Nature Theme in In The Time Of The Butterflies Essay Example

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Alvarez highlights nature in her novel In the Time of the Butterflies where Dedé Mirabal, the last surviving Mirabal sister, tells the story of how her family fought against the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Raphael Trujillo. The motif of nature appears throughout In the Time of the Butterflies whenever life is being manipulated. Alvarez’s use of this motif suggests that despite the overwhelming force of Trujillo’s regime and Dedé’s meticulous gardening, life can not be controlled.

Alvarez first uses the motif of nature to demonstrate how trying to control the will of oneself and others ends in failure. When Dedé’s sisters invite her to join the revolution, she considers agreeing, but in the end, Dedé says no. Dedé looks nervously at her beautiful garden and “only in the new bed where she’d just been working did the soil look torn up. And it was disturbing to see — among the established plantings — the raw brown earth like a wound in the ground” (179). Dede feels “torn up” because a part of Dedé wants to follow and join her sisters in fighting against Trujillo, but she tries to control and suppress this feeling because she does not want to ruin her marriage with Jaimito. It’s as if she’s trying to organize herself like her neat and perfect garden, but the “raw brown earth” shows how she truly feels underneath. Once her sisters have left, Dedé continues tending to her garden, carefully “smoothing the soil and laying out a border of little stones” (180). Dedé tries to return the garden to the way it was but “she had forgotten to put any seeds in the ground” (180). Afraid of what would happen if she left Jaimito, Dede tries to force her feelings down to make her views align with his. At the same time, Jaimito tries to control Dede by going as far as using her sons to threaten her. In the end, just like Dede’s failed attempt at fixing her garden, neither of them is successful since Dede eventually divorces Jaimito. After the death of her sisters and Trujillo, Dedé thinks “the cemetery is beginning to flower” (318). Trujillo is oppressive and holds absolute power and to do that, he has killed many people to instill fear and protect his position. Forcing everyone under his rule ultimately failed, and only after everyone is free of Trujillo’s government does the country truly begin to flower. Just like how no one can dictate the way nature grows, attempting to limit growth and change will not be successful.

As hard as Trujillo tries to take down “the butterflies”, the anacahuita tree illustrates how their love and strength as a family runs deep into the ground, overcoming any hardships. While on their way home from Trujillo’s party, Minerva notices “the ancient anacahuita tree, dripping in the rain, most of its pods gone” (116). The constant downpour expresses how Trujillo is constantly watching over the Mirabals, and the tree that is wet and dripping the rain reflects the effect that Trujillo has over them. The fallen pods are like the revolutionaries who are separated from their children and families. However, despite Trujillo’s efforts, the Mirabals, like the anacahuita tree, remain sturdy under his oppressive rule. Finally, at the end of the novel, Dedé reminisces the past where “all I can hear is my own breathing and the blessed silence of those cool, clear nights under the anacahuita tree before anyone breathes a word of the future” (321). The anacahuita tree remains in front of the Mirabal home long after the revolution is over, suggesting that even after the deaths of the “butterflies”, their memories prevail. Therefore, Trujillo’s authoritarian regime fails to control the Mirabal sisters as their legend lives on deeply rooted in their country.

In Alvarez’s novel, the motif of nature appears from the beginning to the end, illustrating how life, like nature, is uncontrollable. The courage of the Mirabal family portrays how from gardens to trees to storms, nature, like the wild spirits inside people, seems to endure no matter what it’s put through. Although the carefully curated gardens are fascinating, nature is the most beautiful when untouched and unscathed by humans.