After reading chapter 8, what popped out to me was that Patria's life sorta starts to go into a downwards spiral. Her whole life has been quite difficult. She's had one of her children die (A BABY!!!!). Her other son comes home wasted. The worst part is... HE'S ONLY 17!!!! ONLY A YEAR OLDER THAN ME!! Anyway, she then had another baby and talks to a priest to try get him in the seminary. All she wants is to live a happy life and provide for her kids and keep them healthy and safe. But it just won't happen. Chapter 8 was really chaotic. For example the raid on their land, and when bombs the bombs were made. Also ammunition and weapons were hidden. All inside Patria's house!!
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I think I like Minerva's voice more than anything because she really holds her own and that takes a lot of courage to pull off this sort of act. What I found to back this up was in chapter two when Minerva and her friends preform their national independence play for Trujillo and Minerva and Sinita did it as a silent protest. Also in the play Sinita takes her bow and aimed it at Trujillo to shoot him and then his son stopped her. Minerva spoke out to me personal level because I relate to her. I say and do what I want and I don't care what others think of me. It's also hard to influence me to do something bad. In chapter six Minerva finds out that her father cheated and has a second family. she is livid. She's also mad about her father hiding Lio's letters asking her to leave the country with him. She ended up getting into a Jeep , going to the other house and plowing right into her father's ford and just took off. Minerva has a lot more guts than any of the Mirabal because she breaks the rules, and says whats on her mind and she just. Doesn't. Care. She even told her father straight up that she had no respect for him and back then, you were obligated to show respect to your parents. I just see Minerva as a good role model because of who she is and what she believes is right.
In the novel, women are certainly not treated as equals to men. Using incidents in this chapter (or previous chapters) as a launching point, argue whether women are or are not treated as equals in American society today. (If you have ever lived for an extended time in another country, say Brazil for example, you can also talk about that country's treatment of women.
I don't think women were treated fairly. One example was Minerva being denied permission to go to college. This decision was made by a male. I'm not into the whole hardcore feminism stuff like some people tend to be but, personally I think women should be treated more fairly. Another example I found was when Minerva was smacked by her father. I don't k now why but i guess it was okay to hit a women back then. It's not okay now and it shouldn't have EVER been okay. Have you ever been in a situation where your friend (romantic or platonic) causes stress between you and your family members? Referencing moments in the novel that remind you of your own experience, tell that story.
I've experienced incidents like this before. My parents don't like one of my friends because he accidentally threw me off the jungle gym in 3rd grade at recess (talk about holding a grudge...) and they don't want me hanging out with him so still to this day they fear I'm gonna somehow get hurt when I'm around him. This kinda relates to Minerva and Dede being denied permission to hang out with Lio because he's a "bad influence" since he is a communist and he'll rub off on Minerva and Dede making them communist. In my situation, my parents think he's a bad influence because he is "too rough" and they think he'll rub off on me and I'll somehow hurt my sister... I still hang out with him anyway but I don't need to lie about it to them because I don't really care, it was 7 years ago, no one has gotten hurt, and we're a lot more smarter. Gotta love parent logic... I think I can relate to Patria. I'm kinda stuck in between two things I wanna do for my career. I'm stuck in between becoming a professional wrestler or becoming a NASCAR driver (DON'T JUDGE ME). All my life I have always wanted to be one of the two. But right now, I only have two years of high school left so I need to make my choice soon, but it's so hard to do so since I have such a deep love for both professions. I've dreamed of winning the Daytona 500 and I've dreamed of winning the WWE championship at Wrestlemania. I relate to Patria in the first few pages of the chapter because I have people telling me I should be a wrestler and then I have people telling me to be a NASCAR driver. All that makes it really hard to make a final decision.
In chapter 3, Maria Teresa was given a diary by her sister Minerva said that keeping a diary was a way to reflect as it "deepens one's soul." She writes about whats going on in her life. Who she likes, who she doesn't like, interests, concerns, daily things, she can write about anything. One really important thing she talked about was how she is free and that she lives in a free country and that not everyone gets to live in a free country like she does. Soon she starts to have second thoughts sensing something fishy. She has suspicion with the country, the police, and as well as her family. At the end of the chapter she ends up burying the diary.
I think becoming a young adult in mind is much harder. I think this because your body changes on its own without you thinking about it, whereas in your mind, it's much more difficult because you are seeing all these changes to yourself and it's confusing and maybe even scary. Also, you're expected to think and act like a young adult, not like the child you once were which can also be overwhelming and very difficult. Changing how you think is a very hard process. You have to go from this energetic, crazy ball of fire that doesn't have a care in the world, to acting mature, polite, and having to tone down the energy a substantial amount. I'm saying that from my personal experience because I was a full blown RIOT as a little kid.
The keeper of my family's stories is probably my great grandmother, she's the oldest in my family and has seen just about everything from the Great Depression, World War II, The Cold War, Vietnam War, and other things like that. I think the responsibility fell on her because as I said, she is the oldest person in my family, and she was told all he stories from her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and possibly even great grandparents. These stories about disasters, funny moments, special events, and a lot more that I could go on for days with because I heard a lot of stories from her.
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