Power Versus Resistance

Have you ever been in the position where someone wants to control you and you either defy them or are unable to? Well, in Light by Michael Grant, Gaia, Caine Soren's daughter with Diana Ladris, tried to control everyone but was only able to control two, partially. She was completely unable to control Lana Arwen Lazer but was sort of able to control Sam Temple and mostly control Caine, Sam's brother. Gaia was a little girl whose soul was killed so that the Gaiaphage- ancient mutated virus of alien origin- can have a body and move around while killing humans so that Little Pete, Astrid Ellison's dead (sort of) little brother and the Gaiaphage's nemesis won't kill it. I think that power is shown as a very bad thing and resistance is shown as a very good thing.

 This is first shown when Gaia used Lana to get what she wanted using her powers. She constantly is shown using it greedily just so that she can survive but no one else can. This is shown when Lana contacted her and in thinking it was a trap she “reacted violently, lashing out, trying to push her away” by using her powers. She was selfish enough to not be able to realize that it wasn't really a trap at all. She was so greedy that she thought to use her powers against Lana. This shows that power is a horrible thing in her hands as it is throughout the whole book.

This is next shown when Gaia uses her powers to hurt her own father. She used her powers to stop Caine from hurting her. Caine was just about to defend himself when “the inside of his head exploded. Caine fell to his knees, clutched his head, and screamed in unbearable pain.” What this means is that Gaia used her power to hurt him with, as stated earlier in the book, a stabbing pain. At this point, Caine wasn't able to resist her anymore in fear of receiving the pain again. He lost the will to even look at her. Therefore this scene shows that power is horrible and resistance is good, even though he wasn't capable of it.

It is shown that resistance is good when Sam constantly resists Gaia even though he knows he probably won't win. She tried to control him, but was unable to because he just wouldn't listen no matter what. This thus caused a fight where “with no other easy choice, he punched her in the face.” In desperation of not giving up- because he knew that everyone would die otherwise- he attacked her by himself so that he could save the world. Even if that meant taking some serious damage from Gaia’s powers. Gaia even beat him up and tied him up. But still, Sam resisted her by trying to kill himself so that she couldn't use him against the others. Thus showing that resistance is a very positive thing.

This claim, that power is awful and resistance is benevolent, made me think deeper about humanity because it makes me think about the power in our government and if they use it greedily or not. It makes me wonder if everyone, when given power, will use it greedily so someone will have to resist them. Or if it was just Gaia that was like that. I remember earlier in the series that Sam was given a lot of power but, unlike Gaia, he didn't use it greedily. Instead he was driven crazy-almost- from the stress of having everyone look up to him. So obviously not everyone will go corrupt when given power, but does anyone ever use it well and not go crazy? I think that if I were given that much power, I probably wouldn't be able to handle it, just like Sam. I also think that I wouldn't be able to fight back as much as all the characters in the book, even Caine. I wondered if us civilians, even, would be able to resist people like Gaia as much as they did or if they would just give in. Learning this theme will make me think about people and how determined they are.