A Question of Power

Like Head, many poets use mental health to represent singularity. In “Much Madness is divinest Sense” (1862), the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson uses mental health to illustrate how the majority stigmatize nonconformists. The 20th-century American Gwendolyn Brooks does something similar with “The Crazy Woman” (1960). Put Head’s novel in conversation with such a poem.

Discuss Elizabeth’s attitude toward sex. How does the emphasis on sex impact her? How does the narrator portray Elizabeth’s sexuality? Is she a sexual person?

The book references several historical events and movements, from Nazi Germany to the Black Panthers. Pick one of the references and research it. How does it contribute to Head’s novel? How accurate is Head’s representation of it?

Head uses imagery to show the reader the nightmarish journey. How are the graphic pictures supposed to make the reader feel? Why would Head want the reader to feel this way?

The book features many symbols. Children symbolize innocence and the vegetable garden symbolizes a reprieve. Choose one symbol and make an argument that that symbol is most the consequential one of the story.

Tom and Elizabeth both read James Baldwin. In his essay collection Notes of a Native Son (Bantam Books, 1964), Baldwin declares, “[A]ll men are betrayed by greed and guilt and blood lust” (35). How does Baldwin’s quote correspond to Elizabeth’s quest and her ideas about the fluidity of good and evil?

How does Elizabeth use her traumatic past to account for her present battle? What role does it play in the spiritual quest?

Unpack Elizabeth’s ideas about racism. Why is the racist less free than the victim of racism? How do Elizabeth’s beliefs link to Power and Helplessness? How do they complicate the motif of racism and trauma?