Topic > Faith and heroism: the characters of the Mirabal sisters in The Time of Butterflies

The novel The Time of Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, consists of a narrative plot told by the only Mirabal sister who survived Trujillo's reign, Dede Mirabal. This story is set in the Dominican Republic way back in 1938, all the way to the “present” in 1994. Right now in the Dominican Republic, the country is ruled by a man named Trujillo, and he is doing his job. homeland a dangerous and horrible place. As young people, the Mirabal sisters do not consider Trujillo a threat to them. They hear stories that he has many girlfriends and that Trujillo has had people killed for him, but ends don't seem to meet until they are grown up, married and have children. Patria Mirabal tries to keep Trujillo's rule in the back of her mind, but soon discovers that, as a child of God, she should fight for what she believes in and put an end to the long list of sins committed by Trujillo. Patria uses her faith as a weapon to stay strong during Trujillo's reign because she feels she must fight for her son, her husband, her sisters, her children, and the people of the Dominican Republic. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Homeland has an unbreakable bond with God because she trusts in His plans for her life even though she has suffered many tragedies. Patria becomes a young woman and marries a man named Pedrito. She gets pregnant and when her due date arrives, a dead baby also arrives. At a time like this, Patria could lose faith in God because of this abortion, but she doesn't. He tells his mother, “It is the will of the Lord” (53). Later in life, Patria, at the age of twenty-four, quotes God and says, “Build your house on the rock, do my will. And though the rain falls, and the floods come, and the winds blow, the house of the good wife will stand” (148). Then he says, “I had built my house on solid rock, all right” (148). Here it seems like Patria is happy with what God blesses her with, but the real test of whether she has faith in Him is when she goes to a church retreat and comes out alive after a bombing by Trujillo near her retreat house. The bombs explode and Patria thinks: “...His kingdom was collapsing right on the roof of that retreat house” (161). This shows the true way Patria feels at that moment, an image of her Lord's Kingdom collapsing on her, “crushing” her faith. Immediately after seeing a boy around the age of his son Noris being shot dead, he changes his mind. Patria says, “Coming down that mountain, I was a changed woman…I carried with me not only my son, but also that dead boy” (162). Here, Patria's faith is restored knowing that not only do she and her unborn child survive, but she knows that God is sending her the message to fight against Trujillo and save His children. The bombing on the mountainside during Patria's church retreat helps her understand that she needs to fight for her country and her family because she knows that is what the Lord put her on earth to do. Patria realizes after the attack that she will not allow Trujillo to kill innocent people and her family, so she says to God, "I'm not going to sit back and watch my children die, Lord..." (162). This is the moment when Patria decides to become a martyr against Trujillo's reign, and she trusts that the Lord put her here to do this because she says, "The moment I walked into that room, I knew that something had changed in the way The Lord Jesus will be among us” (163). He has so much faith in God that he even makes his house the “mother house” of the June 14 Movement to overthrow Trujillo..