The Power

The Power

by

Naomi Alderman

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Power makes teaching easy.

Allie/Eve Character Analysis

Allie begins the novel as a 16-year-old girl in Alabama who lives with her foster parents, Mr. Montgomery-Taylor and Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor. Allie is frequently beaten and raped by her foster father. When Allie gains the power and is spurred on by a voice in her head, she kills her father with her power and runs away to a convent. Allie renames herself Eve and performs a series of so-called “miracles” that are really due to the fact that she can control her power exceptionally well. Again urged by the voice, she starts to teach her own religion which holds that God is a woman, and she also emphasizes the female figures in various religions. She even starts to rewrite Scripture, keeping only the parts that suit her narrative. Gradually Eve becomes a global religious icon and she supports Tatiana Moskalev and Bessapara as a new nation for women. She also befriends Roxy, whom she believes can protect the women in the convent because of her strength. By the end of the novel, Eve decides that the only way to ensure that women can maintain their power—and the only way that she herself can feel safe—is if she sparks global war and the world bombs itself back to the Stone Age. Then she can rebuild a society in which women have always been dominant. Eve underscores Alderman’s argument about faith and religion: both are powerful forces, but they can be easily manipulated. Eve does not have true faith in the things she preaches, but she is nonetheless able to deceive others (and herself to a degree) into believing in her religion and following her. Within the novel, Neil demonstrates how Eve’s plan ultimately worked, as his manuscript includes artifacts that show Eve as a global figure and demonstrate how female figures have become much more prominent in religion.

Allie/Eve Quotes in The Power

The The Power quotes below are all either spoken by Allie/Eve or refer to Allie/Eve. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree. Root to tip, central trunk branching and re-branching, spreading wider in ever-thinner, searching fingers.

Related Characters: Allie/Eve, Roxy Monke, Margot Cleary, Neil Adam Armon, Bernie Monke
Related Symbols: Tree
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: Allie Quotes

“Saw you. Saw you in the graveyard with those boys. Filthy. Little. Whore.” Each word punctuated with a punch, or a slap, or a kick. She doesn’t roll into a ball. She doesn’t beg him to stop. She knows it only makes it go on longer. He pushes her knees apart. His hand is at his belt. He’s going to show her what kind of a little whore she is. As if he hadn’t shown her many times in the past.

Related Characters: Mr. Montgomery-Taylor (speaker), Allie/Eve, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: Allie Quotes

The voice says: You heard what she said. Eve passed the apple to Adam.
Allie thinks, Maybe she was right to do it. Maybe that’s what the world needed. A bit of shaking up. Something new.
The voice says: That’s my girl.
Allie thinks, Are you God?
The voice says: Who do you say that I am?
Allie thinks, I know that you speak to me in my hour of need. I know that you have guided me on the true path. Tell me what to do now. Tell me.

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), The voice (speaker), Sister Veronica
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11: Allie Quotes

Eve says, “So I teach a new thing. This power has been given to us to lay straight our crooked thinking. It is the Mother not the Son who is the emissary of Heaven. We are to call God ‘Mother.’ God the Mother came to earth in the body of Mary, who gave up her child that we could live free from sin. God always said She would return to earth. And She has come back now to instruct us in her ways.”

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker)
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13: Tunde Quotes

Moldova is the world capital of human sex-trafficking. There are a thousand little towns here with staging posts in basements and apartments in condemned buildings. They trade in men, too, and in children. The girl children grow day by day until the power comes to their hands and they can teach the grown women. This thing happens again and again and again; the change has happened too fast for the men to learn the new tricks they need. It is a gift. Who is to say it does not come from God?

Related Characters: Allie/Eve, Tunde Edo, Tatiana Moskalev, Viktor Moskalev
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14: Roxy Quotes

“God loves all of us,” she says, “and She wants us to know that She has changed Her garment merely. She is beyond female and male. She is beyond human understanding. But She calls your attention to that which you have forgotten. Jews: look to Miriam, not Moses, for what you can learn from her. Muslims: look to Fatima, not Muhammad. Buddhists: remember Tara, the mother of liberation. Christians: pray to Mary for your salvation.”

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), Roxy Monke
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:

The voice says to Allie: Remember, sweetheart, the only way you’re safe is if you own the place.
Allie says: Can I own the whole world?
The voice says, very quietly, just as it used to speak many years ago: Oh, honey. Oh, baby girl, you can’t get there from here.

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), The voice (speaker), Roxy Monke
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 41 Quotes

“The women will die just as much as the men will if we bomb ourselves back to the Stone Age.”
“And then we’ll be in the Stone Age.”
“Er. Yeah.”
“And then there will be five thousand years of rebuilding, five thousand years where the only thing that matters is: can you hurt more, can you do more damage, can you instill fear?”
“Yeah?”
“And then the women will win.”

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), Roxy Monke (speaker), Tunde Edo
Page Number: 353
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

Look, I’m not even real. Or not real like you think “real” means. I’m here to tell you what you want to hear.

Related Characters: The voice (speaker), Allie/Eve, Mr. Montgomery-Taylor, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor
Page Number: 353
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 47 Quotes

When the historians talk of this moment they talk about “tensions’’ and “global instability.” They posit the “resurgence of old structures” and the “inflexibility of existing belief patterns.” Power has her ways. She acts on people, and people act on her.
When does power exist? Only in the moment it is exercised. To the woman with a skein, everything looks like a fight.
UrbanDox says: Do it.
Margot says: Do it.
Awadi-Atif says: Do it.
Mother Eve says: Do it.
And can you call back the lightning? Or does it return to your hand?

Related Characters: Allie/Eve, Margot Cleary, Neil Adam Armon, UrbanDox, Awadi-Atif
Page Number: 370
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

I don’t think it’s at all a stretch to suggest that they picked works to copy that supported their viewpoint and just let the rest molder into flakes of parchment. I mean, why would they re-copy works that said that men used to be stronger and women weaker? That would be heresy, and they’d be damned for it.

This is the trouble with history. You can’t see what’s not there.

Related Characters: Neil Adam Armon (speaker), Allie/Eve, Tunde Edo, Naomi Alderman, Nina
Page Number: 379
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Power LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Power PDF

Allie/Eve Quotes in The Power

The The Power quotes below are all either spoken by Allie/Eve or refer to Allie/Eve. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree. Root to tip, central trunk branching and re-branching, spreading wider in ever-thinner, searching fingers.

Related Characters: Allie/Eve, Roxy Monke, Margot Cleary, Neil Adam Armon, Bernie Monke
Related Symbols: Tree
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: Allie Quotes

“Saw you. Saw you in the graveyard with those boys. Filthy. Little. Whore.” Each word punctuated with a punch, or a slap, or a kick. She doesn’t roll into a ball. She doesn’t beg him to stop. She knows it only makes it go on longer. He pushes her knees apart. His hand is at his belt. He’s going to show her what kind of a little whore she is. As if he hadn’t shown her many times in the past.

Related Characters: Mr. Montgomery-Taylor (speaker), Allie/Eve, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: Allie Quotes

The voice says: You heard what she said. Eve passed the apple to Adam.
Allie thinks, Maybe she was right to do it. Maybe that’s what the world needed. A bit of shaking up. Something new.
The voice says: That’s my girl.
Allie thinks, Are you God?
The voice says: Who do you say that I am?
Allie thinks, I know that you speak to me in my hour of need. I know that you have guided me on the true path. Tell me what to do now. Tell me.

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), The voice (speaker), Sister Veronica
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11: Allie Quotes

Eve says, “So I teach a new thing. This power has been given to us to lay straight our crooked thinking. It is the Mother not the Son who is the emissary of Heaven. We are to call God ‘Mother.’ God the Mother came to earth in the body of Mary, who gave up her child that we could live free from sin. God always said She would return to earth. And She has come back now to instruct us in her ways.”

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker)
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13: Tunde Quotes

Moldova is the world capital of human sex-trafficking. There are a thousand little towns here with staging posts in basements and apartments in condemned buildings. They trade in men, too, and in children. The girl children grow day by day until the power comes to their hands and they can teach the grown women. This thing happens again and again and again; the change has happened too fast for the men to learn the new tricks they need. It is a gift. Who is to say it does not come from God?

Related Characters: Allie/Eve, Tunde Edo, Tatiana Moskalev, Viktor Moskalev
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14: Roxy Quotes

“God loves all of us,” she says, “and She wants us to know that She has changed Her garment merely. She is beyond female and male. She is beyond human understanding. But She calls your attention to that which you have forgotten. Jews: look to Miriam, not Moses, for what you can learn from her. Muslims: look to Fatima, not Muhammad. Buddhists: remember Tara, the mother of liberation. Christians: pray to Mary for your salvation.”

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), Roxy Monke
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:

The voice says to Allie: Remember, sweetheart, the only way you’re safe is if you own the place.
Allie says: Can I own the whole world?
The voice says, very quietly, just as it used to speak many years ago: Oh, honey. Oh, baby girl, you can’t get there from here.

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), The voice (speaker), Roxy Monke
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 41 Quotes

“The women will die just as much as the men will if we bomb ourselves back to the Stone Age.”
“And then we’ll be in the Stone Age.”
“Er. Yeah.”
“And then there will be five thousand years of rebuilding, five thousand years where the only thing that matters is: can you hurt more, can you do more damage, can you instill fear?”
“Yeah?”
“And then the women will win.”

Related Characters: Allie/Eve (speaker), Roxy Monke (speaker), Tunde Edo
Page Number: 353
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

Look, I’m not even real. Or not real like you think “real” means. I’m here to tell you what you want to hear.

Related Characters: The voice (speaker), Allie/Eve, Mr. Montgomery-Taylor, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor
Page Number: 353
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 47 Quotes

When the historians talk of this moment they talk about “tensions’’ and “global instability.” They posit the “resurgence of old structures” and the “inflexibility of existing belief patterns.” Power has her ways. She acts on people, and people act on her.
When does power exist? Only in the moment it is exercised. To the woman with a skein, everything looks like a fight.
UrbanDox says: Do it.
Margot says: Do it.
Awadi-Atif says: Do it.
Mother Eve says: Do it.
And can you call back the lightning? Or does it return to your hand?

Related Characters: Allie/Eve, Margot Cleary, Neil Adam Armon, UrbanDox, Awadi-Atif
Page Number: 370
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

I don’t think it’s at all a stretch to suggest that they picked works to copy that supported their viewpoint and just let the rest molder into flakes of parchment. I mean, why would they re-copy works that said that men used to be stronger and women weaker? That would be heresy, and they’d be damned for it.

This is the trouble with history. You can’t see what’s not there.

Related Characters: Neil Adam Armon (speaker), Allie/Eve, Tunde Edo, Naomi Alderman, Nina
Page Number: 379
Explanation and Analysis: