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Chapter 14: Roxy
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
This chapter includes archival documents relating to the power’s origin, spread, and possible cure. The first article is a description of a short World War II propaganda film. It shows two men in lab coats treating rats with a substance they call Guardian Angel, and tells viewers that the substance will keep allied forces safe from gas attacks.
The chapter explores some of the history of the power. Neil includes these documents perhaps to counter some of the other unfounded narratives on how or why women developed this power (perhaps in direct contradiction with Eve’s own theory). This choice on Neil’s part prioritizes the power of research and facts.
Themes
The second article consists of notes distributed to journalists for the BBC program The Source of Power. The notes explain that Guardian Angel was a success, and accumulated rapidly in the water system. Research has established it as the “undoubted trigger” for the development of the power. Women seven years old or younger during World War II have skein buds on their collarbones, and those who were around thirteen years old during the Day of the Girls possess a full skein, which cannot be taken away without tremendous danger to the woman’s life.
The fact that the power occurred as a result of a drug meant to protect against nerve gas highlights how people are often very bad at predicting the consequences of their actions, often at a great cost. This will also prove true as more and more women embrace the power and wake it up in each other, without thinking through the consequences of how the power can be used for corruption.
Themes
The third article is an SMS conversation between the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister. The Home Secretary asks to delay this report—there will be crises, because there’s no cure for what has happened.
Again, Neil (and Alderman) highlight the importance of perspective and the control of information. The fact that the Home Secretary wanted to delay the report shows how the information it contained could have been used as a source of power for its readers.
Themes
The fourth article is an online advertisement collection. The first is for the “Personal Defender”—a wrist-mounted taser. The Personal Defender was withdrawn because, when shocked, a woman often produced a large shock that bounced back to her attacker. The second ad is for a “$5 trick” that will improve the strength and duration of the power. The third advertisement is for slip-on rubber undersocks, which theoretically would protect against shocks.
The advertisements that Neil includes from around the time when the power was discovered again emphasize how fully and how quickly it became woven into the fabric of society, as well as the divide between those who wanted to use it to strengthen themselves, and those who needed protection from it.
Themes
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