Neil and Naomi Allegory
The relationship between Neil and Naomi is an allegory of the relationship between the author of the book, Naomi Alderman, and the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. Neil is writing a novel about a matriarchal society and is asking Naomi, the experienced and well-known author of matriarchal fiction, for advice, and for her opinion on the book. This allegorizes the mentorship between Alderman and Atwood at the time of the book's writing.
Neil Adam Armon Sybol
Neil is a symbol of the novel's author, Naomi Alderman, quite literally, as his name is an anagram of hers. This anagramatical identity is also symbolic of Neil's need to critique himself and learn how to write the narrative he is confident in. Naomi has the job of a journal in some ways and he is able to ask questions of her that he has not yet learned to ask of himself.
Baltic Wars Allegory
When Tatiana takes over Moldova, it is essentially a coup because she kills her husband in order to take power. After she has become president she starts to kill the people who were in power before, in this case, Moldovan men. This gets out of hand very quickly and a type of gender based genocide ensues. This is allegorical of the genocide that took place in the 1990s in Moldavia and surrounding Baltic nations, when the government that took over began to act in exactly the same manner as its corrupt counterpart.
Sexual Abuse Motif
Several times in the narrative the motif of sexual abuse appears. Allie, the protagonist of the story, is abused in foster care by her foster father, and this is why she harnesses her power for good and healing in the world. After the matriarchal revolution, men begin to experience sexual abuse, an example of this being Tunde who is nearly raped whilst walking down the street in his native Nigeria.
Electrical Current
The electrical current that women find they can now shoot from their fingertips is a symbol of the power of women and of the female ability to take over the world. It is also a symbol of the fact that they have to harness a special power to do this rather than achieving with the help of their male counterparts.
