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Jayline Lopez
Professor Malvin
ENGL 114A
November 30, 2015
Power Corrupts
Throughout the novel, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
clearly demonstrates that when power is possessed it is abused. The corruption of power is part
of our everyday world, in this case it is a lingering matter in the novel. In the novel, Ransom
Riggs introduces characters whom are peculiar. Riggs clearly demonstrates that the peculiars
tend to overuse their power for self-satisfaction and are blind to the outcomes of their misuse of
power. It is important to read novels like Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children because
it helps us recognize the consequences of the abuse of power before it gets out of control.
Ransom Riggs brings to life a various amount of peculiars, people with very special
abilities, into his book. Throughout the novel many of the peculiars possess powers that differ
from one another. These special capabilities cause some peculiars to use them in inconsiderate
manners and to their own convenience. Their inconsiderate actions can cause consequences to
other peculiars as well as normal humans, but of course the peculiars tend to be ignorant to the
consequences that come from their thoughtless behaviors. William Ellery Channing argues that
children and parents hold a certain power over each other, and that absolute power usually
corrupts human nature. Channing shares his ideas of association between the possession of
power and corruption.

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We are first presented to Miss Peregrine and the power she maintains over the peculiar
children that reside in her home. There is a power struggle between the peculiar children and
Miss Peregrine because the peculiars are confined in a loop that really has no escape that Miss
Peregrine has created. They relive everyday as September 3, 1940. People such as Miss
Peregrine, better known as an ymbryne, "...create temporal loops in which peculiar folk can live
indefinitely" (Riggs 155). This demonstrates that the peculiars are trapped and their growth is
stunted ever since September 3, 1940 when the loop was first created. They remain at a young
age, with the same physical qualities of a young child, but age in accordance of years. By
keeping the peculiars in the loop, reliving September 3, 1940 everyday, Miss Peregrine abuses
her power because she literally and emotionally holds them against their will. Although, as she
believes she is keeping them safe they are not growing to their full potential. On the other hand,
Miss Peregrine is already smarter, more powerful, and grown in comparison to the peculiar
children.
Miss Peregrine, just as a protective parent does not let the children experience life as it is
and only holds them captive in their home because it is within their norm, a safe place. As a
result, the peculiars are deprived of a future and the ability to shape it as they please. Outside of
the loop they are told by Miss Peregrine that the world is only black, white, and shades of grey.
They are taught that there is nothing to look forward to in the real world. Answering the
questions of the wonders the peculiar children had about the real world, Jacob, the protagonist
tells them about how it actually is and realizes that the children were "...starving for new faces
and new stories" (198). These children were amazed by the twenty first century and all of its
technological advances. Miss Peregrine on the other hand was rather subjective and found it

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inappropriate for her peculiar children to see the world outside the loop as one they would have a
possibility to live in. She scolds Jacob and expresses that there is no use in acknowledging the
future and describing how wonderful it might be by saying, "Yours is a world they can never be a
part of, Mr. Portman" (Riggs 210). Miss Peregrine also argues the fact that the peculiars cannot
live anywhere else besides the loop by stating, "This is their home. I have tried to make it as fine
a place as I could. But the plain fact is they cannot leave..." (Riggs 210). Miss Peregrine is not
giving the children a choice to live in the loop, rather she is forcing them to stay in the loop,
depriving them of a life in the real world. The peculiars remain incapable of growth physically
and in maturity because of the power Miss Peregrine has over them. The immense influences
Miss Peregrine has over her children keeps them from rebelling and afraid of what they might
encounter on the outside world. Miss Peregrine's power has withdrawn the peculiar children's
desires to seek a life outside the loop.
Power is taken for granted throughout the novel. Some peculiars exemplify this by going
out of their way to get what they want with their special abilities. Enoch for example has a very
unique ability. His peculiarity consists in his ability to resuscitate dead organisms such as
humans or even give clay figures life. In order to give life to people, he has to go through the
gruesome process of attaining a heart from a living organism such as an animal. In this manner
he connects the working heart to a non-living object or organism to give them life. The matter
with this is that Enoch is careless of who's life he takes away and who he gives life to. He
describes his peculiarity by stating, "That's what I can do--take the life of one thing and give it to
another, either clay like this or something that used to be alive but ain't anymore..." (Riggs 217)
Enoch takes pride in his ability even though it is barbaric. He possesses a special ability, one like

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no other, but he does not necessarily have to use it. However, he chooses to do the exact opposite
and brings into play his power for self-convenience and satisfaction. He does so with clay figures
whom he trains as soldiers, bringing them to life and taking their life away when he pleases and
as he pleases. "Soon as I figger out how to train 'em up proper, I'll have a whole army like this.
Only they'll be massive" (217). The power he possesses blinds him of what barbaric actions he is
doing. He only realizes his pleasures and how fun it is to bring objects to life to satisfy his inner
childlike self. Enoch is not conscious of the pain or consequences he is bestowing upon those he
brings to life.
The special abilities that peculiars are endowed with may cause outrageous ideas on how
to use them. So much power is in one's bare hands that there is high temptation on satisfying
those ideas without noting what consequences may come in the future. Miss Peregrine describes
a very consequential moment in which peculiars thought they had complete control over their
powers and tried to manipulate time to become immortal. She explained that,
"Some years ago, around the turn of the last century, a splinter faction emerged among
our people--a coterie of disaffected peculiars with dangerous ideas. They believed they
had discovered a method by which the function of time loops could be perverted to
confer upon the user a kind of immortality; not merely the suspension of aging, but the
reversal of it" (Riggs 258).
These peculiars, delirious and determined to pursue their ambition of immortality did just so,
except their goal did not happen. Conducting an experiment to achieve immortality, these
peculiars caused an immense explosion and were not peculiars anymore. They were better
known as hollowgasts, ugly, frightful creatures that preyed on peculiars. Their ignorance cost

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them their lives and their peculiarity, but worst of all other peculiars were suffering for their
actions. Peculiars all over the world were being killed because of the hollowgast. A result of
actions driven by a longing for immortality, these peculiars brought worry, death, and grievance
to every other peculiar alive.
In William Ellery Channing's article, Dangers Of Absolute Power we are presented with
the power a parent and a child have over themselves. Channing questions whether or not God
places a child under the power of its parent or whether God places the parents over the power of
their child. "God has put the infant in the parent's hands. Might we not more truly say that He has
put the parent in the child's power" (2)? He begins to describe how an infant demands certain
necessities that his or her parent needs to provide for, for example, food. The infants parents then
need to provide demonstrating the power the child has over them. He also mentions that a parent
has some power over their defenseless child because a parents guides their child's life. Analyzing
this, Channing believes that power possessed is deemed for corruption. He describes that with
power it is easy to take advantage of others by stating, "I say that absolute power always corrupts
human nature..." (2). Just as the power a parent and child hold over each other, Miss Peregrine
holds power over her children, by guiding their life through an endless loop and monitoring their
whereabouts.
Throughout the novel Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children and in The Dangers
Of Absolute Power we can acknowledge that the possession of power tends to corrupt. In the
novel and in real life situations it is important to recognize what may lead up to the use of one's
power, whether the consequences are good or bad, and how it may affect the people around us. It

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is extremely important to take hold of a situation before an action causes negative consequences
because with power comes corruption.

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Works Cited
Riggs, Ransom. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Philadelphia, PA:
Quirk, 2011. Print.
Friends' Intelligence (1853-1910); Jun 13, 1857; 14, 13; American Periodicals Pg. 203
Hopkins, Patrick D. "The Lure of the Normal." Ed. Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski
X-men and Philosophy Astonishing Insight and Uncanny Argument in the Mutant Xverse (2009): John Wiley & Sons. Print.