement to dispose Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo. With all the chaos happening, about the extended family and the Washburn’s moving in, the SIM don’t mind it because they suddenly burst into Anita’s house searching everywhere for Tio Toni, who is involved in the rebellion. The SIM are leaving their cars parked outside for days, forcing everyone to talk in hushed voices. Lucinda secretly and quietly explains why everyone is whispering in hushed voices in the house, “The SIM have probably hidden microphones in the house and are monitoring our

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