Oscar Wilde once said, “Everything in the world is about sex, except sex.” Sex is about power. In Jose Saramago's Blindness and Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones, sex is used by the men in the story as a means to exert power over women. In Salvage the Bones, the reader follows Esch, a 15-year-old girl who has an undying but unrequited love for the boy who got her pregnant, Manny. To Manny, Esch is just a toy that he can throw away when he's done. Although the circumstances may be different in Blindness, the story's group of thugs uses 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 remarkable about these two novels, however, is not the atrocities committed by the men, but the way in which the women respond to the scandalous sexual abuse inflicted on them. In 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 turn within themselves to find a way to end the inhumane way they are treated, leading to lasting changes for their characters . Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not 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 gets back at him. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Esch describes Manny as "light" and "beautiful", emphasizing her intense love for him. She's so in love with him that it's like he owns her, her thoughts and her body, and he's not afraid to take full advantage of it. Although Manny has a girlfriend, he continually turns to Esch for sexual favors, but never kisses her in return. He refuses any relationship with Esch other than physical, even if what she desires most is his love. The turning point in Esch and Manny's relationship occurs when Manny walks into the bathroom after Esch, looking for sex at Randall's basketball game. Rather than being submissive like she usually is and letting Manny have his way with her, she takes more control. She begins their encounter by recounting: “He unzips his pants and I grab his cock hard enough to hurt him. I want it to hurt” (Ward, 145). Although she continues to have sex with him, this time she intends to be seen and says, "He's going to look at me." He sniffs, rests his head on my shoulder. I pull hard and my hands slide down his face. I'll start again. He will look at me” (Ward, 146). When he finally looks at her for the first time while they are making love, she describes him very differently than she had in the past, no longer describing his sunny features, but saying "...and his eyes are so black.” they are all black and it is a starless night” (Ward, 146). This scene ends horribly for Esch, with Manny throwing her to the ground after discovering she is pregnant; however, after this moment of exercising his own power, Esch's attitude towards Manny changes. In the remainder of the novel after the bathroom scene, there is a change in the way Esch interacts with Manny. In one remarkable scene, Esch begins to attack Manny: “I slap him again and again, my hands are flailing, a black blur. His face is hot and stinging like boiling water. 'Hey! Hey!' Manny screams. He blocks what he can with his elbows and his.