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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
Darrell, who is now running the factory in Roxy’s stead, has just lost “three million quid” worth of Glitter because of the North Moldovan soldiers. He’s furious, and tries to take control of the situation. But he’s nervous around all the women that work for Roxy’s drug operation. He hasn’t revealed that he has a skein because he still can’t fully use it, and he worries the women are not afraid enough of him.
In the absence of Darrell’s ability to cause these women pain, he fears that he cannot truly claim power over them. This continues to support the idea that violence and power are deeply linked.
Themes
One of the women asks if Darrell has a guardian. Darrell tells her that Roxy is his guardian; she’s just on holiday. He assures her that he’s getting messages from Roxy telling him what to do. Darrell then gets a call from Bernie, who is disappointed that he hasn’t found Roxy yet. Darrell tells him that it’s more than likely she’s dead. Bernie asks Darrell how his skein is; Darrell says the doctor has told him he’ll be able to use it in a week or two. Darrell smiles: no one will be expecting him to have the power. Bernie also admits that if they can get this operation to work on Darrell, they can sell it to loads of men.
Allie worries later that she will never feel safe enough, because as long as men have experienced what it was once like to have power, they will never give up on trying to regain it. This exchange with Darrell and Bernie supports that idea as they discuss enabling other men to literally take the power away from women. This same fear ultimately leads Allie to want to rebuild society from the ground up in a way that women will always be the dominant sex, even at the cost of progress.
Themes
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