Regarding a power struggle, I found this moment: “Anyhow, as she approached me, she approached a man, and one who, for the first time for many a day, was his own man. She herself seemed wholly unconscious of anything of the kind. As she drew nearer to me, and nearer, she appeared to be entirely oblivious of the fact that I was anything but the fibreless, emasculated creature which, up to that moment, she had made of me” (pg. 244-45)
centralizes that the most horrifying thing is a man being emasculated, losing autonomy AT THE HANDS OF A WOMAN OF COLOR
"she wooed my mouth with kisses. I cannot describe the sense of horror and of loathing with which the contact of her lips oppressed me." (241)