in the time of the butterflies
Julia Alvarez’ In the Time of the Butterflies takes a big, complicated story of a country undergoing political persecution and revolution—and makes it completely personal. If you don’t identify with one sister, you identify with the other—or the husband trying to run a business and keep his family safe, or the revolutionary that flees the country to save his life and continue to push for change from the outside, or the priest who eventually finds a way to stay true to his faith and support the revolutionaries by feeding and arming them. Every person is represented, so if you thought this wasn’t your story, you’re wrong. This is a story about you, and Alvarez’s every word urges you to be strong, be vigilant, be the force that stops whatever evil tries to take root in your country. That’s one of the reasons the story is so uncomfortable to read: this horrible ordeal that this country really went through…it isn’t so far from a possible reality. We DO need to be vigilant. We DO need to stand up for the people whose voices are at risk of being drowned out, because every voice deserves to be heard.