In her novel Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng explores the effects that power structures can have on society. Specifically, it uses the character of Mrs. Peters, a high school music teacher. Despite the lack of mention of Mrs. Peter in the novel, she plays a particularly important role. Her feelings of entitlement mirror those of the Richardsons and McCulloughs, but unlike these two families, Mrs. Peters is unable to get what she wants. His character serves to illuminate the incredible costs that come with law. Thus, Ng's depiction of Mrs. Peters' flawed sense of superiority reveals the dangers of perpetuating arbitrary systems of power. This power, often derived from institutions, comes at the expense of those under the control of those same systems. Even though Mrs. Peters works as an employee of the educational institution, she is still granted authority over the one group considered beneath her: the students. However, Ms. Peters does not use this power ethically. Rather, he abuses his power to make others feel weak, thus solidifying his dominance over others. All of her students see her as "bitingly sarcastic, especially to those who were 'pigmentally blessed'" (76). To that end, when Deja makes a mistake while playing the violin, Mrs. Peters condescendingly asks Deja, “Don't you understand me? Do you need me to speak Ebony?" (76). Ms. Peter's derogatory questions are clearly a denigration of Deja as they target her insecurities about her ethnicity. Asking Deja if she would understand how to play the violin properly if Ms. Peters had spoken to Deja in "Ebonics", referring to a black way of speaking, classifies Deja as a subordinate outsider. White people generally denounce "ebonics" as a slangy and uneducated way of speaking. Say no to plagiarism .Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay Therefore, Ms. Peters tries to use her white superiority to her advantage to denigrate Deja as a way to elevate her own power power that Mrs. Peters gets from being white is arbitrary power; there is no scientific basis for race as race is simply an invented label. White superiority is a man-made idea, created to give to white people the same sense of power that Mr. Peters currently craves. Considering that Mrs. Peters is hungover and has therefore lost some control over herself due to alcohol, Mrs. Peters wants to regain her sense of power by exercising her dominance over her students, which, in this case, he did it by humiliating a girl with his prejudices. comment. These remarks demonstrate that Ms. Peters is clearly not attempting to create a classroom built on the foundation of mutual respect. Instead, she wants to maximize the little control she has as a teacher by instilling fear in her students so that they will give her their complete obedience. Mrs. Peters' cruel treatment of her students infuriates Izzy, who ends up reaching her "breaking" point when Mrs. Peters chooses Deja. All the pent-up anger that fills Izzy manifests as Izzy's literal "breaking" of Mrs. Peters' arc. Since something inside Izzy had broken, she wanted to inflict the same feeling on Mrs. Peters, and she felt that the best way to do so was to "break" Mrs. Peters' bow. Therefore, he also “broke” the power dynamic between students and teachers by blatantly disrespecting Ms. Peters. However, it's not enough for Izzy to punish theMrs. Peters like this. Izzy wants to stand up to "every adult who has ever caned a student with arbitrary and undeserved power" (82). Inspired by Mia to take matters into her own hands, Izzy wants revenge and essentially fight fire with fire, “club[ing] the adults who “clad” her. Izzy wants to fight against what she perceives as injustices from those who have "unlearned" the power they arbitrarily received by being part of an institution. Since school is a microcosm of institutions that control society, then Mrs. Peters represents a type of institutional control. Izzy is rebelling against all institutions that impose restrictive rules and order on people. This ties back to the main idea of ​​the novel of lighting “little fires everywhere” to oppose the rigid rules of society. Thus, Mrs. Peter's importance in the novel comes from giving Izzy the motivation to oppose the systems that are the foundation of society, which is the overall message of the novel. To combat these arbitrary power systems, Izzy puts toothpicks in all the locks so teachers can't enter their classrooms. It essentially takes away the teacher's control over their rooms, hurting Mrs. Peters in particular. Because Mrs. Peters is so used to having power over others, she falls into a state of rage when this power is inevitably taken away from her. Having become accustomed to this power, Mrs. Peters has acquired the right to it. For example, when none of the teachers can get into their classrooms, the custodian has to go around fixing all the locks. As Mrs. Peters waits for the janitor, her agitation grows. He notes that, at this rate, “his [door] would be the last to be unlocked…he asks Mr. Wrigley several times if he couldn't go faster, if he could take a moment and open the door first.” (84 ) This quote reveals the false sense of superiority that Mrs. Peters feels. She wants “her door” to be “first,” which implies that she believes she should have priority over other teachers as if she were somehow superior. above his colleagues.When the gatekeeper refuses his request, the reader sees how the balance of power between the people is not set in stone, the gatekeeper becomes the person in a position of power, despite normally being one of the last on the totem.He now holds this power over Mrs. Peters as he is the only person who can offer her what she needs.This issue of shifting balances of power proves to be prevalent throughout the novel occurs in the abortion clinic. Mrs. Richardson, used to getting what she wants, asks her old friend Elizabeth who works at the clinic for information, but Liz refuses to give it up. Similar to how Mrs. Peters reacts when the janitor refuses to open her door, Mrs. Richardson becomes angry when Liz doesn't give her the information she feels entitled to have. In these parallel situations, both Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Peters perceive the other party's failure to comply as an injustice directed against them, even though they are actually the ones being unfair. However, unlike the incident at school, Mrs. Richardson ultimately gets what she wants. He loses his authority only temporarily as Mrs. Peters suffers a humiliating blow. This difference makes the reader wonder why Mrs. Richardson has the privilege of maintaining her authority and getting what she wants, while Mrs. Peters does not receive the same feeling. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a, 1(2), 125-151.