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Nicholas A. Barton
Mrs. Altman
English 2 Honors
7 October 2014 The Deaths of the Mirabel Sisters
How can a few deaths sway an entire nation to fight a tyrant? The deaths of three of the four Mirabel Sisters, Patria, Maria Teresa, and Minerva, was able to change a nation's choice of allowing a tyrant by the name of Rafael Trujillo to dictate and control the lives of the Dominican
Republic. These deaths illuminated the work,
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez because it showed how their deaths affected people, what the people did in response to this murder, and what ended up with Trujillo and the Dominican Republic Government. the work showed how men and women can do something great, die in the process, but still pull through for everyone in the end. The deaths of the Mirabel sisters affected people in that they noticed how their ruler was truly acting. People started to realize that Trujillo was not out for the best of the country, but just wanted to have power and would do anything to keep it. An example for when the people started to notice was when the fact that they had heard of the deaths of these sisters. Everyone knew that these sisters were against his rule, so when they suddenly died suspicion rose. “People came out of their houses. They had heard the story we were to pretend to believe. The Jeep had gone off the cliff on a bad turn. But their faces knew the truth” (Julia Alvarez 308). The quote clearly

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states that people knew what had really happened without actually knowing. Many people by this time had already figured out that Trujillo was not for the nation but for himself. Lastly, the girls deaths brought sight to peoples eyes is people started to notice and side with the sisters even though they had passed. People were feeling pity and regret for not doing what they could to help. “Many of the men took off their hats, the women made the sign of the cross. They stood at the very edge of the road, and when the truck went by, they threw flowers into the bed” (Julia
Alvarez 308). As much as people care for the dead, usually they tend not to throw flowers and stand on the side of the road for families they do not know personally. They did this because they missed the Mirabel Sisters and how they were some of the few who spoke up against Trujillo and spent time in prison, and soon after lost their lives to fight for what they thought was right for themselves and everyone else. Firstly, what the people did in response to the deaths of the sister was something.
The husband of Minerva took it upon himself to take out Trujillo at this point, so he went out to try to accomplish this. “Finally, ‘Rise up, take to the streets! Join my comrades and me in the mountains! When you die for your country, you do not die in vain!’ But no one joined them.
After forty days of bombing, they accepted the broadcast amnesty. They came down from the mountains with their hands up, and the generals gunned them down, every one” (Julia Alvarez
311). For as far as Manolo made it, his death as well did something for the cause. He showed that there is a large number of people who wanted Trujillo out of commission, and they would fight for this. Another example of what people did after the deaths of the sisters was with Patria’s husband who had changed after prison and remarried. “... prison and his losses had changed him.

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He was restless, couldn’t settle down to the old life. He remarried a young girl, and the new woman turned him around, or so Mama had thought. he came by a lot less and then hardly at all”
(Julia Alvarez 315). This is to show that even with all of what had happened to the Dominican
Republic, people still sought out to live quietly and undisturbed in a normal house. Pedrito illuminated the idea that as busy as people were, some just wanted an easy life. This was obtainable for him once his wife Patria had died and he had