in the time of the butterflies patria essay

In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia alvarez, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Patria Quotes in In the Time of the Butterflies

Minerva could tell. One day, we were lying side by side on the hammock strung just outside the galería . She must have caught me gazing at our picture of the Good Shepherd, talking to his lambs. Beside him hung the required portrait of El Jefe, touched up to make him look better than he was. “They’re a pair, aren’t they?” she noted. That moment, I understood her hatred. My family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo, just as before losing my baby, Jesus had not taken anything away from me. But others had been suffering great losses… I had heard, but I had not believed. Snug in my heart, fondling my pearl, I had ignored their cries of desolation. How could our loving, all-powerful Father allow us to suffer so? I looked up, challenging Him. And the two faces had merged!

That room was silent with the fury of avenging angels sharpening their radiance before they strike. The priests had decided they could not wait forever for the pope and the archbishop to come around. The time was now, for the Lord had said, I come with the sword as well as the plow to set at liberty them that are bruised. I couldn’t believe this was the same Padre de Jesús talking who several months back hadn’t known his faith from his fear! But then again, here in that little room was the same Patria Mercedes, who wouldn’t have hurt a butterfly, shouting, “Amen to the revolution.” And so we were born in the spirit of the vengeful Lord, no longer His lambs.

Maybe because I was used to the Good Shepherd and Trujillo side by side in the old house, I caught myself praying a little greeting as I walked by. Then another time, I came in from outside with my hands full of anthuriums. I looked up at him, and I thought why not. I set up a vase on the table right under his picture… I don’t know if that’s how it started, but pretty soon, I was praying to him, not because he was worthy or anything like that. I wanted something from him, and prayer was the only way I knew to ask.

El Jefe entered in a wash of camera flashes. I don’t know what I thought I’d see – I guess after three months of addressing him, I was sure I’d feel a certain kinship with the stocky, overdressed man before me. But it was just the opposite. The more I tried to concentrate on the good side of him, the more I saw a vain, greedy, unredeemed creature. Maybe the evil one had become flesh like Jesus! Goosebumps jumped all up and down my bare arms.

Patria closed her purse with a decisive snap. “Let’s just go.” We moved quickly now towards the Jeep, hurrying as if we had to catch up with that truck. I don’t know quite how to say this, but it was as if we were girls again, walking through the dark part of the yard, a little afraid, a little excited by our fears, anticipating the lighted house just around the bend – That’s the way I felt as we started up the first mountain.

In the Time of the Butterflies

By julia alvarez, in the time of the butterflies summary and analysis of part ii - chapter eight: patria, 1959.

Patria 's children, Nelson and Noris , have grown up, and they all live in Pedrito's great-grandfather's house. Eighteen years after getting married, she has spent New Year's Eve at Mama's new house in Conuco, and she has fallen asleep at her own house. But she is woken up by Minerva , Manolo , Leandro, and Nelson, who report that Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara have ousted Batista in Cuba. That night, Raul Ernesto , Patria's next son, is conceived.

Patria is afraid for her sisters and for her son Nelson, who is "always tagging along behind his Tio Manolo and his new Tio Leandro, men of the world who had gone to the university and who impressed him more than his country father." She sends him to Santo Tomas de Aquino, a seminary in the capital, with the help of Padre de Jesus Lopez . When Nelson begins to talk about joining the liberators, Patria goes to Padre de Jesus Lopez for help, but he tells her he, too, is lost, and cannot show her the way.

Minerva and Maria Teresa both have had babies, Manolito and Jacqueline, respectively. Minerva asks Patria to take care of Manolito, explaining that she is going to "be on the road a lot." But she and Manolo visit from Monte Cristi every week; they meet on Patria's and Pedrito's land with many other revolutionaries. But this gives Nelson the chance to get involved when he is home from school. He reports back to her that the revolutionaries are expecting an invasion by the liberators from Cuba.

Though she is pregnant with Raul Ernesto, Patria decides to go on a retreat with Padre de Jesus and the Salcedo group to Constanza. They are the Christian Cultural Group, led by four priests including Padre de Jesus and Brother Daniel . Trujillo has heard rumors of the pending invasion and has declared a state of emergency, but the retreat goes to Constanza anyway. They stay in a retreat house that resembles a nunnery, and Patria feels peaceful.

On June 14, while they listen to Brother Daniel speak about the Assumption, the mountainside is bombed. The first wave of the liberating invasion is the target, and as Patria watches, one of them (who is about Noris's age) is gunned down. The Christian Cultural Group comes back down the mountain, and Patria's family meets her on the road coming into town. In the newspaper, they read that 49 men and boys died in the attack. They read six days later that the second wave of the invasion force was intercepted and also defeated.

At the next meeting of the Christian Cultural Group, the mood has changed considerably: Padre de Jesus speaks like a revolutionary, and they change their name to Accion Clero-Cultural, or ACC. Their mission is to organize a powerful national underground. Patria volunteers Pedrito, Nelson, Minerva, Manolo, Maria Teresa, and Leandro for the organization. However, Pedrito becomes upset that the revolutionaries are meeting in their backyard, since a new law has been passed that will allow the government to confiscate the land of anyone found to be harboring any enemies of the regime. Patria is able to sway him when she reveals that their son Nelson is involved, too.

The Fourteenth of June Movement is founded then, in Patria and Pedrito's home. There are about forty people, with Manolo as president. They make bombs, called "nipples," and hide weapons. Patria sends Noris to Chea Mirabal 's house, and they use her bedroom as an ammunitions room.

As narrator, Patria uses similes and personification that connect her to both heaven and earth. When Padre de Jesus tells her he cannot help her because he, too, is lost, she says, "I was shaking like when a breeze blows through the sacristy and the votive candles flicker." She is in the place of the prayerful candles, being shaken by nature. When she is overwhelmed by the beauty of Constanza, she personifies the land and nature more generally as if it is tied to God: "Purple mountains reaching towards angelfeather clouds; a falcon soaring in a calm blue sky; God combing His sunshine fingers through green pastures straight out of the Psalms."

Pedrito also ties Patria to the Earth. This is evident in the language she uses to express not being worried about him like she worries about her sisters: "Pedrito didn't worry me. I knew he would always have one hand in the soil and the other somewhere on me."

Patria uses a style of narration that involves direct address and exclamations, characterizing herself as deliberate but also at times as emotional as her younger sister Maria Teresa. For example, when Nelson sees an excited look on her face after he tells her about the invasion, she says, "But you know why that look was there? I'll tell you." Similarly, when she explains why Noris does not want to go along with her to the retreat, she says, "I certainly couldn't talk her into a retreat with 'old ladies' and a bunch of bad-breath priests. (Lord forgive her!)."

When Noris meets her after the mountainside is bombed, Patria notices "a change in her, as if her soul had at last matured and began its cycles." This metaphor comparing the soul maturing to a menstrual cycle hearkens back to Chapter 2, in which Minerva begins her "complications" both physically and emotionally as she realizes the country is in danger, and the power and evil of Trujillo. It also is reminiscent of Maria Teresa, who in her diary entries as a young girl yearned to discover her soul.

Patria also struggles to reconcile her commitment to God with her desire to protect her family and defend her country. Symbolically, she and Maria Teresa make a list of the weapons they've assembled "in the pretty script we'd been taught by the nuns for writing out Bible passages." Even when the retreat house is bombed, she describes it spiritually: "His Kingdom was coming down upon the very roof of that retreat house." As they ride back down the mountain after the retreat, she says, "I tried looking up at our Father, but I couldn't see His Face for the dark smoke hiding the tops of those mountains."

This chapter also keeps the reader informed about the larger history. We learn about the role of Cuba and its revolutionaries. We also learn about the events of June 14 and the origins, filtered through the narrator, of the Movimiento 14 de Junio.

In the Time of the Butterflies Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for In the Time of the Butterflies is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does pedrito describe himself?

From the text:

"You are not getting a fancy, high-talking man in Pedrito Gonzalez," he said rather fiercely. "But you are getting a man who adores you like he does this rich soil we're standing on."

What is the SIM?

It is the servicio de inteligencia militar.

While Minerva is dancing with Trujillo, she thinks, "I see how easily it happens." What does she mean?

I believe this alludes to Trujillo's flirtacious behavior and his ultimate effect on women.

Study Guide for In the Time of the Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies study guide contains a biography of Julia Alvarez, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About In the Time of the Butterflies
• In the Time of the Butterflies Summary
• Character List

Essays for In the Time of the Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

• Minerva's Struggle
• Patria's Eternal Courage
• Mirabal Martyrdom in In the Time of the Butterflies
• Altruistic Obsessions: Tragic Flaws in 'The Boy in the Suitcase' and 'In the Time of the Butterflies'
• Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

Lesson Plan for In the Time of the Butterflies

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to In the Time of the Butterflies
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• In the Time of the Butterflies Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for In the Time of the Butterflies

• Introduction
• Connection to historical events

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — In The Time of The Butterflies — Literary Analysis Of In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

Literary Analysis of in The Time of The Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

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16 min read

Published: May 14, 2021

Words: 3040 | Pages: 7 | 16 min read

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The Weatherman Who Tried to Bring Climate Science to a Red State

Chris Gloninger said he was hired to talk about global warming in his forecasts. That’s when things heated up.

Chris Gloninger, a former meteorologist with KCCI in Des Moines. “They told me ‘we’d prefer you not to use ‘climate change’, it’s too polarized’,” Mr. Gloninger said. Credit... Cassandra Klos for The New York Times

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By Cara Buckley

• June 20, 2024

In 2021, Chris Gloninger, a television weatherman in Boston with a passion for climate science, was approached with an intriguing prospect. Would he consider a job as chief meteorologist at a television station in Des Moines?

It was a smaller market, and talk of global warming would be challenging in a politically conservative state. But research from 2020 showed that most Iowans were interested in news about climate change, and the state was a leader in wind energy. Mr. Gloninger’s weather forecasts could be a breakthrough.

An interview with the station’s news director, Allison Smith, clinched it. The station, KCCI, wanted to amp up climate coverage, Mr. Gloninger said he was told, not least because agriculture was so important in the state.

In announcing Mr. Gloninger’s hiring to the newsroom, Ms. Smith highlighted his extensive climate coverage. Another meteorologist who was considered for the same job, Matt Serwe, said that in his interview with KCCI, coverage of global warming was underscored. “My big takeaway was that there’s going to be a lot of climate involved,” said Mr. Serwe, now a meteorologist at KSTP in St. Paul, Minn.

In the spring of 2021, Mr. Gloninger and his wife sold their house in Boston and relocated to a graceful ranch house on the outskirts of Des Moines.

For some in Iowa, news that KCCI had hired a chief meteorologist to talk about climate science seemed heaven sent. Channing Dutton, a longtime climate activist and personal injury lawyer in Des Moines, likened Mr. Gloninger’s arrival to “a thunderclap among the climate community.”

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