Connection To Historical Events
The idea behind In the Time of the Butterflies originated in the 1960s when author Julia Alvarez was in the Dominican Republic. The Mirabal sisters had been murdered just three months after their father got involved with the underground against Trujillo.
A motif of the novel is the ruinous effect that dictatorship can have on a nation and its citizens, emotionally and physically. Over his 30-year reign, Trujillo killed 50,000 Haitians and Dominicans. One of the focuses of the novel was his agenda to kill or eliminate blacks who occupy one-third of the Island of Hispanola, or Haiti, while the Dominican Republic, which occupies two-thirds of the area of Hispanola, contains a population of 75% mixed background.
Read more about this topic: In The Time Of The Butterflies
Famous quotes containing the words connection to, connection, historical and/or events:
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“The system was breaking down. The one who had wandered alone past so many happenings and events began to feel, backing up along the primal vein that led to his center, the beginning of hiccup that would, if left to gather, explode the center to the extremities of life, the suburbs through which one makes one’s way to where the country is.”
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