Confusing or Art?

            Art is a funny thing; sometimes it is something that is as plain as day to see what it is and it’s meaning, and then there is the art that is very confusing and its meaning is not easily determined. This is the kind of art I see when I am reading Bessie Head’s A Question of Power.

            It is probably one of the most confusing books I have read and I am only on page 34. I was lost right from the first sentence. It starts out talking about some man that we don’t know anything about and it goes off into this weird conversation between the main character Elizabeth and two men, Sello and Dan, which I believe to be imaginary people. I took them as Elizabeth’s subconscious where Sello is the voice of reason and Dan is the evil side. But I later find out that they are also prophets and they are even real people in the village Elizabeth is living in. Sello also turns out to be a “white monk” that visits Elizabeth in her home. This was thoroughly confusing to me and I still don’t know what to think about these two characters and who they really are.

            Then if that’s not confusing enough, you get to learn about a few events in Elizabeth’s past that seem to be out of order and kind of random. For example the book talks about Elizabeth when she was in school. She was thought of as a risk for insanity. The principle of the school told her, “We have a full docket on you. You must be very careful. Your mother was insane. If you’re not careful you’ll get insane just like your mother.” (pg.16) Even at the beginning of her life she was labled as insane even though she had no signs at that point and that is probably what drove her to insanity. This story somehow leads to her going to her foster parents and them telling her how she was adopted. And that leads to a few more stories of past evets in her life that are very hard to understand, but show how she became insane.

            Although it is confusing I think this is the perfect art form to express how Head feels. It gives a great picture and feeling of confusion and that is probably how she felt at the time of this book.