In the Time of the Butterflies By Ryan Cohen 3rd Period English In the opening chapter of Julia Alvarez's second novel, a woman receives a caller in the countryside of the Dominican Republic. The visit is an awkward obligation, a meeting between a Dominican survivor of the Trujillo regime and a younger Dominican-American woman who wants to know more about Las Mariposas the Butterflies as they are known in the history of the country. The …showed first 75 words of 1569 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1569 total…another culture, to forget events that shaped and claimed lives. Julia Alvarez has written a work of fiction that is immediate and searching. In the postscript, the author asserts, "A novel is, after all, not a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart." In the Time of the Butterflies is such a journey, demanding and courageous in the way of those sisters whose travel inspired its telling. Fortunately, the novel arrives.