Brief Summary Of Julia Alvarez's In The Times Of The Butterflies

This novel is about the journey of the Garcia family from the dictatorship of the Dominican Republic to the United States. It starts off with the girls’ adulthood, then into the transition from one country to the other, and ends with their childhood in the Dominican Republic. The family back home is very gregarious. Everyone is close, and it is a tight community. However, the dad’s mendacious; he didn’t tell his children why they had to leave the country It’s a difficult read for this reason. It can be confusing at times, as it was for me. However, if you are looking for a fun novel, then read the novel.

This story is in a way a story about the author’s life. Julia did come to the United States in 1960, when she was 10 years old. This was her first novel, and since then she has written many more. Some of them include In the Times of the Butterflies, iYo!, Something to Declare (non-fiction), Homecoming (poem), and finding miracles (children’s book).
Throughout the book, there is a lot of imagery.
For example, when describing the people who worked for them when they were children, a maid was described as, “skinny brown woman in the black uniform...tiny braids coiled into rounds and pinned down with bobby pins…” (p. 4). The family was wealthy back in their home country, so they had maids and servants around to do the chores. The girls, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda and Sofia played as children and did their studies, but they never really had to do anything else other than be kids and enjoy life. Another use of imagery is found when Yolanda wrote an essay to read in front of the school: “Carlos’s toothless mouth had collapsed into a dark zero” (p. 144). Yolanda was chosen to read an essay in front of the school, and she, along with her mother, had written it. Her mom wanted to show it to the dad and thought he could exhort their child in making the best essay ever. The dad’s advice was to not read it. Why? Read the book to find out what left his mouth
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There is also conflict in the book. One example is in the beginning (kind of) where Yolanda and her husband have an argument: “ ‘ You really had to decide you loved me?’ “ (p. 74). Her husband made a pros/con list about her, and she was appalled She did vituperate, and cussed her husband out. Who could make a list about their significant other?!

This book went in reverse chronological order, which made it tough to read. It took a bit of thinking to think about to even write this review, because the ending is in the beginning and the beginning is at the end. The point of view varies from chapter to chapter, however mostly it is in first person limited. Sometimes Yolanda speaks from her view of things, but that is rare. Through writing the book like this, Alvarez lets the reader envision the big transition and how the characters feel throughout the journey. It starts with the girls, as adults, going back to their childhood country, the Dominican Republic. It then goes into their teen years in the United States, and then finally goes back to their home country.

I personally was neutral towards this book. It had me ruminate a lot, which I didn’t enjoy. I had to think about which sister was talking, connect the dots here and there, and a lot more. The novel wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t my favorite either. It was nice to read about how families deal with immigrating to another country; I enjoy learning about things like that. Nothing jumped out and made me want to say, “You have to read this book now”. Overall, not a bad read, but not my favorite.