Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof.

Pedro Luis Luchini

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Study Guide
1- Account for these excerpts taken from the novel:
(Beginning, p3.): "The shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree. Root to tip,
central to trunk branching and re-branching, spreading wider in ever-thinner, searching fingers.

(Ending, p.330): Apocrypha excluded from the Book of Eve): "The shape of power is always the
same; it is infinite, it is complex, it is forever branching. While it is alive like a tree, it is growing,
while it contains itself, it is a multitude. Its directions are unpredictable; it obeys its own laws. No
one can observe the acorn and extrapolate each vein in each leaf of the oak crown. The closer you
look, the more various it becomes. However complex you may think it is, it is more complex than
that…"

p.7. ROXY
"Roxy feels it start to build in her then, though she doesn’t know what it is. It´s just a feeling at her
fingers'' ends, a prickle in her thumbs." What is it that feeling about? How does she use it with
those three blokes who come visit her mom that night?

p.14. TUNDE
Tunde witnessed an episode in which Enuma had an incident with a boy after he referred to her by
saying "Hey, servant girl, bring me that Coke", "What a wicked servant girl you are". What does
this tell us about the way he referred to Enuma? How did she react?
p. 16/17. "Tunde takes his phone from his pocket, flips on a video." What did he record? Why?
Explain this: "It is this video which, when he puts it online, starts the business of the Day of the
Girls"

(p.20). MARGOT
" […] Margot reads a report from a team in Delhi who are the first to discover the strip of striated
muscle across the girls' collarbones which they name the organ of electricity, or the skein for its
twisted strands.

(p.21). Margot compares these girls with winged ants. Explain.

(p.21.) Account for this "I saw a girl in the park doing that to a boy for no reason, he was bleeding
from the eyes. […] Once you've seen that happen, no mom would let her boys out of her sight."

(p.24). Jos tried her electric shot on her mom (Margot). Describe the shot and how it feels.

(p.26/27) ALLIE
1. Describe Allie's family ties/situation.
2. Refer to Mr. Montgomery-Tylor attitude towards animal-killing (pigs-chickens) and indicate how
Allie feels about this, in particular the chickens.
3. Refer to the theme of REVENGE on the part of the chickens and to the voice that Allie heard
regarding REVENGE.
4. Refer to the instance in which Mr. Montgomery-Tylor said to Allie: "Saw you. Saw you in the
graveyard with those boys. Filthy. Little. Whore."

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

5. "He pushes her knees apart. His hand is at this belt. He´s going to show her what kind of a little
whore she is. As if he hadn't shown her many times in the past." What can you infer from this?
6. (30-31) Mrs Montgomery-Tylor listened to the polka on the radio while her husband was
abusing Allie. She thought that he was giving her a spanking, and it´s no more than she deserves.
YOU KNOW HOW MEN ARE. Explain.
7. She (Allie) wishes she could have sent him (her step father, Mr. Montgomery-Tylor) alive into
the scalding tank. Explain.
8- She really has no need for a knife, nor need at all.

(p.37) ALLIE
1. Refer the power of eels (remote control) (p.40)
2. "She calls herself Eve and the voice says: Good choice, the first of women; excellent choice."
Explain.
3. "SHE likes it in the convent". Who does this SHE refer to? Why is that so? (p.42).
4. Sister Ignacia said: "our Lord learned from a woman (Mary) how to love." Account for gender
roles in relation to love. (p.45)
5. Are the Gospels themselves fairy tales? Was Our Lord a liar? Do you tell me that there has never
been a demon, that when He cast our devils from men He was playing a game? Account for this
(p.45).
6. "They have the powers that men are not meant to know…. The Lord told us where these powers
come from. We all know." (p.45).
7. "Younger girls awaken it in older women. This is the Devil working in the world, passing from
hand to hand as Eve passed the apple to Adam." Explain.
8. The voice says: "if the world didn’t need shaking up, why would this power have come alive
now?" Explain.
9. "The only way you're safe, honeybun, is if you own it", the voice says. What does it refer to?
(p.46/83/120/252)

ROXY
p.47. Roxy avenges the murder of her mom. She uses her power to do so. Explain.

TUNDE
p.55. Tunde arrives in Riyadh (capital and most populous city of Saudi Arabia. => Riot (women are
gathering, shouting and marching) => some of them can do it without touching the cars; they send
their lines of power out from their bodies and they are all laughing (c.f.: Captain Marvel)
(p.60) Later that afternoon, they send out the men in helicopters and soldiers on the streets,
armed with guns and live ammunition. => Several women are killed but this just sharpens the rest.
(p. 61) The king is killed (rumors that one of the maid had done it => feeling the power in ther
fingertips and no longer able to hold it back).

MARGOT (62)
1. Teenage girls can wake this up in grown women. And they can give it to each other. (p.62)
2. The God of the Israelites had a sister, Anath, a teenage girl. She was a warrior. She was
invincible. She spoke with the lighting. She killed her own father and took his place. She liked to
bathe her feet in the blood of her enemies.
3- What happens to Joe and her power? (p.64/86)
4. "It´s state-wide mandatory testing for the presence of a SKEIN, or the electrostatic power."
(p.66)

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

5. God of the Isarelites => Anath (p.63)

6. "Impeachment" (Margot)
7. (p. 75) Miracles (p.75, 82, 113, 114, 304)
8. (p.75). Lighting storm => "But the storm has already done something to Luanne" What exactly?
9. (p.77) "Eve […] can lay her hands upon a person's body and find just the right place to send out
a needle of power and set something to rights, at least for a while. The cures are real…"
EVE=>GOD?
10. (p.78/79) => rebirth in the water (water as a symbol)
11. (p.80). It's the Mother not the Son who is the emissary of Heaven. Explain.
12. (p.82). Damned. If we do not burn them as they burned these girls in Decatur and in
Shreveport, the Devil will take us all (girls in the convent). It shall be utterly consumed. Sister
Veronica said this. After a few hours, Sister Victoria died in the convent => chaos in the convent =
no rules.
13. (p.82-83) Eve's messages:
-God will be with you. She has overturned heaven and earth for us.
-man rules over woman as Jesus rules over the church. But I say unto you that woman rules over
man as Mary guided her infant son, with kindness and with love.
- man and women should live together as husband and wife. But I say unto you that it is more
blessed for women to live together, to help one another, to band together and be a comfort one
to the next.
-God will send Her salvation. A soldier will come. And you will be damned for your doubt (one of
the girls suggested that they (men) come to the convent and take them all to jail). God will not
forget that you did not trust Her in this hour of triumph.
14. (p88). Are you suggesting some kind of training camp for these girls? /We should be trying to
cure them (Margot)
15. (p89) cause of POWER => environmental build-up of nerve agent that was released during
WWII.

Tunde (92)
(p93) Moldova - World capital of sex-trafficking. They trade in men, too, and in children. The girl
children grow day by day until they power comes to their hands and they can teach the grown
women.
(95) Women under control of 43 border towns => mostly of women who've been freed themselves
from sexual slavery.
Tatiana => new political interim leader after her husband Victor Moskalev (president) is killed. He
wanted to bombard his country to put an end to the women's invasion.
(p98) Victor's minister of Defense tries to set up a military coup but Tatiana with her army of
women stopped it. => Day of the Girls > Tatiana Moskalev bring her wealth and her connections =>
declares a new kingdom => the new country of Bessapara.

Roxy (99)
99. Sea at fire -
99. great description (vocabulary) "It's coming on to dusk [….] as the crabs and small fish rise to
the surface of the water"
99. They send the word to Mother Eve: someone has come
100. Didn’t I tell you I was sending you a soldier?
100. God´s made this all happen for a reason and women are supposed to take over from men…
103. I think there's going to be a great battle light and darkness.

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106. […] that we can let men go their own way, that we don’t need to stick to the old order, we
can make a new path.
114. I am not here to convert you. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, if you are of any
faith or none at all, God does not want you to change your practices.
114/115. God loves you all, and She wants us to know that She has changed Her garment merely.
She is beyond female and male, She is beyond human understanding. But she calls your attention
to which you have forgotten. Jews: look to Miriam, not Moses, for what you can learn from her.
Muslim: looks to Fatimah, not Muhammad. Buddhist: remember Tara, the mother of liberation.
Christians: pray to Mary for your salvation.

Miriam: Miriam, the daughter of Amram and Yocheved, and older sister of her two famous
brothers, Aaron and Moses, was born in Egypt just when the Jewish people were reduced to
slavery, oppression and hard labor. This was in the year 2362 (after Creation), eighty-six years
before the liberation. She was born four years before Aaron and seven years before Moses. Having
been born at the time when the bitter enslavement began, her parents named her “Miriam” (from
the Hebrew word meaning “bitterness”). Her father, Amram, was the grandson of Levi, the son of
our patriarch Jacob. He was the leader and head of the Jewish people. Her earliest prophecy was
that her mother was going to give birth to a son who would free the Jewish people from Egyptian
bondage. This is one of the reasons why she was also called Puah, meaning “Whisperer,” for she
was whispering words of prophecy.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112396/jewish/Miriam.htm

Moses: Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) is arguably the greatest figure in Judaism other than God.
He helps bring the Israelites out of slavery and leads them for the next four decades, until his
death just before they enter the Land of Israel. Born in Egypt at a time when the Pharaoh has
ordered all newborn Israelite boys to be murdered, Moses is hidden by his mother and then, when
that becomes infeasible, sent in a basket down the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and
raises him, and he lives happily as an Egyptian until he kills an overseer who he sees abusing an
Israelite. He then flees to Midian, where he marries Zipporah and lives as a shepherd until God
appears before him in the form of a burning bush, ordering him to return to Egypt to secure the
freedom of the Israelites. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/moses-in-the-bible-beyond/

Fatimah: On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, appeared to three
shepherd children from a poor family in the poor parish of Fatima in rural Portugal. The children
were Lucia dos Santos and her two cousins, Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto. The Virgin
appeared standing on a small holm oak in a field called the Cova D’Iria. She was bathed in a radiant
light, brighter than the sun, rather like the Lord in his Transfiguration. She did not yet identify
herself as the Virgin Mary, but said that she came from heaven, asked the children to come for six
months in succession on the 13th of the month. She promised the children that they would go to
heaven and asked them to offer themselves to God and bear all the sufferings he sent them, as an
act of reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners. The children answered that they were
willing to do so. She then opened her hands, communicating to them a light so intense that it
penetrated their hearts and the inmost depths of their souls, making them to see themselves in
God. Finally, she asked them to pray the rosary every day to obtain peace in the world and the end
of the war.
https://www.thedalleschronicle.com/gorge_life/who-is-our-lady-of-fatima-and-what-is-the/
article_53d6d26e-b9c8-5b56-9cb1-3e4fd2970f39.html

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

Muhammad: The rise of Islam is intrinsically linked with the Prophet Muhammad, believed by
Muslims to be the last in a long line of prophets that includes Moses and Jesus. Because
Muhammad was the chosen recipient and messenger of the word of God through the divine
revelations, Muslims from all walks of life strive to follow his example. After the holy Qur'an, the
sayings of the Prophet (hadith) and descriptions of his way of life (sunna) are the most important
Muslim texts. When he was roughly forty, Muhammad began having visions and hearing voices.
Searching for clarity, he would sometimes meditate at Mount Hira, near Mecca. On one of these
occasions, the Archangel Gabriel (Jibra'il in Arabic) appeared to him and instructed him to recite
"in the name of [your] lord." This was the first of many revelations that became the basis of the
Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. These early revelations pointed to the existence of a single God,
contradicting the polytheistic beliefs of the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula. When he was roughly
forty, Muhammad began having visions and hearing voices. Searching for clarity, he would
sometimes meditate at Mount Hira, near Mecca. On one of these occasions, the Archangel Gabriel
(Jibra'il in Arabic) appeared to him and instructed him to recite "in the name of [your] lord." This
was the first of many revelations that became the basis of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam.
These early revelations pointed to the existence of a single God, contradicting the polytheistic
beliefs of the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula.
https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/art-of-the-islamic-world/
unit-one/the-prophet-muhammad-and-the-origins-of-islam

Tara: She is one of the most popular devotional and meditational deities, honored all around the
world, practiced by all schools of Vajrayana Buddhism, many Mahayana Buddhists, Hindus, and
others. She is so popular, she is called “Mama Tara”—and She never takes Herself seriously. She’s
a daily good friend, ready helper, saving hero, precious guide. She always has “time” for everyone
—after all, time is relative. She is just as quick to help the prisoner in jail as the faithful
practitioner, without discrimination. If Her name is called, She answers. At the ultimate level, She
was the “Non Manifested”, Prajna Paramita in Buddhism, but also the non-manifested Wisdom
Mother in Hinduism. At the “intimate” relative level, She can emanate as a shepherd girl, ready to
rescue a stranded traveler. Or She can incarnate as a Princess ready to help a nation—two
simultaneously, in the case of Her more recent history in Tibet and China.
https://buddhaweekly.com/limitless-tara-beyond-green-buddha-bodhisattva-savior-mother-
buddhas-hindu-maa-tara-goddess-many-colors-consort-buddhas-wisdom-mother-action-hero/

Mary: Also called St. Mary or the Virgin Mary, (flourished beginning of the Christian era), the
mother of Jesus, venerated in the Christian church since the apostolic age and a favorite subject in
Western art, music, and literature. Mary is known from biblical references, which are, however,
too sparse to construct a coherent biography. The development of the doctrine of Mary can be
traced through titles that have been ascribed to her in the history of the Christian communions—
guarantee of the Incarnation, virgin mother, second Eve, mother of God, ever virgin, immaculate,
and assumed into heaven. The New Testament account of her humility and obedience to the
message of God have made her an exemplar for all ages of Christians. Out of the details supplied
in the New Testament by the Gospels about the maid of Galilee, Christian piety and theology have
constructed a picture of Mary that fulfills the prediction ascribed to her in the Magnificat
“Henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-
mother-of-Jesus

120. Can I own the whole world? (the only way you are safe is if you own a place, p. 46/86/252)

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

122,123,124. Origin of the electrostatic power in women (rat experiment/never-strengthener

developed to control gas attack/Guardian Angel/tanker sunk carrying Guardian Angel/substance
concentrate in the oceans/ concentrations of this substance developed the electrostatic power in
women=> collarbone= skein/GA amplified a set of genetic possibilities already present in the
human genome).
126,127. Personal defender=> …

TUNDE
131. Tunde in battle in Moldova (landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Romania to
the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. Most of the Moldovan territory was a part of
the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until 1812, when it was ceded to the Russian
Empire by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was a vassal state) and became known
as Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which three years later united
with Wallachia to form Romania, but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878.
During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Bessarabia briefly became autonomous and then the
independent Moldavian Democratic Republic until it was integrated into Romanian 1918 following a
vote of its assembly. The decision was disputed by Soviet Russia, which in 1924 decided the
establishment, within the Ukrainian SSR, of a Moldavian autonomous republic (MASSR) on partial
Moldovan-inhabited territories to the east of the Dniester.
131. Men in new armor: rubber, battery packs, electric cattle-prods.
132/133. WATER = power
138/139. Tunde is attacked by a woman => "your brain is jangled, Tunde. Your mind is made of
meat and electrics. This thing hurts more than it should because it short-circuits your brain. He is
saved by three other women.
142/143. The power of the Internet - Mother Eve's giving talks in South Moldova, she's building a
power base there. We know that the NSA is monitoring everything, global terrorism.
Dude, unless you are using a dozen VPNs at once, wait for your door to be knocked down in 3, 2,
1…(virtual private network)
144. He is being fucked by a faminazi now though.

MARGOT (147)
148. Infrastructure investment => nothstar camps for girls have been replicated in 12 states now.
They create jobs. They keep girls off streets. And they'v given us one of the lowest rates of street
violence in the country.
149. …"would I send my own daughter to a NorthStar day camp if I thought they were anything
other than a force for good?" (NorthStar Systems=> American business)
149. "Two years of NorthSar camp have helped; the girls there have taught her (Jocelyn -Margot's
daughter) to tone down the highs." Meaning?
152-153. Ryan (Jocelyn's boyfriend) has a skein too=> implications? Abnormal= he has a
chromosomal irregularity= not all the boys like this grow skeins.
Roy can also send electric shocks.
154. There is already so much porn in it =>? Both playing with their powers.
154. Joe quite like girls. She quite likes boys who are a bit like girls.

ROXY 155
155. Mother Eve= > "once day there will be place for the women to live freely"

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

155/156. Glitter=> white powder like snow, like frost…shining cristals…-DRUG ..This is designed to
enhance the experience. There is some coke cut in with it, and a couple of other uppers, along
with the purple glint, which Shanti's only ever seen post-cut.
160. Roxy's counting money => power. You can turn $ into anything.
160/161. The Monke family are the only suppliers of Glitter right now. POWER.
161. Roxy and Eve made a deal to protect each other and to share their fortunes.

MARGOT 165
Margot vs. Daniel => political candidates

TUNDE 170
170. Protest in Bessapara=> "justice for men", "we want justice" Bessapara is chemically castrating
all the men. The government did this and he gov. has to put it right.
170. He should have to go to Bolivia, they've proclaimed their own female Pope.
170/171."The daughter of a newly elected Governor in New England has been photographed with
a boy, a boy apparently with a visible skein (166, 167,152, 153 like Ryan)
171. Skein in boys => have it removed? Death? Skein connected to the electrical rhythm of the
heart.
172. A storm that is not a storm but a bomb => restaurant blown up > fire => a pregnant woman
trapped in the rubble (concrete pillar). Her leg is crushed to bloody meat.
173. Pregnancy hormones increase the magnitude of power => PAIN and FEAR = These things
whittle away control.
174. VOCABULARY "one of the fluorescent strips, dangling by a single wire, sways and snaps and
crashes into the rubble"
"a spark ignites that gasoline- smelling fluid that had been dripping…"
174. Terrorist attack by Male Power.
177. Meeting with Tunde and Urbanbox => the "coming gender war"
178. They were among us before we even knew we'd been invaded.
179. They want us docile and confused. /Domestic violence against men./ murder of men by
women.
180. We are being ruled by fags who worship women. We need to cut them down. Campaign to
vaporize men.

ALLIE 182
186. "Bessapara, the land where God has shown Her wisdom and Her mercy, is a great blessing to
me." "She won't send Her goodness just to women, but to anyone who believes in Her." "Allie
says: I like this country…"
188. WAR=> the war hasn’t begun yet. / a full dose of the Glitter (weapon to fight)
189. Awadi-Atif - exiled King of Saudi Arabia - He thinks I've been sent on a holy war. And I think he
is right. I was chosen by God for this. / They plan to retake Bessapara, the republic of the women.

MARGOT 191
191. Margot suggests that Ryan has been on extremist sites.. talking about terrorist attacks.

ROXY 193
200/201. Detective Newland knew about Roxy's mother: Cristina. He had killed her.
203. Roxy knew that so she killed him and pretended it was an accident.

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

203. Newland confessed that Bernie Monke had killed Roxy's mother. Roxy's mom was Bernie's
lover. She had cheated on him and so he killed her.
204. Roxy and Derrell (Roxy's bro) killed Newland.
204. Roxy says "I want justice" =>implications for this?
205. Roxy decides not to kill her father, instead she sends him to a place with a beach = no more
Greek tragedy.

JOCELYN 206
206. There was a real attach on the camp.
Northcamp at war - Jocelyn is bribed to fight the war => "you'll work for them for two years after
you leave college, they´ll pay your tuition"
Jocelyn was once scared out of her wits (vocab.)
All the lights go out in the center of the camp
Tegan (one of the girls at the camp) wants to fuck one of the terrorists (prisoner). "That is what
she likes. Weird men, deformed men. Disgusting, strange, repulsive men. That's what she likes.
221. Tatiana says: "all we want is the American dream right here in Bessapara.
222. Northstar wants the UN mandate to send its own Northstar trained female troops into Saudi
Arabia.

ALLIE 225
225. Religious symbols: symbolic tree behind her, hand filled with lighting, all-seeing eye = GOD is
watching each of us.
226. Jocelyn wants to the see Mother Eve to help her correct her skein deficiency. Identity issue =>
I don’t know who I am any more.
228. Tatiana gives a speech at the Party about the heart-rending cruelty done by the regimes of
the the North and the freedom she and her people are fighting for. => Lady's vengeance on those
who have escaped human justice"
229. Tatiana dropped one of the brandy bottles to the floor and had one of the men lick it up
among the small fragments of glass scattered on the floor.

ROXY 231
235. Barnie and Darrell captured Roxy to mutilate her in public in vengeance => remove her skein
=> POWER
Doctors reconstructed Roxy (operated on her) without her skein. 236
237. Darrell is sitting beside her for the implantation of his sister Roxy's skein. They stitched Roxy's
collarbone into Darrell's and Roxy recovers and runs away into the forest, badly hurt, mutilated.

TUNDE 239
239. At first we did not speak our hurt because it was not manly. Now we do not speak it because
we are afraid and ashamed and alone without hope, each of us alone.
240. Peter's note "THEY ARE GOING TO TRY TO KILL US" (waiter)
241. Tunde tries to get published (story of brandy) but he's rejected=> censorship. "She is trying
to make the press leave the country."
242. Churches are being repurposed or destroyed. Why did the priests say to Tunde: "do not
forget us"?
242. The police no longer investigate the murder of men => if a man is found dead it is presumed
that a vengeance gang had given him his proper reward for his deeds in the time before.

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

243. New law: "that each man in the country must have his own passport and other official
documents stamped with the name of his female guardian. A man who does not have a female
relative to register him must report to the police station. Any man who breaks these laws will be
subject to capital punishment.
No man may take money out of the country.
Men are no longer permitted to drive cars/to own bss./to gather together/to vote.
244. VOCAB. "he pours himself another whiskey and plops three ice cubes into it, swirls them
round hard and makes his case again."
244. Why IRAN? Shah? Ayatollah?
248/249=> picture= rock art discovered in northern France=> "it is impossible for a man to achieve
an erection without skein stimulation by a woman" "men will never be able to ejaculate without
pain (curbing procedure)"=> Implications for this?

ALLIE 251
Tatiana is becoming unpredictable => she trusts Mother Eve more than anyone else => The
defacto ruler/leader of the country => There is a war slowly spreading in the country. A war of all
against all.
252. The only way to be safe is to own a place (46, 118) Allie says: "I´ll take the country and I´ll be
safe"

DARRELL 254
254. Glitter bleeding out into the forest / Darrell's scar is pulling taut (stretched, pulled tight, not
slack), his skein hums angrily. It hurts.
255. Irina (one of the girls at the camp) asks Derrell about his guardian? Darrell responds that Roxy
(his sister) is his guardian. She'll be back. I'm just keeping everyting ticking over for her (vocab.)
256. Derrell to his dad "She's probably crawled off into a hole to die… Dad. She's dead!"
How is it bedding, son? (vocab.)
Derrell's dad => and if we can get it (skein) to work on you (Darrell), this operation, think
of who we could sell it to. Skein transplants… We'll make a killing, Dad! - THAT WE WILL! =>
POWER

JOCELYN 257
257. She did not want to hear from Ryan, couldn’t talk to a terrorist.
258. Things are happening in Bessapara=> torture and experiments, gangs of women on the loose
murdering and raping men at will.
Glitter=> the reason the US army is stationed there is because they are protecting the supplies of
Glitter. Margot can arrange the supplies of Glitter from organized-crime syndicates to NorthStar,
who sell it back to the US army at marked-up price.
253. Ryan says: "Do you think your mother (Margot) has made a deal with a drug cartel?

TUNDE 261
261. He'd been to Bessapara and North of Mondova to learn about Awadi-Atif. Went again.
263. He was afraid for the first time. Saw incident of man tied to a post in the center of the road.
He'd been dead for 2/3 days.
264. Tunde photographed him.
264. He was being followed by a woman.
266. He found a escape place. He charged his cel. battery and saw the news. Nina was on.
268. USE of PAST PERFECT "he realized he had left his phone still plugged in…"

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

Ceremony => ritual = Tunde saw that from up a tree. Women killed a man
269. You are weak and we are strong
You are the victim and we are the victors
You are the sacrifice and we are the recipients
You are the son and we are the Mother.
270. When she killed him, it was ecstasy.
271. They captured Tunde. Put him in a wooden cage. Roxy is there.

ROXY 272
271. Tunde meets Roxy at the camp.
273. She explains to him that these women hunt men and kill them at new moon.
274/275. Roxy helps Tunde escape. Tunde in Roxy's hands.
278. Description of men => men are dangerous, commit the great majority of crimes, less
intelligent, less diligent, less hard-working, their brains are in their muscles and their pricks, more
likely to suffer from diseases and they are drain on the resources of the country. We need them to
have babies. But we don’t need as many as there are women (1x10). We want them to be
obedient.
279. The camp is attacked and Roxy and Tunde managed to escape into the forest. Tunde climbs a
tree.
280-281. Two humiliating acts performed by women to men (sexual parts) "her mates are laughing
and she's laughing too as she pumps herself up and down on him."
282. Glitter
283. "There is no sense in what is done here this day. There is no territory to be gained or a
particular wrong to be avenged or even soldiers to be taken. Many of them take some of the men,
and use them, simply play with them." Implications for this?
284. Roxy is hiding from other women as if she were a man (lost her skein=> identity/power)
285. He hasn’t imagined for years what a woman would look like without this thing (skein) or how
she could have it taken from her.
286. Tunde sees there is an empty drum that can be useful to distract the women soldiers.
287. There are two children hidden inside the drum, ready to die. Tunde saves them.
288. They saved their lives one another (Tunde/Roxy). They blame each other for the bad things
each one (Tunde=> Nina pictures) (Roxy: Darrell) has done but then they thank each other.
289. Tunde and Roxy found an empty railway station => they made love there.
Here it comes 293
293. South=> Tatiana, North=> Olatunde Edo and Roxy, West=> Mother Eve, North => Tatiana .
Risk of military coup within weeks if someone doesn’t take charge of this situation. North
Maldova will march with chemical weapons into southern cities.

DARRELL 296
296. Darrell feels the skein in his chests starts to throb and twist. He is strong. The skein whispers
to him: She's only one soldier. Go out there and give her a fight.
Darrell talks to the skein => don’t fail me now.
He wants to give a fright to the soldiers who control the factory=> he wants to use the power of
his skein.
296. Power knows what to do. It has a logic to it.
297. Power doesn’t care who uses it.
Glitters=> Roxy had trained them
299. Tunde feels terror, fear, dread.

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

301. the blonde woman Roxy had sent to pick Tunde up appeared. He would have to travel in the
boot of a car for 8 hs.
303-304. Jocelyn meets Darrell next to the factory. They get ready for a fight.
Darrell=> Roxy's skein
Jocelyn=> miracle Mother Eve (75,113,114)
305. Darrell fights against Jocelyn. He wins the battle but then the women from the factory attack
him and defeat him (crazy bitches).
306/307. They killed Darrell and remove his skein. How did they kill him?
308/309. Roxy returns to the factory and discovers that they have been tweaking the drug there. "I
´ll take back from him what he took from me"
310. Roxy gets her collarbone back.
311, 312, 313. Mother Eve meets Roxy. Allie wants to start a war to put an end to all. Roxy
refuses. She wants to make piece.
312, 313. Eve wants Armageddon - WAR - Roxy: if you bomb them, they will bomb us. The war will
spread wider and wider. US vs Russia and Middle East.
Result? Can you hurt more? Can you do more damage? Can you instill fear?
314. Alison Montgomery-Tylor (26) - Roxy's step-mother
Roxy told Allie that to finish her task (having killed her step-father) she should now look for her
step-mother (Alison Montgomery) who has remarried a certain Lyle Williams => owners of a
children's home.
"if you really want the women to win this war, go and look up Lyle Williams in Jacksonville, and his
wife".
(voc.) a minor misalignment in her understanding.
315. Allie called her step-mom. Mrs. Tylor says that Allie understood that her mother is greater
than the child and that everything that Mr. Tylor and herself had done to her was for her own
good.
p.27=> chickens were killed by electric shocks=> Allie didn’t like that => wanted to take
revenge on Mr Montgomery for being so cruel with the chickens (theme of revenge).
p.28=> Voice: there will be a day to use this (special power) and on that day you will know
what to do (foreshadowing)
p.30=> Mr Montgomery hit Allie and raped her and told her she was a whore.
Mrs. Montgomery knew what was going on with Allie and her husband, but
choose to listen to the radio to ignore the whole thing. "You know who men are", she would say.
p.32. Allie in rage killed Mr. Mongomery with an electric shock at his heart.
Voice: Oh, so proud, daughter! You will make me prouder yet. You'll do wonders in the world.
315. Mrs Montgomery runs a children's home. Her new husband looks a great deal like Mr.
Montgomery Tylor. Do you think that we tend to re-marry (in this case) the same kind of person
(following a stereotype)?
315/30. Slap on Allie's face.
316. Mrs Montgomery has also continued growing monstrous as the clock turned. Explain.
317. Everything we did, she says, we did it for love of you, you needed to be taught discipline.
Radio (p.30).
"Beneath every story there is another story."
"It was the one who made the police documents disappear."
Mrs. Montgomery=> (holder of a children's home) "All children need different kinds of
love"… "We do what's needed to care for them."
"Children are born so small. It doesn’t matter if they are boys or girls. They are all born to weak
and so powerless"

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

319. The voice cursed Allie and told her she shouldn’t have made friends with Roxy. Why?
-Is the voice the serpent?
-"simple feels safe"
-"certainty feels safe"
-"your whole question is the mistake"
320. "Only exceptional people can cross the borders", "the truth is: anyone can cross", "but only
exceptional people can bear to look it in the eye"
Explain story about KINGS => boys for soldiers SLAVES
=> girls for cooks SLAVES
-"Welcome to the human race. You people like to pretend things are simple, even at your own
cost. They still wanted a King."
-Choices=> "there are 2 things and you have to choose is the problem"
-"My optimism about the human race is not what it once was. I'm sorry it can't be simple
anymore."
-"Mother Eve opens her eyes. The voices in her head are gone. She knows what to do." What is
that?
322. Bad news (for the new order): Roxy is alive. Margot's story about the wasps.
There is a voice in Margot's head=> "you can't get there from here"
324. A package sits unclaimed in a mailbox in Idaho. There are underdeveloped rolls of film, two
notebooks and USB sticks. => Tunde's materials?
325. Mother Eve=> "When a multitude speak with one voice, that is strength and that is power."
"We are one mind. And we call upon America to join us in the struggle against the North!" "The
end of the flesh is near, because the Earth is filled with violence. Therefore, build an arch (Noah's
ark (Noah's Ark is the vessel in the Genesis flood narrative through which God spares Noah, his
family, and examples of all the world's animals from a world-engulfing flood.)
326. Margot says on TV: "Terrorism can strike anywhere, at home or abroad" "our enemies, both
global and domestic, must know that we are strong and that we will retaliate."
-There's been threat from a terrorist group=> spread of terrible pictures from inside the Republic
of the Women taken by a guy we all know has been dead for weeks (Tunde).
-"The North is already threatening Bessapara with missiles over it. The world must know that the
United States is willing to escalate. If you hit us with one jolt, we will hit you with two."
328. Power has her ways. She acts on people, and people act on her.
329. Roxy and Bernie (her dad) have a conversation about Tunde and Roxy's future with him.

Complementary videos to the novel

1- Watch the interview with Naomi Alderman and take down notes on what she says about "The
Power".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJVj1u868s

2- Review: "The Power", or: On a scale from 0 to genocide, how much do you want to see men
suffer?
Read this review and highlight those sections that you consider can be further discussed. Relate
the selected excerpt from the review to the novel.
https://medium.com/@thesaltydigest/review-the-power-or-on-a-scale-from-0-to-genocide-how-
much-do-you-want-to-see-men-suffer-9da2d57e00c3

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 Profesorado de Inglés - Comunicación Avanzada I- Prof. Pedro Luis Luchini

3- Listen to Tome Raider´s review on the "The Power". Highlight three points he makes about the
book. Get ready to support or refute his idea using samples drawn from the novel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSieDODClMw&t=388s

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