Linda Hogan’s “Power” touched upon a number of issues that it would be possible to write entire books about. We discussed some of those issues in class, including the struggle to define identity when you find yourself stuck between two cultures, the rights of indigenous peoples on their own land, and the power struggles that we can see all the characters grappling with throughout the novels. Each of these issues deserves time taken to understand them deeply, but the conflict that most affected me was our discussion of the rights of indigenous peoples concerning environmental changes. In the novel, this is most dramatically confronted when Ama choses that it is the most humane action to kill the panther, as she can see how much it is suffering. The community rebels against her, many for reasons that most environmentalists would quickly agree with it. It’s wrong to kill an endangered species, isn’t it?
What most struck me about this was how ready the community was to punish Ama for her actions. How ready the world was to understand that killing an endangered species is wrong, and therefore is a punishable offense. But we don’t see any equal anger towards the individuals and organizations that made the species endangered in the first place. The police were quick to come to Ama’s house with their lights blazing to cart her away for putting one bullet into one panther, but do we see any similar action to the CEOs of the oil companies pumping dangerous chemicals into our water and land all in the pursuit of oil? Their actions are undoubtedly leading to the death and destruction of countless more animals than Ama’s single gun shot, but we see no action on the part of the government to hold them accountable. Those companies are polluting our land, air, and water all for the sake of what has been dubbed “economic growth,” and therefore must be good. But when Ama chooses to put an animal out of the misery that those very companies have wrought, she deserves the harshest of punishments. Why is it that our country is so focused on punishing the symptoms of the system, rather than ever looking to the system itself?
