Essay On Sociology

 

Naomni Alderman’s novel “The Power” Explores The Theme Of How In a Male Dominated  Society Women Often Have To Snatch Their Share Of Power And Also Talks About The Existing Forms Of Violence which often comes hand in hand with power (Macdonald, 2017). 

 

 

It is extremely important for the readers to understand the fact that this novel does not merely focus on fanaticising women power rather gives a reality check regarding how irrespective of men or women, too much power often leads to several abusive practices, discrimination, violence and gives rise to pain and suffering. However it is also equally evident how Alderman has expressed his opinion regarding the prevalence of injustice and discriminatory parties which men have been continuously inflicting on women since ages, which is the reason why women who have acquired this superpower to destroy men have turned extremely aggressive (Ali, Ahmed and Memon, 2021). The author definitely does not glorify violence rather the focus is on understand the gender stereotype where men is always associated with power, position and dignity while women are identified as the subtle, quite and the tolerant one who are meant to be dominated by the men ruling the world. In the early stages of the novel the discussion focuses on how violence is been inflicted on women, yet as the novel progresses there is a significant shift of power and women seem to rise above men (Sabir et al. 2016).

 

 

Amongst the existing female characters in the novel, the chosen character for analysis is Allie Montgomery Taylor. In the beginning of the novel, Allie is a 16 year old girl who lives in Alabama and has an extremely painful childhood as she leaves with her foster parents and is quite frequently beaten as well as sexually abused by her foster father (Oney, 2022). Here the author focuses on voicing the injustice which women face which is basically gender driven where men consider themselves to be physically powerful and hold greater authority in the society to exploit the women. This is a general idea which the patriarchal mindset has encouraged in the society. Hence Allie who as soon as gains the power or supremacy to voice her revenge she chooses to kill her father with her power and run away to a convent. Allie runs away to create a new identify of her own with this power she has and names herself as Eve.  With this new name she intends to build a new identity of her own. This urge to emerge powerful is seen as victor of good over evil (Axisa, 2019). It is this power with which she focuses on creating a new life for herself as since her childhood days she has been a victim of gender discrimination. 

 

 

There is a voice which seems to guide Allie to help her use her power in the right ways. She focuses on using her power to perform series of “miracles”. Allie/Eve has an excellent control over her power as depicted by the author while most of the other female characters seem to associate power with violence. Thus Allie rises to become the global religious icon and she even supports Tatiana and befriends Roxy (ATHLEKAR,  LONKAR and GARG,). Allie identifies power and symbolises it with a shape of a tree which has its roots deep rooted while the branches keeps spreading wider. However unlike the other female characters in this novel Allie does not believe in the fact that power and violence should come hand in hand. This is exactly the reason why when Allie identified how Tatiana was using her power and position killing all the men in Moldovia, she realised it as an act injustice and killed Tatiana to save the future of the world (Jarvis, 2020). Allie understand that the only way to make women feel safe and live in respect is by taking the world back to the Stone Age. She desires to rebuild the society which is not mean and discriminatory to women. It is since the Stone Age that women have been in power, yet it is in this contemporary age and with the modernization of the society where women have been losing their self-respect and gender discrimination has been extremely evident. Therefore Allie feels that it is only by going age to the Stone Age that female figures would again gain their lost significance (Jordan, 2016). She also expresses her opinion on how faith and religion both are equally powerful forces yet both can be easily manipulated. Hence being a religious leader she feels that though women might be worshiped in mythology yet in reality the story is quite different. She has seen the oppression and maltreatment that women are frequently exposed to hence feels that this power will help her bring a change in the society. The presence of  gender stereotyping in Alderman’s novel Power is also evident where men in the society is seen dominating across every section whether in the form of father, husband or the general mass on the other side there is also some kind of gender stereotyping present in the idea that women in power are destroying all men irrespective of whether they are good or bad (Shah et al. 2020). In such a scenario Allie seems to choose a rationale approach where she does not encourage irrational use of power to inflict greater violence in the society rather seems to be worried about women who are doing the same as men

 

Altogether this novel focuses on addressing the ill-treatment of women in general as well as identifies the complex nature of power and violence and how often both are heavily interlinked. It is this mindset which demands to be changed where the inner voice of individuals which can also be identified as the conscience should guide people in power irrespective of their gender. Hence with ‘The Power’ Alderman quite consciously chooses to flip the current power dynamics prevalent in the society as she allows women the physical dominance which basically the men in the society enjoy. She even imagines a world where she can find women walk free and safe down the street at night while not being afraid of shadows around them. 

 

Ali, A., Ahmed, R. and Memon, S., 2021. A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF THE FICTIONAL NOVEL THE POWER BY NAOMI ALDERMAN. PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, 18(08), pp.2965-2975.

 

 

ATHLEKAR, G., LONKAR, S. and GARG, S., IS MATRIARCHY THE ANSWER? A STUDY OF ROKEYA HOSSAIN’S SULTANA’S DREAM AND NAOMI ALDERMAN’S THE POWER.

 

 

Axisa, M., 2019. The shell game: the construction of gender through language in dystopian literature: with reference to the novels ‘The Handmaid’s tale’by Margaret Atwood and ‘The power’by Naomi Alderman (Bachelor's thesis, University of Malta).

 

 

Jarvis, C., 2020. Fiction as feminist pedagogy: an examination of curriculum and teaching strategies embodied in the novel. Studies in Continuing Education, 42(1), pp.118-132.

 

 

Jordan, J., 2016. The Power by Naomi Alderman Review–If Girls Ruled the World. The Guardian, 2.

 

 

Macdonald, K., 2017. The Power. Foundation, 46(127), p.116.

 

 

Oney, E., 2022. A New View of Misogyny in The Power. The Rock Creek Review, p.1.

 

 

Sabir, A., Ullah, R., Ullah, Z., Ullah, A. and Iqbal, J., 2021. Combat of Gender Superiority in The Power (2016) by Naomi Alderman. Ilkogretim Online, 20(5).

 

 

Shah, S.F.A., Baig, M.N., Iqbal, J., Asma, M., Khan, N.A. and Ullah, A., 2020. Feminism in The Power (2017) by Naomi Alderman. European Journal of Gender Studies, 3(1), pp.1-12.