Family
Tree and
Student-Generated Character Descriptions
and In-Class
Brainstorm
for In the
Time of the Butterflies
 Family
Tree...........Character
Descriptions............Brainstorm
Family
Tree
...................................Mercedes
---- Enrique
Mirabal
......................................................||
.....|--------------------|----------------------|-----------------------|
Patria--Pedrito....Dede--Jaimito....Minerva--Manolo....Mate--Leandro
..........||..........................||...............................||...........................||
...|--------|-----|..........|--------|---------|..........|--------|.............Jacqueline
Nelson..Noris...Raul...Enrique..Raphael..David...Minou..Manolito
.................
Ernesto
Student-Generated
Descriptions of the Main Characters:
(These are
from in-class brainstorms after having read chapters
1-4--pp. 1-59*)
* Plus some new additions
Patria:
The
oldest sister, born in 1924. The first of the sisters to get
married and have children.
Thinks of becoming a nun when young. Not tied to this world.
Gives away material belongings
without a care. Later does not become a nun and chooses to
marry instead. Chooses world of
body not spirit. Loses faith temporarily when she loses her
baby. Starts to lose faith in Trujillo
as well at this time. Starts to recover from her own grief
when she helps her husband with his
own "dark and odd" grief. **Added: After
nearly all her family is imprisoned, she's distraught
initially and loses hope and faith, but eventually pulls it
together. She prays constantly for the well-being of her
family, especially her son.
Dede:
The second oldest sister, born 1925. Math whiz. In 1994 when
the novel begins she sells
life insurance…everyone wants to buy life insurance
from the "lucky" sister who lived. She is the
only surviving sister of the four. She lives her life
telling others the story of her sisters who are
considered national heroes. She's light hearted, always
smiling, strong, dependable, and reliable.
She's the "rock" of the family who stays home with the
father to run their business.
Minerva:
The third oldest sister, born 1926. She's outgoing,
confident, and defiant. She
stands up for herself and what's right. She argues openly
and has hopes of becoming a lawyer.
She's well-respected and a leader. She is kind and befriends
Sinita who is seen as a "charity"
student. She's outspoken but sometimes too much so. She's
idealistic, opinionated, intelligent
and beautiful. She's also becoming disillusioned with
Trujillo since she met Sinita.
**Added: In prison, she is strong, a leader,
very brave, has "crazy" courage, she's focused, she
keeps all emotional distress inside and only breaks down
once, she stays in prison even when
offered a release because she feels that if not all are
freed none should be, she is consistant in her
political convictions, and she stands up for herself and
laughs at SIM who question her and the
judge who sentences her to 5 years.
Maria
Theresa (Mate):
The youngest
sister, born 1935. She goes off to Catholic school at
age 8 and Minerva is about to graduate. She respects Minerva
and is influenced by her opinions.
She starts to wonder why Minerva appears to question
Trujillo. She protects Minerva when she
is caught sneaking away from school. Her writing is eloquent
and insightful for her age. She's a
top student and possible ahead due to the influence of her
older sisters. She's unhappy at school
and wants to return to her family and her cousin on whom she
has a crush. **Added: In prison,
she is initially very sick, later finds out it's because she
was pregnant, she's amazed by Minerva's
strength and courage, she has periodic emotional berakdowns,
grows more fearful in prison, she
follows what she believes in, she is convinced by Minerva to
turn down pardon, she's a survivor.
Mother:
She's sensitive, religious, and seemingly more reasonable
than the father. She convinces
the father to send the girls to school. She's a devoted
mother but her own marriage seems to have
some problems. She is quietly political and feminist. She
also quietly shares the power of the
family with her husband. **Added: After her
daughters are imprisoned, she remained very involved
in petitioning to get them released; she shows some
rebellion by dumping dirty bath water on spies
outside of window, moving the thorn bushes so they'll get
scraped up and by refusing to come out
during Pena's visits initially. But she is very careful not
to say anything derogatory or against the
government in the house out of fear for family.
Father:
He's funny, out-going, and hard working. He's close to his
daughters and very tender
toward them. He doesn't want his daughters to move away from
him. He appears controlling but
oftentimes gives into the mother. He treads lightly around
the mom.
Sinita:
She's Minerva's schoolmate, and she and Minerva are part of
a close group of four girls.
She's seen as a charity case but she doesn't want any pity
or charity from anyone. She's defiant
and proud. Her family used to be rich and highly politically
connected until they began to suspect
and oppose Trujillo. Now all of the male members of her
family have been murdered as a result.
She tells Minerva about Trujillo and Minvera's views of him
begin to change.
Trujillo:
Military dictator, womanizer, conceited, threatened by
Minerva, deceitful road to power, briber, two-faced, uses
propaganda to gain people's respect, insecure, cruel,
seducer, abuses his
peoples' rights, acts above the law, uses the church to
improve his image, uses church as a tool,
manipulative, confident, no guilty conscience, chauvanistic,
greedy, evil, power-hungry.
Pena:
SIM officer, uses his power over Patria and likes it, lrge
ego, expects favors to be
returned, bought Patria's farm so wants to be favorably
linked with Mirabals so the locals will
help him farm the land, instrumental in freeing Nelson after
Patria begs him.
In-Class
brainstorm on issues in In the Time of the
Butterflies:
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rebellion
resistance
methods of surviving/coping
hope
faith
religion
being power-crazed
endurance
importance of family
secrecy
role of characters
role of women
relationships
courage
superstitions
sexism
the power of the church
denial
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fear
freedom
fact vs. fiction
Communism
Cuba--Fidel Castro
dictatorship
abuse of power
political oppression
blindness
passivity
meek acceptance
struggle
survival
equality
love
martyrs
political conviction
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importance of the Domincan -
Republic setting and history;
affects of prison
legends humanized
Mirabals challenge and redefine womens' roles
social class and privilege
affects of prison oppression/brainwashing
control through military force, fear, masking
truth
containment and the false help/betrayal of the
U.S.
community
revolution
creation of icons/heroes/myths/martyrs
human rights
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To
Create a thesis:
Remember: every thesis and topic sentence must contain not
only a topic but also a controlling idea which tells us the
attitude
of the writer toward the topic.
(1)
Form
questions
using words from the
brainstorm
(use the journalists'
questions:
who, what, how, why,
where, when)
(2)
Create a thesis;
answer
the questions
(seek
opinions
that need to be proven not unarguable facts)
(3)
Deepen
the thesis by asking
"so
what?" Why should we be
concerned?
How is this important in the novel? In life? What can be
learned
Click here to see an
example
of how to create and test a thesis statement using the
process above
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