In the Time of the Butterflies

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What is odd about the wall of family photos that Dedé shows the interviewer?

A) A portrait of Trujillo still hangs there.

B) There is no photo of the mother.

C) A painting of Christ is included with the photos.

D) There is no photo of Dedé.

2. Which of the following best describes Sinita, the girl Minerva befriends at the convent school?

A) She is beautiful but poor.

B) She is from a wealthy family and mocks Minerva’s lack of jewelry.

C) The other students must help her because she is deaf.

D) The girls fear her because her father is a member of Trujillo’s secret police.

3. What happens to Minerva’s friend Lina?

A) She writes an anti-Trujillo poem and soon after disappears from school.

B) She becomes pregnant by Trujillo and is put in a mansion near the palace.

C) Overcome by despair after her father disappears, she hangs herself in the convent kitchen.

D) After she is caught hiding guns for the resistance movement, government thugs take her away on Christmas Eve.

4. Which of the following best describes Mate’s initial reaction when Minerva reveals she wants the Dominican Republic to be free?

A) She goes to confession and prays for her sister’s soul.

B) She hugs her sister, congratulates her for her courage, and asks how she can join the resistance.

C) She is confused, panics, and tells her sister that the country is already free under Trujillo.

D) She reprimands her sister and tells her she can have nothing to do with her until she abandons her political ideas.

5. What does Minerva mean when, looking at pictures of Jesus and Trujillo hanging on the wall, she says, “They’re a pair, aren’t they?”

A) She is ironic. Trujillo and Jesus are both responsible for the evils and brutalities of her life.

B) She is optimistic. Trujillo and Jesus offer the best hope for the survival of the Dominican Republic.

C) She is happy. Trujillo, like Jesus, appeals to people who want a strong leader to show them the way.

D) She is practical. Trujillo and Jesus both serve as pillars of culture in the Dominican Republic.

6. Which of the following best describes the first meeting between Minerva, Dedé, and Lio at Papá’s store?

A) Both sisters agree that the young student is arrogant and selfish.

B) Both sisters ask so many questions about the resistance movement that Papá asks Lio to leave.

C) Neither girl even notices Lio, who tells Minerva later that they both ignored him.

D) Dedé is attracted to him, but she sees Minerva is drawing his attention.

7. What does Minerva find in Papá’s armoire when she snoops while he is away?

A)  A gun

B)  An old photo of three children she does not recognize, who turn out to be her half-siblings

C) A bundle of letters from Lio her father never gave her, including one that speaks of the two of them running away together

D) A flyer for an anti-government rally

8. When Trujillo makes an unwanted advance on Minerva during the Discovery Day party, what does Minerva do?

A) Outraged, she slaps him.

B) Intrigued, she tells him to leave her alone—for the moment.

C) Panicked, she seeks her father.

D) Flattered, she flirts and teases him.

9. Which of the following are elements of Mate’s recurring dream?

A) Different men, a coffin, and a wedding dress

B) Her mother, in her kitchen, crying

C) Minerva, swimming and drowning in a red-tinged ocean

D) Jesus on the cross, beckoning her

10.  What event convinces Mate to write in her diary that she has joined the revolution?

A) Her husband Manolo forbids her to have anything to do with the insurgents.

B) She has a dream in which Christ, surrounded by light, embraces her.

C) She watches as two schoolchildren fight over which one would be willing to die for Trujillo.

D) She accepts a box full of guns delivered for Minerva.

11. To whom does Patria turn when she fears her son has taken up with the resistance?

A) She asks Minerva, who lies to her and says the boy has not joined.

B) She consults a local priest, who is also torn between staying neutral and joining the resistance.

C) No one—she starts a diary at Mate’s urging and relies on her own insights.

D) Ironically, she opens up to a grocery store clerk who betrays her to the police.

12. Which of the following best summarizes why the invasion of the Cuban troops fails to liberate the Dominican Republic?

A) Local people alert the government and help the government defeat the liberators.

B) Government troops split the poorly organized liberators into small, weak units.

C) The liberators are motivated more by lust and greed and end up looting local businesses.

D) The liberators turn out to be Trujillo’s men in disguise and arrest all the resistance fighters who join them.

13. What metaphor does Patria use to describe the resistance to her reluctant husband?

A) She suggests the Dominican Republic is about to rise from the dead, like Christ on Easter.

B) She describes the fighters as an extended family who protect each other.

C) She uses farming and suggests the guns are like seeds that will harvest freedom.

D) She compares the resistance fighters to teachers who are educating the masses.

14. Which of the following best describes Dedé’s decision about the resistance movement?

A) She decides to join after she realizes her husband is having an affair.

B) She decides that her family comes first and rekindles her love for Jaimito.

C) She plans to knife Jaimito while he sleeps but cannot bring herself to do it.

D) She quietly packs her things and leaves her husband for safety in Jamaica.

15. Where are the Mirabal sisters headed when government thugs detain them and kill them?

A) They are going to church.

B) They are going to a remote prison to visit their husbands.

C) They are going to a clandestine meeting of the resistance on a farm.

D) Nowhere—they are all asleep at home when the thugs break in.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. The novel centers on the human hunger for freedom. Select any character, including one of the sisters’ husbands, and show how freedom is important to them. Summarize the main conflict they face and how it is resolved.

2. The novel demonstrates the impact of martyrs in the resistance to an evil government. Select any one of the Butterflies. Show how the character reveals the importance of martyrs and explain what might motivate the character’s courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

3. The novel explores the role of Christianity and the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic during Trujillo’s regime. How does the Church respond, both positively and negatively, to the reality of Trujillo? Why does the Church refuse to oppose Trujillo for so long?