American Studies Commons^™

Writing The Female Body In Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies, Darren K. Broome

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

Julia Alvarez in In the Time of the Butterflies utilizes the female body and sexuality to combat male dominated rhetoric. The use of the female body retrieves women’s forgotten role as subjects instead of objects as seen in male-oriented novel. Expressing sexuality in a way that is determined by women, she discovers new means of verbal or written expression. The female body emerges as a form of expression in Butterflies which at times is connected to one of the characters’ revolutionary participation.