Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
Julia Alvarez mixed legend with fact and produced the sisters of In the Time of the Butterflies. It is no secret that the characters of Maria Teresa, Patria, Minerva, and Dedé are fictional imaginings of the historical women. The author herself admits that she has neither the talents nor the “inclinations of a biographer to be able to adequately record them” (324). That doesn’t mean that she had no factual sources to work with; it means that her desired influence went beyond the reaches of reality. In the Time of the Butterflies’s wild popularity and wide readership must be due in part to the characters that Alvarez inserts into the history using her creative liberties. This paper explores how Alvarez's versions of the characters of Rafael Trujillo and Minerva Mirabal on the night of the ball at the Casa de Caoba captured international attention.
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Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Trenton Hickman
The Success of Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and the Morbid Fascination of Dancing with The Dictator
Julia Alvarez mixed legend with fact and produced the sisters of In the Time of the Butterflies. It is no secret that the characters of Maria Teresa, Patria, Minerva, and Dedé are fictional imaginings of the historical women. The author herself admits that she has neither the talents nor the “inclinations of a biographer to be able to adequately record them” (324). That doesn’t mean that she had no factual sources to work with; it means that her desired influence went beyond the reaches of reality. In the Time of the Butterflies’s wild popularity and wide readership must be due in part to the characters that Alvarez inserts into the history using her creative liberties. This paper explores how Alvarez's versions of the characters of Rafael Trujillo and Minerva Mirabal on the night of the ball at the Casa de Caoba captured international attention.