Revolution and Social Change Theme Analysis

As the power disrupts not only individual dynamics but also governments and countries, Alderman poses a central question of the possibilities of social change. The transition of power in the novel is rarely smooth: often men try to resist the loss of any power, or resort to old methods of suppression. Gradually the women start to recognize that gradual change, even in the direction of progress, will not allow them to gain the power that they have been lacking. Instead, Alderman argues that their only course—for better or worse—is to ignite revolution and build a new society from the ground up. 

Even from the beginning, Alderman demonstrates that changes of power cannot be gradual. She provides several examples of how at even the slightest threat, men attempt to prevent women from gaining or using power. Tunde witnesses a young woman being harassed by a man in a supermarket, before the power has really been discovered or understood. She electrifies him, causing him to fall to the ground in a fit. Someone immediately says, “That girl was a witch! That is how a witch kills a man.” The reference to witchcraft calls back to historical events in which women who were viewed as a threat to the existing power structure were subjugated or killed, and so efforts toward changes in power dynamics often made little progress. Boys in Allie’s school tell her that the previous week in Nebraska, some boys killed a girl for lighting a cigarette with only her fingers. This incident shows that even the smallest gesture, when it indicates greater power, is seen as a threat and eradicated. In Moldova, the world capital of human sex-trafficking, Alderman focuses on women who have been sold into sexual slavery, locked in a basement for years, and who rise against the men enslaving them. President Viktor Moskalev confesses to Tunde that he would rather bomb his own country to crush the paramilitary groups of women than allow them to gain power after being oppressed for so long. Thus, a gradual shift becomes impossible because those who are in danger of losing power are more interested in defending their own than in allowing for any loss of power.

Increasingly, women start to make their own revolutions, recognizing that this is the only way to institute change. In Moldova, the women who were sold into sexual slavery begin to take over towns, noting that not only were their oppressors in the wrong, but many people (policemen, landlords, postmen) knew what was happening and still did nothing. President Moskalev is killed by his wife Tatiana, and she creates a new state called Bessapara. Tunde travels to Riyadh, where riots begin when two young girls are beaten to death for practicing their powers. Hundreds of women flood the streets; the police retreat, understanding the women’s strength. The women work together to free others from rooms in which they have been trapped, gathering numbers and growing. Twelve days after the first riot, the government falls and the King of Saudi Arabia is assassinated. Later, in Delhi, in “the place men come when they want a woman they can use without law or license, discard without censure,” women start to rampage through the markets. Tunde is again there to report, and one of the women tells him: “The only wave that changes anything is a tsunami. You have to tear down the houses and destroy the land if you want to be sure no one will forget you.” These revolutions emphasize the necessity of vast, sweeping change, because any gradual change is completely stifled.

When Allie expresses wanting to control the world, the voice counsels her at several points: “You can’t get there from here.” This implies that it’s sometimes impossible to progress from one place in society to another: instead, it might requires steps back before steps forward in order to truly change. By the end, Allie sends the world back to the Stone Age in order to reform society in a matriarchal structure, knowing that if men have the slightest chance of having power, they will still fight for it. This conclusion is even more extreme, demonstrating that sometimes even revolution is not enough: true change requires a complete rebuilding o society.

The book opens with a passage from the Book of Eve, asserting that “the shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree.” Alderman explains this symbol over the course of the book: a large power (like the one that women gain) branches out to smaller and smaller sources of power. But at the end of the book, Margot recognizes that no matter how many branches are cut off from a tree, the old one still stands, a metaphor for the old society. The only way to create a different power structure, she realizes suddenly, “is to blast it entirely to pieces.” This expresses Alderman’s conclusion on social change: the gradual search for progress is fruitless; instead, revolution is needed for true change.