The novel and the curriculum unit are appropriate for interdisciplinary study in Spanish or Social Studies classes. Students keep a reader-response journal as they read the novel. They participate in small group discussions. They conduct research on the Dominican Republic, international law, and human rights organizations and present their findings. There are many opportunities to analyze characters. Students create a family tree and track the extended family throughout the novel. They create a scrapbook representing each of the main characters, which ties into a discussion of voice.

Supplementary materials include extension ideas to enhance students’ learning. Suggestions include working with literary theory, planning a talk show, staging a mock trial, and comparing the film and the novel. Additional resources suggest materials useful for further study of the Dominican Republic and Caribbean authors. This unit includes 12 Lesson Plans / 20 Handouts / 69 Pages, aligned to Common Core standards, grades 9-12, high school.

Literary Form

American Novel

21st-Century Skills

• Collaboration
• Critical thinking

Overview

Julia Alvarez describes bravery and sisterhood during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. She blends fact and fiction in the story of the Mirabal sisters—national heroes and the subject of artworks and poetry—imagining their teenage years, detailing their involvement in the underground plot to overthrow the government, and describing their fear as they are discovered. She uses the perspectives of all the sisters, including that of the sole surviving sister. In the Time of the Butterflies reflects the escalating tension as the sisters near their horrific end.