Movie Vs Book - Time of the Butterflies

In film adaptation of In the Time of the Butterflies, the movie was certainly not very effective. The way the movie was shown was not the same as the way the book was written. Even though the movie may not be a good representation for the book, it does give the most important details to those who have not read the book, making it easy for those people to easily understand the story without having the read every little detail in the book.

In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical fiction book about the regime of Trujillo and takes place in the Dominican Republic. The story are in the eyes of the Mirabal Sisters, which become aware of the terrible regime of Trujillo and eventually become involved in a revolution. The story has elements of both romance and drama in the movie and book.

Throughout the book, there are various point of views seen as the reader is taken though the eyes of all of the Mirabal sisters, but in the movie, the audience is in the eyes of Minerva Mirabal. The movie made it seem like the whole entire story was in the eyes of Minerva Mirabal. This leaves out the important details and events that the book tells. Minerva was like the head of the group, but each of the sisters did have their own separate story to tell and were also risking their own lives by taking part in the revolution.

Some events in the movie were not the same as the book. The events in the movie may have been slightly altered. An example of this would be when Trujillo and Minerva take part the in the "fate" game. Minerva had a dice and so did Trujillo and the highest value rolled would decide the victor. Minerva won in the movie without Trujillo even attempting to make a draw, but in the book, a draw was made. One of the most sad scenes of the movie was when the sisters were killed. The clubs of the terrible people swung in slow motion, making the death scene more dramatic. During this scene, the sisters were not separated, but instead kept together. In the book, the sisters were separated then individually killed. The way that the movie showed the killing scene was not the way that it was told in the book.

The "rising action", "climax", "falling action" and "conclusion are easier to spot in the movie. With multiple stories, it is more difficult to find each part of the "witch's hat" diagram. The movie may fail as a representation for the book in movie form but it is somewhat easier to understand, given that it is only in Minerva's point of view. If the movie were to switch eyes and fly from one scene into a whole new scene then the movie would be even more of a failure.

Alvarez, Julia In the time of the butterflies [Chapel Hill, NC, Algonquin Paperbacks, 2010]

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