Victories in the Web

Wow, this novel had me on the edge of my seat as it came to a close. Will Doro win or will Mary dethrone him? Back and forth they fought in the one body and at last, Mary triumphs and becomes the Queen. But is Doro really dead? Initially, at the moment of conclusion, I believed he was, but something tells me, he is still around, still alive, somewhere lurking in the shadows, trying to figure out how he will come back and seek revenge on Mary. But perhaps he may even return unprepared because Clay is about to be introduced more in-depth. And what about the child of Mary and Karl – August? Will he be the one branded as the Patternmaster? I predict Clay will be the guiding force in the next novel in the series [Doro in the first, Mary in the second, Clay in the third, and August in the last – the master of masters], I won’t rule it out because he is only mentioned tersely and that’s all.

One of the reasons why I was glad that Mary defeated Doro was because of her empathetic way and the fact that she did not have to kill like Doro to feed. I also thought this was a way for Octavia Butler to challenge the patriarchal society. In her article “Race,” Hortense Spillers writes that in 2012, the elections exemplified how “radical right-wing challenges to women’s rights place gender…in tandem (male ahead of female) for many decades” and though that continues, the implications of Mind of My Mind, in the visibility of Mary’s triumph over Doro, threw back a challenge tenfold that reminds the patriarchal world that women have the capability of leading just as well as men, (409).

If I should turn this into a film, Doro would return either in the next novel in the series, or possibly in the last novel probably due to him preparing for the final showdown. And yes, Clay and Mary may become rivals, and then August may attempt to save his mother. Chances are, there could be four characters in battle all at once, or it could be one character controlling each and everyone in the pattern. My ultimate question though, as it was brought up in my group on Friday, how do we allow everyone with equal means to survive without the taking of their freedom? Believe that it can happen, I would say, yet this is subjective. With that, I leave you all with Vsauce, “the web is a deep ocean.” Click here!

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