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Teachers-Guide-Alvarez.Pdf Examining an author’s life can inform and expand the reader’s understanding of a novel. Biographical criticism is the practice of analyzing a literary work through the lens of an author’s experience. In this lesson, explore the author’s life to understand the novel more fully. 1 Traces of Julia Alvarez’s life abound in all her novels, poems, and nonfiction Lesson One books. Although In the Time of the Butterflies is a work of historical fiction about the Mirabal sisters, it relates to Alvarez’s own life. With her parents FOCUS: and sisters, Alvarez fled the Dominican Republic in 1960 when she was ten years old, after authorities discovered that Alvarez’s father belonged to an Biography underground effort to overthrow Trujillo’s regime. The military intelligence service had previously put Alvarez’s grandfather in prison for two days, where, although he was not tortured, he was “‘persuaded’ to sell a part of his land for the minimum price to the daughter of the dictator.” Fearing for their safety, the Alvarezes fled to the United States. Just three months later, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal—founders of the same underground movement Alvarez’s father had left—were murdered off a lonely mountain road. ?? Discussion Activities Have students keep reader’s journals. They should record an entry for each reading assignment. In class, listen to The Big Read Audio Guide. Have students take notes in their journals as they listen. Ask them to present three important points learned from listening to the guide. Ask students to read the following essays from the Reader’s Guide: “Introduction to the Novel,” “Julia Alvarez,” and “An Interview with Julia Alvarez.” Divide the class into groups. Each group will present a summary of the main points in its assigned essay. Writing Exercise ?? Julia Alvarez has called herself an “all-American writer,” referring to both Americas, and “a Vermont writer from the Dominican Republic.” Ask your students to name their own writing style. In this voice, have students write a brief essay or short story about a place from their childhood. Remind them to use evocative language that appeals to the reader’s senses and their voice as a certain kind of writer. Homework ?? Distribute Handout One: In the Time of the Butterflies as a Work of Historical Fiction and “The Dominican Republic and Hispaniola” from the Reader’s Guide. Ask students to read both essays and Chapters One and Two from the novel. Prepare students to read thirty to forty pages each night in order to complete reading this book in nine lessons. THE BIG READ • NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Cultural and historical contexts give birth to the dilemmas and themes at the center of the novel. Studying these contexts and appreciating intricate details of the time and place help readers understand the motivations of the characters. 2 The novel is set in the Dominican Republic, primarily from 1938 to Lesson Two 1960, when the country struggled under the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Leonídas Trujillo. The novel often gives a sense of the close-knit community FOCUS: of the Mirabal family. The use of Spanish words and phrases helps American readers further appreciate the setting and culture. Alvarez lived Culture and in the Dominican Republic until she was ten years old. She has written, History “The power of stories was all around me, for the tradition of storytelling is deeply rooted in my Dominican culture. With over eighty percent illiteracy when I was growing up, the culture was still an oral culture. Rarely did I see anyone reading a book.” ?? Discussion Activities Discuss Handout One: In the Time of the Butterflies as a Work of Historical Fiction. Ask students if they feel that “truth according to character” can substitute for factual information within a novel. Can truth vary based on who is telling the story? Is there a difference between emotional truth and historical fact? If they were studying this part of Dominican history in a social studies class, which would they be concerned with? What benefits can be gained by reading about historical events through the lens of a novel? The setting of In the Time of the Butterflies is remote from us in both time and place. Ask your students to characterize, and respond to, the world that Alvarez creates. Amid the remoteness and the exoticism, are there any elements of the situation that touch them in a real and immediate way? Have students provide a factual description of family culture thus far in the novel. What values are emerging? ?? Writing Exercise In their journals, ask your students to write three paragraphs considering why Alvarez might have chosen to begin the novel by introducing the reader to Dedé Mirabal and then move back in time. How is the Mirabal family described? How might knowing that three of the sisters will die detract from or add to the novel’s narrative arc? ?? Homework Read Chapters Three and Four. Students will now have read one chapter from each of the voices of four Mirabal sisters, Dedé, Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria. Ask the class to think about the ways Dedé differs from her three sisters, as well as any qualities that they might have in common. NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS • THE BIG READ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The narrator tells the story, with a specific perspective informed by his or her beliefs and experiences. Narrators can be major or minor characters, or exist outside the story altogether. The narrator weaves her or his point of view, including ignorance and bias, into telling the tale. A first-person 3 narrator participates in the events of the novel, using “I.” A distanced Lesson Three narrator, often not a character, is removed from the action of the story and uses the third person (he, she, and they). The distanced narrator may FOCUS: be omniscient, able to read the minds of all the characters, or limited, describing only certain characters’ thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, the Narrative and type of narrator determines the point of view from which the story is told. Point of View In the Time of the Butterflies has twelve chapters that span from 1938 to 1994. We receive detailed descriptions and learn both the spoken and unspoken thoughts of all four major characters directly, as most of these chapters are from a first-person point of view. The first chapter and the epilogue take place many years after the bulk of the novel’s action and serve as a framing device. Like Julia Alvarez, the writer/reporter is a gringa dominicana who visits the Dominican Republic to learn the truth about the Mirabals’ tragic history. Alvarez has said that writing the novel allowed her to understand Trujillo’s dictatorship from a woman’s point of view. Readers also see how the past informs the future and the irony that Dedé’s survival drives her to tell the story of her sisters’ deaths. ?? Discussion Activities Discuss Alvarez’s choice to write the novel from multiple points of view. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this choice? Why might Alvarez have chosen to write María Teresa’s chapters in epistolary form—that is, in the form of a letter or diary? What are the advantages or disadvantages of the first-person, third-person, and epistolary points of view? Ask your students if they prefer one form over the others. Discuss the difference in each sister’s voice. Is Alvarez successful in making each sister distinct? If so, how does she achieve this effect? ?? Writing Exercise Ask the class to write a description of a personal experience in their reader’s journals. The students may choose to write in a straightforward first-person narrative, in epistolary form, or to describe their experience from a third-person point of view. Read some of the essays from each perspective, ask the authors why they chose that method, and solicit class reaction to the different techniques. ?? Homework Read Chapters Five and Six. Ask students to write one paragraph in their journals about each sister’s personality and interests. Is there one sister who may be considered the “main character” of the novel? Why or why not? THE BIG READ • NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The central character in a work of literature is called the “protagonist.” The protagonist usually initiates the main action of the story and often overcomes a flaw such as weakness or ignorance to achieve a new understanding by the work’s end. A protagonist who acts with great honor 4 or courage may be called a “hero.” An “antihero” is a protagonist lacking Lesson Four these qualities. Instead of being dignified, brave, idealistic, or purposeful, the antihero may be cowardly, self-interested, or weak. The protagonist’s FOCUS: journey is enriched by encounters with characters that hold differing beliefs. One such character type, a “foil,” has traits that contrast with the Characters protagonist’s and highlight important features of the main character’s personality. The most important foil, the “antagonist,” opposes the protagonist, barring or complicating his or her success. In the Time of the Butterflies is the story of both a family and a nation. Unable to tolerate the abuses of Trujillo’s regime, each of the Mirabal sisters becomes increasingly drawn toward political activism. Considering the circumstances that ultimately move each sister toward rebellion against a corrupt government, the reader begins to understand the abuses Dominicans suffered.
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