Analysis of Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies

In history, we are given continuous documents that consist of only facts. Facts are pleasant, but facts cover only general ideas that are given. History texts completely ignore and are too blind to seek/include what is behind the facts, the emotions of those who have lived/experienced those specific events. Not only that, but by only allowing people to understand one side of a story logically or emotionally is bias and creates a single story. Creating a single story would be unbalancing because it allows people to only understand things through one perspective, and the importance of perspective is very vital. By including more than just the facts [emotions] will allow readers to have a better understanding of the significance of how emotions can impact and change an entire logos based document.

Authors have motives to tell stories, and in the process of doing so, being able to do it in a creative way. But, by only including those basic things that they already know [logos] is uncreative, and this would make them just like those who have written historical documents. If these authors introduce a wider idea, that would make them creative. One author, Julia Alvarez has achieved in doing so, in her book, “In the Time of The Butterflies.” Julia Alvarez introduces this idea of how fiction is her way of understanding history when attempting to recreate the story of the Mirabal sisters. When Julia Alvarez creates her novel, she says, “I wanted to immerse my readers in an epoch in the life of the Dominican Republic that I believe can only finally be understood by fiction, only finally be redeemed by the imagination”(p324). As Julia Alvarez states this, we can get a visual of her motive as an author, being able to recreate history, but by using her imagination to allow readers to understand beyond the facts that are given. She continues to say how, “in historical fiction, truth is often based on emotional validity rather than factual reality.” Julia strives to create her novel with “truth” that consists of “emotional validity” rather than keeping her novel “factual” like any other historical document. She attempts to expand her novel in ways that not only will be educating, but so that it will be understood with desire from the readers.

Being given a book, you don’t always think that the book will contain true evidence of the truth of history. But, Julia Alvarez believes that “a novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart” (p324). When Alvarez says this, she is trying to allow the reader to understand that through her book, her motive is to be creative but also being able to teach history. Julia believes by including emotions of those who have undergone the true struggle, would be understanding the truth. Which leads to Kirti Kamboj’s idea of “lived history.” Because those are the people who have actually lived through the experience. This going back to how Julia Alvarez has this idea of how novels are “a way to travel through the human heart” (p324). Because her main motive of writing her novel is to allow readers to ‘become one’ with the characters and reading a novel with emotions is a way to know the character at a much deeper level. She continues by saying, “Because once I’m in a novel, I’m in character---the truth according to character.” Julia allows the readers to understand the truth according to the characters in her book, “I [Patria] looked in his face. He was a boy no older than Noris [her son]. Maybe that’s why I cried out, “Get down, son! Get down!”(p162) When Julia wrote this, she wrote it to allow the reader to be more than just a spectator, but to understand the feeling that Patria had when she was on her trip to Constanza for her spiritual retreat. She connects it to how the real “truth” can only be found “according to the character.” The truth which is only found through the perspectives of the person/people who has experienced the history which the events took place. Although, Vladimir Nabokov, who wrote an except from, “Good readers and Good Writers,” would disagree because he questions how novels are capable of telling historical documents. Because historical documents contain vast amounts of informational texts. He questions, “Can we expect to glean information about places and times from a novel?.” Insisting that novels aren’t meant to tell history or can’t in general, he continues to explain how novels are truly represented, that although “great novels are great fairy tales-- the greater the novel, the more supreme its fairy tale qualities. These great novels create their own world; they do not tell historical truth.”

Many times, people assume that the ‘truth’ is found from scientific texts, but what kind of truth are they searching for exactly? A scientific truth that consisted of knowledge which only these ‘educated’ caucasians possessed? In the Yellow Rain controversy, there were many times when pathos and logos conflicted. During the podcast of Yellow Rain, the Radiolab cast admitted that they were in search of the “truth.” They were in search of the ‘truth,’ and they based their truth on facts only. Although Robert specifically requested of Eng Yang’s experienced knowledge, his perspective of truth was ignored. In the podcast, Ka Lia Yang says, “what we know has been questioned again and again...We have lost too much heart, and too many people in the process.” When Ka Lia says this, she was filled with emotions and because of these emotions, it sparked an interest into the human ear. Emotions tend to interest readers/people more because its indulging.

Even though the use of factual evidence is one of the main strategies that people use to tell history, emotions tend to be a better and more engaging way to truly understand history. In many times, people can be taught a certain historical event, but with only facts people usually don't see to care to remember what is taught to them. But when there's more to the facts such as the emotions, people are interested and tend to desire to hear, read, or even seek for more information. Including emotions rather than the facts alone allows readers to have a better understanding of the significance of how emotions can impact and change an entire logos based document/discussion.