Campos 1

Valeria Campos

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

21 November 2018

The Power within Men

Dominance and power is something that creates unbalance and casts a shadow on

whoever is is being taken advantage of. In the image shown, the King is casting a shadow upon

the Queen emphasizing how the King has more power above the Queen. This illustrates the

power men tend to have above women when the power and dominance is given to them. The

control that men have in women is shown throughout the novel, ​Play It as It Lays​, written by

Joan Didion. In the novel, all men such as Carter, BZ, and Ivan are portrayed as men having in

having this authority much greater than the women in their lives. All these men bestow

themselves with an unreasonable superiority. In the novel, Carter has a power over Maria due to

the fact that they have a child together, Kate. BZ on the other hand has a power over Helene

because his mother pays her to stay in the marriage which allows him to manipulate her very

easily. Lastly, Ivan has this power over Maria since he has fabricated a fear in her because he has

abused her. In ​Play It as It Lays​, Joan Didion illustrates through the relationships of Carter, BZ,

and Ivan that holding power creates an undynamic, toxic relationship and leads to objectification

and mistreatment of women.

In an unstable and toxic relationships there is often someone who holds the power over

the other. Similarly in the novel, Carter has held this power over Maria. When Carter and Maria

were talking about the arrangement of the abortion. Maria was unsure if she was willing to go
 Campos 2

through with the procedure. Carter told her to have the kid and then he paused and said “and I’ll

take Kate” (Didion 54). Kate was something Maria did not want to lose and Carter knew that.

Carter wanted her to get rid of the kid because he knew it was not his and if she kept it she would

leave him. He manipulated Maria to get what he wanted because did not want to risk Maria

leaving due to the fact that she was his good luck charm when it came to his films. They both

depend on each other which is why they never leave the unstable and toxic relationship. In a

study done by Avonne Mason and Virginia Blankenship, they stated in “Power and Affiliation

Motivation, Stress, and Abuse in Intimate Relationships” that they “have found that, for a variety

of reasons (economic hardship, presence of young children, desire to avoid the stigma of divorce,

etc.), many individuals who are subjected to violence in their marriages remain in those

relationships even though the violence continues” (Mason 204). Mason and Blankenship agree

that many people choose to stay in these toxic relationships due to a dependability or

responsibility. Maria stayed due to the fact that if she left she would not be able to keep her

daughter, Kate. Kate was the only thing Maria had left. She lost her parents, Carter, and Les

Goodwin. Kate was the only thing left that kept Maria going and having a reason to play in this

game of life. On the other hand Carter stayed due to the fact that he depended on Maria for luck

in his career in the film industry. Carter manipulated her into going through with the abortion

and staying by his side by saying if she did not go through then he would take away the most

valuable and precious thing, which was Kate. When having such great power and authority over

Maria, he used it to his advantage to manipulate her.

When given the opportunity to have the power over someone, people often take it and use

it to manipulate and mistreat others. In the novel, Maria was given the opportunity to have a
 Campos 3

sense of power over Helene. She took the opportunity when she was under the influence and

after it occured, she was bathed and lotioned with no clear knowledge of what happened. As she

“closed her eyes at the instant BZ’s hand hit Helene’s face. “Stop it,” she screamed. BZ looked at

Maria and laughed “You weren’t talking that way last night,” he said” (Didion 164). By this one

can conclude that Maria was for BZ abusing Helene. One can conclude that she took this control,

to displace what has happened to her. After being taken advantage by all these men, Maria

displaced it on Helene and wanted her to feel the same. Maria took this force that all men in this

novel have and mistreated another women. She was given the chance to be dominant and took a

small taste of it. Similar to Maria and Carter’s relationship, BZ has the same dominance that

Carter has over Maria. BZ on the other hand, had this greater authority over Helene due to the

fact that Helene is paid for the marriage. Helene stays due to the dependability of money. BZ

stays because he like having control and authority over Helene. Furthermore, power corrupts

people due to the fact that people love having the sense of control and dominance over someone.

Even when given the opportunity to have a sense of what it feels like to have such power, it leads

to mistreatment.

Mistreatment of people is due to the dominance and power someone has. In the novel,

Ivan Costello has a greater authority over Maria. As they conversed in Maria’s house, she asked

what he came for and he replied “What I got” and then he said “Baby. I just came to make you

remember” (Didion 181). Maria said she could not remember, but then Ivan said she

remembered alright the last three hours. Ivan came for sex and he got it from her but it was not

voluntarily. One can conclude that Ivan raped her because has this dominance over Maria where

he gets what he wants due to the fear she has of not doing what he says. Due to this dominance,
 Campos 4

Maria has been mistreated. Throughout the novel, Maria and the other women have been

mistreated by the dominance of these men. This portrays women as objects because they are

taken advantage of and manipulated by the men. As seen with Maria and Ivan, Ivan only used

Maria for sex and nothing more. Maria was treated as an object but full of fear because of Ivan

was very dominant. This is one of the reasons why Maria isolated herself. In “Themes of Power

and Betrayal in Sexual Abuse Survivors' Characterizations of Interpersonal Relationships,” Joan

Huser Liem states that people who are sexually abused they tend to have “depression and related

feelings of helplessness, low self-esteem [and] interpersonal difficulties characterized by feelings

of isolation and difficulty trusting others” (Liem 746). Liem proves the fact that since Maria was

sexually abused it lead to isolation and depression. Maria is constantly isolating herself when she

is on her daily drives on the freeway. Her mistreatment and objectification lead to isolation.

Maria personally isolates herself by having this cycle of driving the freeway to possibly give up

on playing the game of life similar to her mom. Although her mistreatment and objectification

did lead to isolation and depression she chose to continue the game of life for Kate.

When given the opportunity to have a power and dominance, people manipulate and

mistreat others. These men in the novel were given this dominance over the women which lead

to their mistreatment. They cast the shadow over who they dominate which leads to unstable

relationships. As seen by the relationships in the novel, they all lead to the mistreatment and

objectification of women. In the novel, Maria was mistreated by Carter, Ivan, and others. When

she was given the power and dominance she did the same with Helene and mistreated her. But all

of the mistreatment and objectification negatively affected her and lead to her isolation and

depression.
 Campos 5

Works Cited

Didion, Joan. ​Play It as It Lays.​ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.

Liem, Joan Huser, et al. “Themes of Power and Betrayal in Sexual Abuse Survivors'

Characterizations of Interpersonal Relationships.” ​Journal of Traumatic Stress​, vol. 9, no.

4, 1996, pp. 745–76. ​SpringerLink Online Journals Archive Complete​,

doi:10.1007/bf02104100. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

Marano, Hara Estroff. “Love and Power.” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers, 2014,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201401/love-and-power​. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

Mason, Avonne, and Virginia Blankenship. “Power and Affiliation Motivation, Stress, and

Abuse in Intimate Relationships.” ​Journal of Personality and Social Psychology​, vol. 52,

no. 1, Jan. 1987, pp. 203–210. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.1.203. Accessed

16 Nov. 2018.