In the Time of the Butterflies

I am blogging about In the Time of the Butterflies because I don't have my outside reading book today. At the end of the novel in chapter 12, Minerva begins to feel depressed and as if she can no longer help with the revolutionary cause. Mate, Patria, and Minerva go to visit their husbands in prison because it is one of the few things they are allowed to do while under house arrest. One theme that appears is that even though their husbands are in prison, they all try to follow the men's wishes. One example of the girls following the men's wishes is when Patria decides that she wants to go with Minerva and Mate to visit Manolo and Leandro at Puerto Plata. "Patria game me a quizzical look, as if the answer were obvious. 'He could have said, no, you can't go'" (287). Obviously, even if Pedrito had said no, she could still have gone with the two other girls, but she wouldn't have done that since her husband would have been opposing her. Another theme that appears is the idea that people need something or someone to look up to. The girls look up to their husbands for guidance, and the Dominicans look up to the Mirabal girls for hope and strength in their lives. Also, the girls look up to the Virgencita for help in nearly everything they do. The epilogue of In the Time of the Butterflies contains all the thoughts of Dede on the matter of her sisters' and their husbands' deaths. She feels incredibly sad, but she realizes that she has a purpose as being that last surviving Mirabal sister. Her job is to accumulate all the information possible relating to the lives of her sisters from anyone who wants to speak of the tragedy to her. In essence, she has become the martyr for everyone involved in the revolution.