Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (character change)

 This book was great and the characters were very interesting. The characters changed throughout the story as things were changing in their lives. This book was partly about growing up and learning how to deal with change and also making the best out of situations even if you would rather not be in that situation. Julia Alvarez wrote this book about a girls journey of growing up, and about the perspective of someone that is going through a lot of changes and has issues with her family. Also with learning that her father, uncles and a group of other people were trying to make their country a better place by killing the dictator of their country. Anita has to leave her country long after the rest of her cousins and aunts and uncles have left, so that she and her family can "fly to freedom".
  The main character, Anita de la Torre, changed throughout the story, because of the things that were going on with her life and her family. Her uncles and her father and a group of other men decided to try to kill the dictator. They get caught after having killed him and are captured. Anita's whole family were separated so that they survived. I think Anita felt that she had to be strong for her father and her family. She had to face her fears and leave the country she had once loved and leave everything she'd ever know in order to become free.
  After Anita, her siblings and their mother move/ flee to the U. S. they found out that their father and uncle had been killed. I think that Anita couldn't really believe it, and like her whole world fell apart. She was forced to grow up when she was still just a child. Reading this helped me sympathize with her and the way the author had her write in her dairy and explain how she was feeling also helps the reader understand better what goes through her head.
 In the beginning of the story Anita was just a curious girl who asked too many questions. However, at the end of the story she had gone through and had been brave and dealt with the many problems that occurred in her life. I think going through all of those things made Anita stronger, braver and more understanding of the world.