To be completely honest, I think that the tale of the how the Mirabal sisters died is a sick and twisted one. The novel ended rather abruptly with Minerva talking about how her and her sisters felt like children again as they were walking up the mountain, and then just ended. We know from the beginning of the novel, that three of the sisters and one man are all murdered on one day, so readers can presume that the sisters died on the side of the mountain.
When I did some research on the Internet about how they died, the stories were disturbing and disgusting. What I read reconfirmed the type of person Alvarez had the sisters describe Trujillo as during through out the novel. Although there is no accurate account of how they died, I think it is safe to presume that they were tortured. No fake car accident could cover that up.
I think that Trujillo had the sisters killed for a few reasons even though they were not directly involved in the revolution. I think Trujillo knew he was losing power and losing it quickly. People knew the Mirabal sisters and knew what they thought of Trujillo as a leader. The sisters had built quite a name for themselves throughout the country. I think that one of the reasons that Trujillo had them killed was to prove a point to other people that were involved in the revolution. He wanted to take down what he considered to be one of the most threats to his dictatorship. They may have no been directly involved anymore, but everyone in the Dominican Republic knew how they felt about him.
This seems like it was one of his last bold moves while he had power from what I read. After people found out he had defenseless women killed, he lost all of his power and authority and his dictatorship ended. I think this tied into the fact he knew he was slowly losing power. If you are going to go out, you may as go out with a band and make a statement.
I also think he did it for some sort of revenge. Trujillo and the Mirabal sisters had a rough history, especially him and Minerva. Because of this, I believe that revenge was part of the reason he had them killed. Not that I agree with what he did or believe in murder or anything like that, I think the fact he had them killed is cowardly. It was an easy way to get rid of them. I believe in confronting your problems head on, and he did just the opposite.
I had a little bit of trouble deciding what I thought the four sisters were when it comes to martyr, hero, victim, etc. I define Dede as the protector. Even though she may have not been able to protect her sisters from death, she knew something bad was going to happen and she tried to stop them from going to visit their husbands. She was also the one that had to step up when Minerva and Mate went to jail. She helped to take care of them and all of their children. After they died, she took care of their children and protected their legacy, both of which were very costly for her.
I would not classify Mate, Patria, and Minerva as martyrs, because I do not think that they were willing to die for the cause at this point. They were still passionate about it, but in a different way. They realized that there are some more important things in life, and I think that prison helped them to realize this. I am not sure I would classify them as heroes either, because even though they did a lot, I do not know if I would classify any of it as heroic. I think I would classify them as fighters, because of the qualities I think a fighter has: strength, dedication, determination, motivation, drive, initiative, influence, charisma, etc. I think that all of the sisters had these characteristics and how they developed these characteristics is not important. Minerva, Patria, and Mate, they were fighters.
No comments:
Post a Comment