In South America there were many countries who were ruled by awful dictators who made life bad for the people who lived in those countries. Authors made stories based on the time period when both loyalty and defiance were expressed against their dictator. Throughout the short stories and a novel these themes were expressed differently in different situations. Is loyalty and defiance good or bad?
In the story ' The Censors' a man Juan wants to send a letter to his crush mariana but is scared it won't make it past the censorship factory. He gets a job at the factory to watch the letter but eventually became attached to his job and regretted sending the letter but it was too late he later got executed. In the beginning, Juan was this daring man who just wanted to get his letter to his love life. “ Juan knows there won’t because e a problem with the letters’ contents, that it’s irreproachable,harmless . But what about the rest? He knows they examine, sniff,feel read between the lines of each and every letter” he knew the requirements that came with sending that letter but he still did it. He even knew the consequences that could come with it .He realized that the letter can get Mariana hurt so he applies for the factory job. After getting the job at the factory he began working and working trying to up his rank to stop the letter. “By working hard, he quickly reached Section E where the job became more interesting ,for he could now read and analyze the letter’ contents.” In this quote he is showing his loyalty to Mariana by stopping the letter so she won’t get hurt. During this time he’s coming more and more involved in his work because he doesn’t want to be caught off guard. Now he’s in section B and he’s getting closer to the letter. “ He was about to congratulate himself for having finally discovered his true mission, when his letter to Mariana reached his hands. Naturally, he censored without regret. And just as naturally couldn’t stop them from executing him the following morning ,another victim of his devotion to his work” He has been so blind to being loyal to his work that he had totally forgotten about the original reason he had gotten the job in the first place.
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During the short story “ One of These Days” a poor dentist named Aurelio Escovar is asked to pull the mayor’s tooth but doesn’t want to. The mayor threatens Aurelio that if he doesn’t pull his tooth then he will shoot him so the dentist finally gives in . But the dentist makes the mayor suffer by pulling his tooth without any medicine. That was his way of getting back at the mayor for what he has done to the town. He shows his disobedience by not wanting to pull his tooth . “ The mayor wants to know if you’ll pull his tooth” “ Tell him I’m not here”. When finally giving in and pulling the tooth he made sure he felt all the pain in the world! “ The mayor seized his arms of the chair, braced his feet with all his strength, and felt an icy void in his kidneys, but didn’t make a sound” The dentist is scared and nervous . While this is happening the Dentist said. “ Now you’ll pay for our 20 dead men” and with that “ The mayor felt a crunch of bones in his jaw , and his eyes filled with tears.But he didn’t breathe until he felt the tooth come out . Then he it through tears . It seemed so foreign to his pain that failed to understand his torture of five previous nights”. Aurelio’s loyalty stood where he took out the mayor’s tooth despite his pride but his defiance stood where he purposefully didn’t give the mayor an anesthetic to seize the pain.
In Time of Butterflies is based on a true story when three of Mirabal sisters are killed for trying to remove their government. It takes place at the same time Rafael Trujillo was the dictator in the Dominican Republic. The story goes back and forth between the time the sisters were alive to the time they passed away. Dede the survivor was the only one who was loyal to her husband and didn’t join in with her sister so she was the one considered the coward. “ Back in those days , women followed our husbands”.Such a silly excuse “.After all, look at Minerva. “ Let’s put it this way,”Dedé adds. “I followed my husband. I didn’t get involved”. Minerva, on the other hand, was the most outspoken and rebellious out of all the sisters she talked Patria and Maria to join the revolution with her. “ It’s about time we women had a voice in running” she is saying the Trujillo should be in charge anymore someone else should. Throughout this story Minerva only shows rebellion towards the dictator because she hates him with a passion but she shows her loyalty to her country. She expresses her feelings towards her country. “ Mamá sighs when I tell her that we have to come back tomorrow. “ Ay, m’ijita,”she says. “ You’re going to fight everyone’s fight ,aren’t you?” “It’s all the same fight, Mamá,” I tell her. She saying that anything she does isn’t just going to affect her it’s going to affect the country too. She is referring to the country and her being whole.When María is younger she is the confused sister and the baby who’s only worried about bullies and her appearance. As she gets older she ends up going to jail with her sisters but feels as if she’s a baby again but then joins a group with her sisters to assassinate Trujillo. Patria is the oldest sister and the most religious sister. When she was younger she was the let’s say parents pet and she had a high standard which made the sisters follow suit. She showed loyalty to God that’s who she came to when times get rough . As she got older she started praying Trujillo especially when her sisters and husband went to jail. “Hear my cry, Jefe. Release my sisters and their husbands and mine. But most especially , I beg you , oh jefe, give me back my son. “ Take me instead ,I’ll be your sacrificial lamb.” She then comes around to the when she loses her third baby. The three sisters loyalty were with with each other they were each other’s ride or dies. While their. Defiance lied with Trujillo . But with their defiance towards Trujillo it left them dead.
Each of these stories have a way of showing their loyalty and defiance . But none of them are exactly the same because each character in each story had their own loyalty towards something or their own defiance. The stories that were the most similar were “ The Censors “ and In the Time of Butterflies because the characters died from their defiance. But in “ One of these days” one character just got hurt. Overall they did everything they did for a good cause.
Loyalty and Defiance could be a good thing or a bad thing. Also each story portrayed how loyalty and defiance could be effective in different ways and how why people are either disobedient or true hearted to someone. But it also shows how dangerous it could be
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