Why You Should Read Naomi Alderman’s ‘The Power’

In our progressive, modern day and age, it’s more than vitally important for girls and women to learn about their position in society, and the injustice of such a position. The divide in gender roles is distinct, some formed by nature, but almost always drawn out by the patriarchy. The gender-pay gap, the staggering rates of crime against women, the ways in which the media portrays women in unrealistic ways against impossible expectations; these factors contribute to the imbalance in society, a society that favours men.

Women in literature (and feminist literature) becomes an increasingly significant role in presenting the inequity of this system. It often depicts the man as the root of gender inequality; yet he is not the sole root.

Naomi Alderman’s feminist novel ‘The Power’ exposes the influence of power itself, highlighting how it is not the nature of the gender, but the corruptive nature of the power they hold which causes such calamity. The author does this in a way which inspires open-mindedness; in reality, it is so easy to generalise the blame on one entire gender when the other faces some form of subjugation or injustice because of their sex. Alderman enlightens her readers to the fact that it is never an entire social group that is at fault, but rather their positions in the hierarchical structure of humanity. 

To summarise the plotline of the novel, it follows four points of view: Roxy (the daughter of an organized crime boss), Allie (an abused foster child who takes on the evangelist title ‘Mother Eve’), Margot (an American politician) and Tunde (a Nigerian journalist, the sole male viewpoint in the novel). Accumulated, these four perspectives bring us the story of a shift in the balance of gendered power following the discovery of the schema (something which only females possess), which grants electrical powers. With these powers, women and girls universally discover their power over the men which once oppressed them, and do not hesitate to use it in extreme manners.

At first, no sympathy is granted to the men who wronged the women personally; but as the story rapidly progresses, the level of violence is disproportionate to the treatment necessary, as innocent boys and men are affected by the harsh social regime ruled by women. This new matriarchy, which is so often fantasised about, idealised and adored in the real world, is portrayed as a possible equal to the violent and unjust patriarchy.

Throughout the novel, timestamps are placed to mark the countdown to an astronomical event taking place at the climatic end of the novel. Alongside these timestamps, Alderman invents historical artifacts indicating that this matriarchal tyranny has happened before. As the tale increases in pace with the countdown to what appears to be some form of doomsday, society falls deeper and deeper into shambles, causing us, the audience, to reflect on the state of our own society, how rapidly it is deteriorating, and how soon it may be before damage is irreversible.

The main aim of Alderman’s novel (which she describes as her “hypthesis”), is for us to question whether or not a society portrayed in the pages should truly be desired; or if we should otherwise be continuing to strive for an equal, balanced society where both genders can thrive, and where neither are discriminated against.

• books
• feminism
• literature