The prophet Elizabeth

We live in a world of prophecies. There have been dozen of prophets who claim they are son of God and are here to bring salvation to the human race. The task is not a joke. The whole human race you say? That is one big job for any individual. There have been prophecies of armageddon, rebirth and the return of God’s son, Jesus. I come from a shaman-like religion. We have the belief of ghostly spirit ancestors who would watch and protect us from evil spirits and unfortunate incident. According to dictionaries, a prophet is someone who is an interpreter of god. Prophet would have dreams and visions from god which they are to pass to the world. Almost all religion has the commonality of a prophet. My religion has a lot of interpreters who speak to each family’s ancestors. Jesus, Moses, Buddha and David would all qualify as prophets.

Elizabeth is the main character from the novel “A Question of Power”. Other would call her crazy or mentally ill but she considers herself to be a prophet. She would have visions and dreams daily. This is not something to feel lofty about because Elizabeth visions are different from other prophet’s. “No one had come to terms with their own powers and at the same time made allowance for the powers of others… none of mankind’s God-like figureheads recorded seeing what she saw on this nightmare soul-journey” (Head 35). Elizabeth’s visions are certainly different from the other prophets (Jesus, Buddha and David). Other prophet left out the evil they saw and only pass on the goodness. Elizabeth, on the other hand, saw hell and interpret the goodness of it.

She has stare at the face of Medusa and Dan, who is consider to be evil. Medusa would torture Elizabeth with gesture like “You have to die like them” and “god, filth, the Africans will eat you to death” repeatedly. She would collapse from the verbal abuse to only wake up to more abuse. Not only did she have to deal with Medusa but Dan and Sello, as well. “She is driven to despair, breakdown, and the brink of suicide” from the torture and verbal abuse(Burton 73). Going through hell did not sway her into insanity but instead “strengthened Elizabeth, granting her a status equal to that of those fellow prophets who had undergone similar journeys of physical and spiritual ardor” (Burton 73). She became aware of what is good because she has stare at the face of evil. In darkness, the smallest light is the brightest light.

Elizabeth daily journey has brought her to the line of insanity and prophets. She would parry and riposte the attacks from Medusa and Dan by the “ordinary” chore and gesture from fellow friends. Tom is a Peace Corps volunteer who shares her spiritual ideals. Simple gesture like “would you like to join the wool-spinning and weaving group” and job offer by Eugene help with her internally (Head 69). Brigette life style of split second decisions with “no other code of life” became an inspiration for Elizabeth. Kenosi simply behavior toward Elizabeth brought her back to life from the “brutal horrors enacted on Elizabeth’s psyche by Dan and Sello” (Burton 73). These simply ordinary events are her lights when she is on her journey through hell. They are her weapons to counterattack the abuse from her visions.

According to definition of prophet, Elizabeth qualifies as one. Her dreams and visions are the message she obtain from god. She stare down Medusa and she saw hell. She recognize the message and interpret it as goodness is only see through evil. The only different between her and other fellow prophets is that she lacks followers. She does not have the necessary believer that would allow her to arise above others as a prophet. If dreams and visions make one a prophet then blasts me if I am not one myself.