Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Power, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Violence
Corruption
Gender Reversals and Sexism
Stories, History, and Perspective
Religion and Manipulation
Revolution and Social Change
Summary
Analysis
A year later, Allie is still at the convent, and a series of miracles leads the girls to really take notice of her. One of the girls there, Luanne, has frequent seizures, often seizing for an hour or more. One night, during a lightning storm, Luanne starts to seize. Sister Veronica tells everyone to leave her be—that “she should not have welcomed the thing into her body”—until Allie asks if she can try to stop her from seizing. Sister Veronica agrees.
This chapter serves as a turning point for Allie’s character arc. Whereas before, she had been calling herself Eve and lying about her past out of a need for survival, here she begins to perpetuate lies surrounding her abilities in order to gain support and power.
Themes
Allie kneels down next to Luanne and can feel the electric signals in her body confused and out of sync. Allie can sense that it would only take the tiniest shock in a particular area, an act that no one else can control the power well enough to achieve. She puts her finger to the base of Luanne’s skull and gives a flick of power. Luanne stops convulsing and opens her eyes. She asks what happened. Another girl says, “Eve healed you.”
Not only does Allie manipulate the stories around her, but she is literally able to manipulate the electrical signals in other people’s bodies. Here she uses this power for good, but later on in the story, she uses this means of manipulation as a way to control others’ actions for her own ends.
Themes
Soon they bring Allie other girls in need of healing. She is able to lay her hands on a person and find just the right place to set something right. The cures are real, though sometimes they are only temporary. And so, the girls start to believe that God is speaking to her. Allie tells them to meet her at the shore at dawn.
Allie’s miracle is clearly explicable, but because it is due to an ability that no one else has, and which the girls don’t realize Allie has, they continue to believe Allie has a kind of supernatural power.
Themes
The girls meet Allie by the shore at dawn. They ask what they should do. Eve says, “God will show us what She wants of us.” Eve’s use of the word “She” is shocking to them, but they are excited by it. Eve baptizes the girls in the name of the Holy Mother. The girls’ knees involuntarily buckle as they are plunged into the water, while Eve remains standing. They don’t realize that Allie was really the one making their knees bend, and instead they feel that a benevolent female God is surrounding them.
This is the first moment in which Allie hints at her new teachings, showing how the power has given her the ability to gain religious clout as well. It is also notable that Alderman switches liberally between using the name “Allie,” often when Allie is thinking about herself, and using the name “Eve,” when she is preaching and speaking to the other girls. This choice shows how she is starting to deceive even herself into believing in this new persona.
Themes
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The girls who were in the water spread the message to the others. Some come to Eve and ask why she calls God “She.” Eve explains that God is both woman and man, and She has come to show a new side to her face. She explains that the Mother, not the Son, is the emissary of God. God came to Earth in the body of Mary, who gave up her child so that people could live free of sin. They ask, “Who are you?” She responds, “Who do you say that I am?”
Eve goes into more detail about her new beliefs, and she starts to reveal how her religious tenets are simply a manipulation of the old Christian beliefs. She takes a page from Sister Maria Ignacia as well, arguing that people should look to Mary for religious instruction, not Jesus. She again calls back to Matthew 16:15, essentially asking for belief from her potential followers that she is a prophet.
Themes
More baptisms follow. The girls start to call Allie “Mother Eve,” though Allie insists she is only a messenger. The nuns start to learn what is happening and have a great debate amongst themselves. Sister Maria Ignacia speaks in favor of the new beliefs, while Sister Veronica again insists that this is the Devil’s doing. She announces to the other nuns that they should burn all of the girls.
The debate between the nuns adds another kind of confirmation of how gradual change is difficult, because those who represent the old world order are often adamant about not ceding an inch of power or belief in their own systems.
Themes
One of the girls has been listening at the window, and she brings the message to Eve. The next morning, Sister Veronica is discovered dead of a heart attack. And the nuns discover that the figure on the cross has now been scored with “the fern-like markings of the power.” The girls conclude that Sister Veronica witnessed a miracle and repented of her sins.
Sister Veronica’s death hints at the corruption of the power. Even though it is out of self-defense (Sister Veronica was threatening to kill the girls, after all), Allie uses murder in order to feel safe. The fact that she is able to make it look like an accident only adds to her deception and manipulation.
Themes
There is an air of jubilation in the building, and more girls ask for baptisms. Some of the nuns protest, but the girls strike them with their power until they run away. Eve dons a hood and gives a sermon, which the girls record on their phones. She says that women should rule over men as Mary guided Jesus, with kindness and love. She preaches that women should live together to help one another, and right the injustice in the world. She preaches that there will be a new land for women, where they can build a mighty and free nation.
The more Eve preaches, the more it becomes clear that she is largely using her religion in order to try to enact social change she supports. Having been violated by her father so long, she wants to be able to live in a world where she can rule over all men and so ensure her own safety. Alderman also proves the power in being able to have one’s story recorded and heard. Without this ability, Eve would never have gained the kind of audience or followers that she eventually acquires.
Themes
One of the girls expresses concern that they will be thrown out and taken to jail by the police. Eve says God will send a soldier to ensure their salvation, and the girl will be damned for her doubt in God’s hour of triumph. The girl starts crying. She is thrown out of the compound by nightfall. Back in Jacksonville, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor watches the news and recognizes Allie’s face.
The reminder of Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor’s existence serves as a foreboding way to end the chapter, implying that Allie’s lies will come back to haunt her. It also foreshadows the eventual revelation that it was Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor who instructed Mr. Montgomery-Taylor to rape Allie—that she was the one who always had the power over her husband and was completely corrupted by this power.
Themes
