Essay The Time Of The Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies “I sometimes took some liberties-by changing dates, by reconstructing events, and by collapsing characters or incidents. For I wanted to immerse my readers in an epoch in the life of the Dominican Republic that I believe can only finally be understood by fiction, only finally redeemed by the imagination. A novel is not after all a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heat.”
(Alvarez 324)

History is obtained and taught in many, vastly different ways. Through visual art, spoken word, stories, poetry, non-fiction text, and in this case fiction text. Fiction, in its own definition is “literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people.” Historical fiction takes this definition lightly. Usually taking real people, and real events, and going through their lives, filling in details that would be impossible to carry throughout the years, with the probable emotions, and actions, small things that would not drastically change the lives of the characters, but enough to give the reader a sense of story, and to get caught up with the story. Having the reader sympathize with the characters, and with the small additions by the author, the reader will get wrapped into the story, and be able to fully indulge in the story, having them grasp the history, and how the people felt much more then if the reader had a non-fiction description of events.

In the Time of the…