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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
Ricky’s entire story is a parallel with the sexual violence, rape, and harm that women in contemporary society all too frequently experience at the hands of men.
Themes
Ricky tells Roxy what happened. He was drunk and out dancing with friends. Three girls approached him and started to flirt. He looks ashamed as he tells the story, worrying he should have done something differently. One gave him a blow job outside the club. When she was finished, the other girls used their power to arouse him—something that hurts a lot if a person doesn’t want it. Ricky kept saying he didn’t want it. They took turns on him, aiming to hurt him and shocking him in the throat so he couldn’t make any sound. They left him on the ground.
The specific language that Alderman uses and the specifics of Ricky’s scenario both force readers to contend with scenarios that women face in contemporary society: being blamed for being drunk or not making better choices, the shame that comes with admitting one has been raped, and the physical and psychological hurt that rape entails. All of these are shocking given the fact that conventional power dynamics have been flipped, and the scenario is meant to shock readers into recognizing that crimes like this shouldn’t become normalized for any gender.
Themes
Roxy understands why they called her and not Bernie: Bernie would hate Ricky for this. “This is not what happens to a man,” Bernie would think. Ricky describes the girls to Roxy, and she locates them easily. She calls a couple of girls to help her—using the power is easier than using guns. When she goes to leave her apartment, Darrell insists on coming, too.
This passage emphasizes how Bernie and men like him are still hanging on to the old power dynamics, believing that men should be strong and not victimized, as Ricky was. But Roxy’s understanding that it is better to bring women on her jobs emphasizes that Bernie’s thinking is disconnected from the shifts that have been taking place.
Themes
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Roxy and her companions find the girls in a pub, and wait until they leave. They follow the girls into a park and Roxy stuns one of them. Roxy introduces herself, saying that they met her brother Ricky in a club last night. Darrell knocks a second girl out with the butt of his gun. The third girl, Sam, tells Roxy that Ricky was “asking for it.” She tells Roxy that he wanted the girls to hurt him.
Again, Alderman specifically uses language that has typically been ascribed to women—that Ricky was “asking for it.” This language seems absurd given the harm that these girls have done to Ricky, and this absurdity causes readers to reflect on why this language doesn’t carry the same sense of absurdity when applied to women.
Themes
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Darrell tries to hit Sam, but she’s too quick for him. She grabs his gun as he swings it at her and shocks him. His eyes roll back and he shakes. The girl threatens to kill Darrell if they come toward her. One of Roxy’s companions sneaks behind Sam and takes her out with an electric baton. She falls to the ground, blinded in one eye. Roxy scars the three girls’ faces and takes pictures to show Ricky.
Because Roxy and the other women don’t need weapons to hurt each other, Darrell is the one who is most powerless in this situation. This dynamic again shows how the ability to hurt can lead to power: Darrell is the one who needs to be saved, while Roxy is the one doing the saving.
Themes
Roxy returns to the house. Barbara thanks her for what she’s done, even though Roxy knows she’s never liked Roxy. As thanks, Barbara gives her three small black notebooks—information on how the business runs. She says she knows that Bernie would never leave the business to Ricky now, and that she will tell Bernie that Roxy should be its rightful heir.
Barbara’s decision to give Roxy the notes is another recognition of the fact that Roxy is the most powerful of her siblings because she can cause the most damage. This will have nearly dire consequences for Roxy as Darrell becomes jealous of the power she’s gained.
Themes
Roxy stays up the rest of the night, poring over the books of contacts, which are people Bernie’s been blackmailing or bribing, or connections he’s been developing. But then a name catches her eye: Detective Newland, a cop. She remembers Primrose’s words about Roxy’s mother’s murder: “Newland said you weren’t going to be home.”
Here, Alderman demonstrates how the power to hurt can also lead to a variety of other benefits: in Roxy’s case, the power to find out who was responsible for her mother’s death and to get vengeance for that unpunished crime.
Themes
Roxy quickly finds Detective Newland on the internet; he lives in Spain. As Roxy prepares to leave for Spain, Darrell comes to thank her for what she did for Ricky, and for saving his life. He asks if there’s anything he can do to help her, and Roxy understands that he means in the business as well, now that she is inheriting it. So, she tells him about Newland, and he insists on coming too.
At first, it seems that Darrell understands the new social order and accepts the shifts in dynamics when he offers to help Roxy. But it becomes clear later that Darrell is just as power-hungry as his father, to the point where he would harm his own sister.
Themes
Roxy and Darrell find Newland’s place. They wait in the bushes until he comes out of the house, and Darrell hits him on the head and pushes him into his swimming pool. Roxy sits at the edge of the pool, and Newland realizes who Roxy’s mother was. Roxy gives Newland a hard jolt, admits she intends to kill him, and tells him she only wants to know one thing: what Primrose gave him to work with him. Newland reveals that it was actually Bernie who told him to sell the information to Primrose. Bernie wanted Roxy’s mother dead. Roxy kills him, making it look like he had a heart attack. On the plane home, Roxy says she wants justice.
The revelation that it was in fact Bernie who had Roxy’s mother killed serves as another example of how power corrupts a person and takes over their other priorities. Bernie (as he reveals later) prioritized the security of his business over Roxy’s mother’s life and Roxy’s well-being. Additionally, Roxy has gained the power to get vengeance on her own father, whereas before she could never have matched his violent capabilities.
Themes
Back at Bernie’s, Darrell points a loaded gun at him. Bernie tells Roxy that he loved Roxy’s mother, but that someone paid her off to leak information about his operation, and so he had to have her killed. He apologizes to Roxy, saying he never meant for her to see it. Bernie sits there, waiting for her to kill him. But Roxy tells Bernie instead that he’s going to retire. He can have a safe place somewhere, and no one will come to get revenge on her. Bernie nods, calling her a “clever girl.”
It is notable that of all of the characters, Roxy is the one who is perhaps least corrupted by power. Even though she is the strongest physically, she refuses to kill her father because she knows this will only continue a cycle of bloodshed. Yet Alderman demonstrates that this act allows for Bernie and Darrell to take the power from her anyway. Power, the family’s story makes clear, is a corrosive force whether one abuses it or not.
Themes
