Oscar Wilde once said that “Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” In both Jose Saramago's Blindness and Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones, sex is used by men in the story as a means of exerting power over women. In Salvage the Bones, the reader follows Esch, a 15-year-old girl who feels an undying but unrequited love for the boy who impregnated her, Manny. To Manny, Esch is just a toy he can throw away when he's done. While the circumstances may be different in Blindness, the group of thugs in the story use the mass rape of women as a means to become the most powerful group in the asylum and thus control their only source of life, food. What is most notable about these two novels, however, is not the atrocities committed by the men, but the way the women respond to the scandalous sexual abuse they suffer. In both Blindness and Salvage the Bones there are male characters who take advantage of women to exert power over them. However, in both stories there also comes a point where the women have had enough and look inward to find a way to stop the inhumane way they are treated, resulting in lasting changes for their characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the case of Salvage the Bones, Esch's complicated relationship with Manny reaches its limit in the bathroom of Randall's basketball game, when she finally takes him back. Throughout the entire novel, Esch describes Manny as "light" and "handsome", emphasizing her intense love for him. She's so infatuated with him that it's as if he owns her, her thoughts, and her body, and she's not afraid to make the most of it. Although Manny has a girlfriend, he continually turns to Esch for sexual favors, but never kisses her in return. She rejects any kind of relationship with Esch that is more than physical, even though what she wants most is his love. The turning point in Esch and Manny's relationship is when Manny enters the bathroom after Esch, looking for sex at Randall's basketball game. Instead of being submissive as usual and letting Manny have his way, she takes more control. She begins their encounter by saying, “He unzips his pants and I grab his cock hard enough to hurt. I want it to hurt” (Ward, 145). Although she continues to have sex with him, this time she is intent on showing up, saying, “He's going to look at me. He huffs, rests his head on my shoulder. I pull hard and my hands slide down his face. I grab again. He will look at me” (Ward, 146). When he finally looks at her for the first time during sex, she describes him very differently than in the past, no longer describing his sunny features, but saying "...and his eyes are so black they're all black and I'm a night without stars” (Ward, 146). This scene ends horribly for Esch, with Manny throwing her to the ground after finding out she is pregnant; however, after this moment of exercising his power, Esch's attitude towards Manny has changed novel, after the bathroom scene, there is a change in how Esch interacts with Manny In one notable scene, Esch begins to attack Manny: “I'm slapping him, over and over, my hands are a whirlwind. , a black spot. His face is hot and stinging like boiling water. Manny screams. Blocks what he can with his elbows and forearms, but I still manage to penetrate. Slap so hard my hands hurt” (Ward, 203), and then exclaims: “I love you!” (Ward, 203) but quickly changes his statement, screaming, “I loved you!”.