In the Time of the Butterflies: Essay #3

Alexis Boni

English Pd. 2

Ms. Miner

12/12/12

                                    In the Time of the Butterflies: Book vs. Movie

            “Viva la Mariposa! Tears came to my eyes. Something big and powerful spread its wings inside me” (Alvarez 238). In the Time of the Butterflies is a novel by Julia Alvarez about the Mirabal sisters who were apart of the underground movement against Trujillo. The novel is a powerful insight into the revolution, but does the movie do it justice? Though the movie gives the viewer a more detailed background of what was happening politically, the book conveys the theme and allows the reader to see the characters develop.

            The movie fails to express the theme as strongly as the book but the movie does possess a strong visual component. After reading the book, the movie seems bland. The novel gives you so many strong points in the theme that are not included in the movie. Also, the movie differs drastically from the book. While the movie does keep the main events from the novel, it skips around a lot. For example, in the movie, when Mate and Minerva are in jail, and Minerva is forced to watch her husband be tortured. This does not happen in the book. In the book, Leandro is forced to watch Maria Teresa be tortured. “Still very weak, but the bleeding has stopped. I can’t bear to tell the story yet. Just this-I’ve either bled a baby or had a period. And no one had to do a thing about it after the SIM got to me” (240). This quote is said by Mate in the novel after she had gotten back from being tortured. From this change in perspective and the excessive amount of skipping around, the movie leaves holes in the theme. When omitting certain events, it weakens the movies ability to communicate the theme to its viewers. Leaving it with what seems like, no direction. The movie is able to keep the viewers attention with a powerful visual component that is not experienced when reading the book. For example, at the end of the movie when the butterflies are taken into the field and are bludgeoned to death. Though it may seem somewhat graphic and heart wrenching to watch three revolutionaries being killed, it gives you an emotional aspect that the book does not. Even though the movie does not do the theme of the book justice, its visual component gives the reader a strong emotional characteristic. The theme of In the Time of the Butterflies is related to the historical events that occurred during the era of the Mirabal sisters.

            Historical context and background is key with this story line. The novel does not give much background information and context from the political stand point, in which the story line revolves around. Throughout the book the reader starts to catch on to what little context is given, but it is not given by any means. “But really, this woman should shut car doors with less violence. Spare an aging women’s nerves. And I’m not the only one, Dede thinks. Any Dominican of a certain generation would have jumped at that gunshot sound” (5). Said by Dede in the book, this is the first historical context given. Whereas, on the other hand, the movie gives plenty of historical background and context. For example, at the beginning and throughout the movie, slide shows are shown with tidbits of information. Another example is how the movie portrays the racial conflicts, like how Trujillo was murdering African Americans to make the population whiter. The novel gives very little context, whereas you could see, the tension and not only how horrific these events were, but to an extent as to how things were back during Trujillo’s dictatorship, in the movie. The process in which the sisters develop during the course of the story being told, like the theme, is also directly related to the historical events.

            The movie won a few battles against the book, but when it comes to character development, this is where the book triumphs and the movie is dreadfully unsuccessful. The character development in the movie is one sided and weak when compared to the book. The movie is solely based on Minerva’s point of view, making the movie very one sided. The book on the other hand, is from all four of the sisters’ perspectives and switches every chapter. So that the reader gets a deeper insight to all of the sisters’ lives, not how they are all centered around Minerva. Being able to see the events from each sister’s point of view gives not only different perspectives, but more depth. As opposed to the movie, the book also shows the changes and growing maturity of the girls. For example, each sister changes, but Mate changes the most due to her growing up. “I don’t know if you realized how advanced I am for my age? I think it’s because I have three older sisters, and so I’ve grown up quick. I knew how to read before I even started school! In fact, Sor Asuncion put me in fourth, though really, I should have been in third with the other tens” (32). From the novel, said by Mate, this displays how young she was at the beginning. But the movie does not portray this; it in fact gives very little information about the girl’s childhood, when it all started. The movie’s character development pales in comparison to the novel’s.

            In conclusion, the movie gives the viewer a more detailed background of what was happening politically and a visual component, the book conveys the theme and allows the reader to see the characters develop. The movie falls short when it comes to theme, but is packed with visual content that is not experienced in the book. The theme is related to the historical events that happened during the Mirabal sister’s era. The historical content and background is much more informative compared to what little is given in the book. The historical events are also directly linked to the changes that happen with the sisters. The movie is one sided because it is from Minerva’s point of view, and because of this, portrays the characters’ development very poorly. Books are always better; most movies are not doing the movies very much justice. In this case with In the Time of the Butterflies, the movie sadly follows suit.