Reading Buterflies

photo © 2009 Hafiz Issadeen | more info (via: Wylio)



Remember to keep your character charts/event timelines.

Here are some reading and writing questions that you can blog about: (warning: #7 contains a spolier)


1) Why does Alvarez feel compelled to tell this story, to bring this story to American
readers? What does she want us to gain from knowing this history, from knowing
these women? Is this an American story? How is this also Alvarez’s story? Where
is her voice here?

2) By the end of the novel, how have the characters of Minerva, Mate, and Patria
changed? Have they changed the revolution or has the revolution changed them?
Is there a happy ending to this story at all?

3) In the epilogue, Dede’s perspective is presented from a first person point of view,
unlike her previous chapters which were in third person. Why? Has she finally
found her “I”? What has she learned about herself by this time? Who is she and
how has her view of herself changed? Why does Alvarez dedicate the novel to
Dede?

4) Why does Trujillo kill the sisters even though they’re no longer directly involved
in the revolution? Were the women victims, martyrs, heroes, or something else?
What about the men? Why doesn’t he kill them? What does he do instead?

5) By the end of the novel, do you get used to Alvarez’s style? Why did she choose
this style? Does it work? Is she able to get you to finish reading the book even
though you know the ending? What does she focus on instead and why?

6) Alvarez says that she wants to take us beyond the legend in creating her
characters? Does she do this? How? Why?

7) What do you think she is trying to accomplish with this book? What is she saying
about truth, justice, storytelling, the search for self, the roles of women, and other
themes touched on in the book?