Notes

Name: Shium Mashud
Date: 06/01/2022
Class: 4


Throughout history, most societies have created institutions and social hierarchies revolving around concentrated power in individual people. Power is the ability to influence others. When these people have this ability, how do they perform? The majority of the time, these individuals become corrupted and self interested as their regimes get longer until there is an eventual radical revolution or separation of power. This varies from regimes lasting generations with successful great rulers until a tyrant takes over, to brief rulings of a tyrant who loses power quickly. However, the results of these concentrated authoritarian regimes can be synthesized into a single statement. The ubiquitous narrative regarding power is that power makes individuals less sympathetic to the concerns and emotions of others. This narrative can be found in the novels “Lord of the flies” and “Purple Hibiscus” as well as the famous tragedy “Macbeth.”
In “Lord of the Flies”, Jack consolidated all the power on the island. The way he enacts his power shifts greatly from how he did in the beginning. After tension arises between Ralph and Jack regarding how the island should be run, Jack tries to become the leader over Ralph by rallying support from the boys of the island. He says “‘He’s (Ralph) not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t a prefect and we don’t know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing. (pg. 182)” During his speech, he implies that he will use his power to directly work for the interests of the people and provide positive results that Ralph failed to bring. Jack gained power when he left the group to build his own one. These promises gave him a large audience to enact his influence over, therefore giving him power. Later on one of the boys commented on Jack’s treatment of one of his subjects, Wilfred answering “He’s going to beat Wilfred…He didn’t say (why). He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been—he giggled excitedly—he’s been tied for hours, waiting— (pg. 229) ” In the beginning of his rule he seemed emphatic to the boys of the island, wanting the best for them but here he fails to control his emotions, favoring venting his anger by harming one of his subjects in a cruel way. This move is entirely impulsive and tied with these emotions rather than the greater good but his power allows him to do so and he abuses it to do it. This power also allows him to act on his savagery in a disturbing way. After incorrectly identifying Simon as the beast, he leads a violent mob to kill the ‘beast’. He chants “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in! (pg. 219)” The problem with having this type of power is that Jack could do anything he wants. Though he initially was given the power due to his desire to help the people of the island, the impulsive capacity power has become too intoxicating and enticing for him to ignore. Power corrupted Jack because serving his self interest is made easy, not because of the power itself. The Lord of the Flies explores human nature and more specifically the instinctive and impulsive side. Jack’s abuse of power demonstrates that it is in human nature to be self interested. Power allows individuals to go unchecked and unconstrained and this novel claims that this means that when people are unchecked, they fall into impulsive behavior as shown with Jack.
In “Purple Hibiscus”, Eugene Achike or ‘Papa’ displayed this self-interest effect of power even more so than in Lord of the Flies. Papa has rigid rules and impossibly high standards for his wife and children, and hurts them—for what he sees as their own benefit—whenever he perceives that they have sinned or failed. In his household, there is an absolute patriarchy. He allows no freedom or independence for Mama, Kambili, or Jaja. He schedules his children’s every minute and even chooses the color of the drapes. When anyone acts out or tries to assert their freedom, he responds with violence. During a conversation between Ade Coker and Eugene, Eugene said “They are not like those loud children people are raising these days, with no home training and no fear of God-” (pg. 38). Papa raises his children to reflect his own ideals and goals. He refers to his parenthood as ‘training’ which is disturbing as he really should nurture them rather than ‘training’ them like how one does to a dog. He doesn’t want them to be themselves. What if the children are naturally outgoing and outspoken? We can’t tell for sure due to how indoctrinated the children are but even if they were, Papa just implied that he would ‘fix’ them through his training. He feels the need to bring the fear of God to the children through his violence. He has no concern over the emotions of his children. He would rather satisfy his desire for ‘perfect’ Christian children rather than raise emotionally healthy children. He abuses his power as the man of the house as well his physical power to raise his children in his vision. Moreover, when Papa finds out that Kambili shared a room with her ‘heathen’ grandfather he gives her one of the punishments we see yet. “‘Kambili, you are precious.’ His voice quavered now, like someone speaking at a funeral, choked with emotion. ‘You should strive for perfection. You should not see sin and walk right into it.’ He lowered the kettle into the tub, tilted it toward my feet. He poured the hot water on my feet, slowly, as if he were conducting an experiment and wanted to see what would happen. He was crying now, tears streaming down his face… I watched the water leave the kettle, flowing almost in slow motion in an arc to my feet. The pain of contact was so pure, so scalding, I felt nothing for a second. And then I screamed. ‘That is what you do to yourself when you walk into sin. You burn your feet,’ he said. (pg. 136)”. This horrifying scene is Papa’s worst punishment yet. He still cries and calls Kambili “precious,” and actually thinks that the violent punishment is good for her and will help save her soul from hell. Kambili is still helpless against Papa, and doesn’t deny any of the supposed sins she has committed. Once again, we see Papa abuse his power as the patriarchal figure to satisfy his desire of a Christian household. He tries to enact ‘God’s punishment’ himself and convinces himself that it was right for him to do so. He doesn’t allow Kambili to build a relationship with her grandfather just so because her grandfather is not Catholic. This punishment illustrates the extent of his power serving as God in a sense in the family household as well as not being concerned about her daughter who might want to build a relationship with her grandfather regardless of the fact that he isn’t Catholic.
The famous tragedy of “Macbeth” further reinforces this narrative on power. In Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth decides to kill King Duncan. In King Duncan’s vulnerable state, Macbeth has the power. Even though he was apprehensive, Macbeth ends up killing Duncan. King Duncan was a good, just king that people were willing to fire. That’s why his death was met with such distress. Even Macbeth comments on Duncan being the good king. He didn’t have to die. However, Macbeth had the power to kill him and he decided to do so to fulfill his ambitious dreams. When given power, Macbeth shows that he is willing to forgo his concern on his victims to satisfy his self interest. Later on, after listening to the witches’ prophecies Macbeth realizes that all of them are coming true. The only one that hasn’t yet been for Banquo’s descendents to become king. Macbeth decides to order a hit on Banquo and his son (Act 3, Scene 3). This act was not needed. At this point in time Macbeth has already secured the throne. For all he knows, the next king might only come after this natural death. He doesn’t need to suspect Banquo’s son yet he decides to protect his own self interest. He abuses his power as a king to get those hits on those people. The power made him not concerned for the wellbeing of his friend Banquo and his son.
The narrative that perpetuates these pieces of literature regarding power is that power makes individuals less sympathetic to the concerns and emotions of others. Whether it was a boy ruling over the island of boys, or a father upholding his image of perfect children over his own, or a man fulfilling his ambitious desires at the expense of others, we see time and again that they all forsake their altruistic nature to satisfy their selfish desires. This is human nature. What we can take from this is that we need to keep check concentrated powers and separate such powers among people to build a better society in which the interests of the people like the boys of the island, the children of a strict father, and a nation under a kingdom are first priority.