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Chapter 27: Allie
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
Roxy is bored. She’s been told that Tatiana Moskalev has a pet leopard on a chain, but so far she hasn’t found it. Roxy and Eve meet up, laughing at the memory of the waterfall. Eve suggests to Roxy that Tatiana Moskalev has “outlived her usefulness. To the Holy Mother.” Eve says that Roxy would be a good woman to take over the job, and tells her to come see her tomorrow to talk it through.
The image of the leopard, which will recur later in the chapter, emphasizes the idea that those who once had power and no longer have it (such a powerful animal that is imprisoned) can be very dangerous, as they simply desire more of that power. Eve also starts to make her motivations more clearly known to Roxy, showing that she cares more about having someone trustworthy in power than in her faith, though she still uses faith to justify her political moves and eventual murder of Tatiana Moskalev.
Themes
Roxy doesn’t stay long after that because she has a business meeting to attend to. Darrell’s set up the meeting: he’s been doing operations for her in Bessapara. She thinks that sometimes a man is better than a woman at these things: “less threatening; they’re better at diplomacy.” She drives through dark roads for 90 minutes to find the meeting place—another castle. She finds the room she’s supposed to go to, which is lined with plastic and medical equipment. Someone suddenly pulls a bag over her head; she lets off a huge blast of power, but someone hits her in the head with something, hard. She is knocked unconscious.
Roxy’s thoughts again emphasize the gender role reversals that are now fully in place, even in how people think. Men are now thought to be less threatening than women because they don’t have as much power or capacity for violence. The irony of these thoughts, of course, is that Darrell has set up a violent plan to strip Roxy of her power.
Themes
When Roxy wakes, she’s strapped to a metal table and she’s drowsy. She can tell they’re cutting into her, and she also quickly realizes that they’ve given her drugs to suppress her power. She tries to build up some power, but they up the dosage of the drugs and she can’t summon any. She can feel the knife hit her skein, and the pain is worse than anything she’s ever felt. They cut the muscle out of her, and she thinks that as much as it hurts, “the emptiness that comes after is worse.”
This scene demonstrates the inverse of the fact that the capacity for hurt directly correlates to one’s power. When Roxy is unable to use her electrostatic power, she is rendered completely vulnerable once more to whatever these men want to do to her.
Themes
Roxy’s head is in a vise, but she turns enough to see that there is a man next to her, prepped for an implantation operation: Darrell. And sitting next to him is her father, Bernie. She thinks to herself that she shouldn’t have kept a leopard as a pet. She should have known that not killing her father would also have consequences.
Roxy recognizes how power can corrupt even those who do not have it, especially people who have felt the taste of it before. Darrell and Bernie are so desperate to retake their power that they are willing to hurt their own family member in order to get it.
Themes
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The surgeons start the operation on Darrell and ignore Roxy. She inconspicuously lifts herself out of the restraints to grab a few scalpels and some bandages. There is some kind of crisis with Darrell’s operation: they’re giving him chest compressions. While they are occupied, she rolls off the table and onto her knees. She crawls towards the door, finds her shoes, and runs out of the castle and into the forest.
The continuation of Roxy’s storyline reinforces just how vulnerable she is without the power, and how she feels like neither a woman nor a man. When she later reflects on what has happened and asks herself why Bernie and Darrell did it, she comes to the conclusion that they did it simply because they were able to. Power in and of itself is again shown to be a corruptive and greedy force.
Themes
