Although gender is a major theme in The Power, it's very evident around the midway point of the book that this isn't Alderman's main focus, in fact her main focus is power itself as the name suggests. Why we use it, why it's appealing and if we can prevent the abuse of it. In a pivotal point of the novel a character named Margot makes what she thinks is an irredeemable mistake while running for political office. Margot uses "the power" to strike her opponent during a debate. Although she apologizes endlessly, she and her team believe that the election must be lost because voters could never elect a leader who turns to violence when provoked. And yet: “It turns out the voters lied…They said that the candidate's opponent had lost their vote the moment she gave up on reasoned discourse and calm authority. But when they went into the voting booths in their hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands, they'd thought, You know what, though, she's strong. She'd show them.” (pp. 168-69). It should come as no surprise that the women who find themselves in a position of genuine power for the first time in what may be the whole history of humanity will be just as corrupted by it as any man before them. Who could help but act violently under that influence, who could help but take what they want without asking for it? Really, this has nothing to do with men and women. It has to do with the need to dominate and exert control. And it has to do with how we've been conditioned to view people who engage in these behaviors as leaders and visionaries rather than the bullies and oppressors they actually are.
IMAGE: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/the-power-by-naomi-alderman/
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