Previous
Terms
Skeins are the biological source of the women’s electrostatic power. Alderman describes the skein as a muscle composed of twisted strands that lie across a woman’s collarbone. It is thought that its development was biologically and genetically prompted by a substance called Guardian Angel, which was put in the water supply as a way to protect citizens from nerve gas during World War II.
Skein Quotes in The Power
The The Power quotes below are all either spoken by Skein or refer to Skein. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 34: Roxy
Quotes
In the dark of the night he tells her about Nina and how she published his words and his photographs under her name. And how he knows by that that she was always waiting to take from him everything he had. And she tells him about Darrell and what was taken from her, and in that telling he knows everything; why she carries herself like this and why she's been hiding all these long weeks and why she thinks she can’t go home and why she hasn’t struck against Darrell at once and with great fury, as a Monke would do. She had half forgotten her own name until he reminded her of it.
One of them says, "Why did they do it, Nina and Darrell?”
And the other answers, “Because they could.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
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:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
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:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Power LitChart as a printable PDF.
Skein Term Timeline in The Power
The timeline below shows where the term Skein appears in The Power. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: Margot
...of muscle across the girls’ collarbones which they call the organ of electricity, or the skein for its twisted strands. Buds of this muscle are even found in newborn girls; it...
(full context)
Chapter 10: Margot
...be infallible. They have used it on infants: give them an imperceptible shock, and the skein will respond automatically. The woman testing her puts the machine on, clicking through levels from...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 18: Margot
...and tries to calm herself, not wanting to hurt him. He asks to see her skein. She unbuttons her shirt for him to see the muscle along her collarbone. He pulls...
(full context)
...they had first been talking in a private chatroom online for people who have unusual skeins. Ryan has a chromosomal irregularity. It’s rare for men with these irregularities to have a...
(full context)
Chapter 21: Tunde
...new female Pope in Bolivia, more unrest in Saudi Arabia, girls trying to cut their skeins out of themselves with scissors (even though more than 50 percent of the time, if...
(full context)
Chapter 27: Allie
...pray together, Allie gives a few pushes of power to Jocelyn’s system. Jocelyn gasps: her skein is “humming steadily.” She is shocked that she has been healed. She thanks Eve profusely.
(full context)
Chapter 28: Roxy
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 29: Tunde
...puberty.” After the procedure, it is impossible for a man to achieve an erection without skein stimulation by a woman. Many of these men will “never be able to ejaculate without...
(full context)
Chapter 31: Darrell
...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...
(full context)
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 36: Darrell
...there’s a soldier (Jocelyn) on one of their back paths, taking photographs. Darrell feels his skein twitch: he’s been practicing and he feels ready to use it. Bernie insists on keeping...
(full context)
Chapter 37
...get him out of the country. Roxy also says that she plans to get her skein back, and then she’ll find him. Roxy makes a phone call at a payphone and...
(full context)
Chapter 38
...her and then kills her radio with a jolt. Jocelyn realizes that he has a skein.
(full context)
...Jocelyn start to circle each other as they prepare to fight. Darrell realizes that Roxy’s skein has loads of power left. Jocelyn, too, has more power than she’s ever had, thanks...
(full context)
...done. They rip him limb from limb, shocking him and burning him. They pull the skein from his chest just before they tear his head off.
(full context)
Chapter 40
Roxy finds her skein among the blood and guts. She thought that she would have known if it were...
(full context)
Chapter 47
...does power exist? Only in the moment it is exercised. To a woman with a skein, everything looks like a fight.” The chapter ends by asking: “And can you call back...
(full context)
Chapter 50
Naomi also questions the idea that women didn’t have skeins before the Cataclysm. She thinks that it must have been women who provoked the war,...
(full context)
...soldiers. He also corrects her, saying that history supports the idea that women didn’t have skeins before the Cataclysm. He concludes by saying that the way humans “think about our past...
(full context)
