Dancing with the Power of the Wind

Dancing with the Power of the Wind. That's what comes to my mind when I read the last passage in "Power." I get an image of Omishto feeling powerful in her self, her decision to go to the old people at Kili, to choose her own life path, and knowing the power that is the wind and her people, while holding them inside of her. Kind of a rambling sentence of all the power images entering my mind, but to me, that's also what the wind is- an intense mix of all that makes up the world and that is making up Omishto at the end of the novel. She has found a new power in herself and has started a new life with the elders. To me, the dance with the new, pure white fan is almost as if Omishto is being reborn. She has gone through experiences she probably never imagined throughout the book, and in the end has come out of it a new person. She is no longer a student, living in her mother's household, taking beatings and being chased after by Herm. Omishto has come out of it all a new person. She has made her own decisions and is confident in them with the end of the book. "it was the old people who saved us" (224), and its the old people she goes to.

Oni. Omishto. "It is a breathing, ceaseless God, a power known and watched over by the panther people. It passes through us, breathed and spoken and immortal. It is what brings us to life" (178). Oni is what saves Omishto and brings her to become who she does at the end of "Power." The dance in the wind with the fan, creating her own wind, shows her own power and her new breath of life through this Oni. She has chosen to become one of the panther people, accept this Oni entirely, and let the power into her as well. Omishto dances to signify her new power. The fan shows her new life/wind/rebirth she is creating all at once with the acceptance of this power, and ultimately her finality in her decision.