A Struggle Defeated

            Reading a complex book about one person’s struggles with insanity drove me to the brink of insanity.  The schizophrenic writing style creates a challenge to the reader to follow the journey into insanity only to come out clean and smelling like a rose at the end of the trip.  Much like Bessie Head’s main character Elizabeth in A Question of Power, certain tasks and people provide a balance or normalcy that ultimately brings Elizabeth and the reader out of insanity.  These acts ultimately lead to her full recovery and give the reader a sense of accomplishment for following along on the journey to hell and back.

            Elizabeth works in a garden where she grows vegetables and the Cape Gooseberry which is used to make jam.  Elizabeth has a specific method and is able to grow the nonnative species of the Cape Gooseberry in the arid soil.  This gives her a sense of pride and she is very connected to the plant because she to non-indigenous to the area.  Elizabeth is a “complete stranger like the Cape Gooseberry settled down and became a part of the village life of Motabeng” (153).  The plant and Elizabeth have a special bond and cultivating the bond is very special for Elizabeth.

            Elizabeth is good friends with Kenosi who also works with Elizabeth in the garden.  When Elizabeth suffers a breakdown and is in bed for two days, it is Kenosi who comes around and cheers her up.  Elizabeth is at an extreme low and its Kenosi’s kindness that brings her out this trance.  Kenosi says to Elizabeth, “You must never leave the garden.  I cannot work without you.  People have never seen a garden like our garden” (142).  In response to this, Elizabeth thinks, “The way this woman brought her back to life and reality” (142).  Elizabeth then gets out of bed and tells Kenosi she will be back in the garden the next day.

            Near the end of the book Elizabeth is in the hospital and refuses to allow her good friend Tom to visit saying she never wants to see him again.  However, as soon as she is released Tom comes over and offers to make dinner.  This scene of Tom’s compassion ultimately saves Elizabeth.  “Her soul-death was really over in that instant, though she did not realize it” (188).  She is ultimately release from her battles with insanity and the constant struggle with both Dan and Sello.

            Elizabeth’s caring friends and her time at the garden were the main reasons why she was able to go through hell and come out clean on the other side.  It was a constant struggle she would have ultimately lost if it were not for these things.  Acts of kindness by her friends and a special talent she possessed allowed her to survive.  These breaks from insanity also shed light to the reader and to help out with the readers own battle through the journey of hell and the constant battle with a mental illness.