In the Time of the Butterflies: The (De)Mythification of the Historical Hero

Abstract

This article examines Julia Álvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies through a narratological and sociocultural methodology, combining textual analysis, focalization theory, and a historical review of the mythmaking surrounding the Mirabal sisters, with the objective of demonstrating how the novel demythifies their conventional heroic image and reconstructs their lives from an intimate, human-centered perspective. The study analyzes the narrative strategies employed—diary form, free indirect style, multiple voices, and temporal shifts—to reveal the sisters’ inner conflicts, emotional struggles, and everyday experiences that official history reduces to a unified heroic symbol. Its scope shows that fiction operates as a critical tool of historical memory, questioning politically sanctioned accounts produced during Trujillo’s dictatorship and recovering subjective dimensions that collective mythology has obscured. The analysis also highlights the demythification not only of the Mirabal sisters but of Trujillo himself, dismantling one-dimensional narratives and exposing the complexity of human experience under authoritarian rule. The article concludes that Álvarez’s novel reframes cultural representation by foregrounding narrative as a means of reshaping collective memory, ultimately proposing a dynamic understanding of historical identity.