Elizabeth a Prophet? No, She Couldn't Be.

According to www.dictionary.com a prophet is, “A person chosen to speak for God.”  A few names come to mind when you think of someone who speaks for god.  Jesus, Mohammed, and Moses are the ones that come to my mind.  These people are well known for their visions that they received from God, and spread them to the people of their times.  Moses used his visions from God to guide the people of Israel, when they were in a time of trouble.  If someone has visions but does not share them with others, can they still be a prophet?  In my mind the answer to that question is no.

In the novel A Question of Power by Bessie Head, Elizabeth has visions of what to expect in the future.  She decides to live by these visions and thoughts, but she does not share them with others.  The fact that she is not sharing these thoughts and visions with others is enough for me to believe that she is not a prophet.  Another thing that makes it seem that she is not a prophet is because I don’t believe that she is getting these messages from God.  She really seems to be making up her own God in a sense.  She never really states that she is getting these from God, and she really could just be making these up herself.  If she is just making up these visions and thoughts then this would also count her out of the possibility of being a prophet.

Moses leading Israel through the hard times of life

“You are making a mistake, Sello.  I’m God too” (38).  A prophet is someone who speaks for God, not someone who actually is a God.  Elizabeth seems to think that she might be a God.  This is why I believe that she is getting her own visions and thoughts from the insecurities within her own head.  I’m not saying that these visions don’t become reality later on or that she is incorrect.  But I think that she is getting them from herself and not from a God. 

All of these things make it seem as if Elizabeth has no chance at being a prophet.  I could be wrong in the way that I’m viewing these, but if you were to ask my opinion then I would say that there is no chance that she is a prophet.  She doesn’t share any of these visions or thoughts with others, she doesn’t seem to be getting these views from a God, and she believes that she is a God herself.  These make it seem to me that she is just insecure and hallucinating about what may come of the future.