Women's non-existent power in Kingdom of this World

When reading Kingdom of this World, I immediately noticed the juxtaposition of sex and death.  Sex can bring life; whereas death brings life to an end--obviously.  In a world where slaves have their lives continually taken away from them, Ti Noel incorporates sex into his life.  He fathered twelve children.  The masters can literally and figuratively take away the lives of their slaves.  With the slaves having little, if any, control over their lives, sex becomes a way for them to--sometimes--exercise control.  In the case of the slave women, this is not true.  M. Mezy continually took advantage of his slave women.  This may have had something to do with the sexual violence the slaves perpetrated against the white women.  As mentioned in class, this puts both white and black women in positions of little power.  I found the non-existent power women had to be telling of the time, yet it still irritated me.  This made Pauline an interesting character.  She was in control of her sexuality. Some of this may be due to her seemingly absent husband.  Pauline was intriguing because with her sexuality and curiosity,  she was able to be part of the white world and the slave world--in a way.  She took up the slave religion when her husband became sick.  
I found Carpentier's choice to make Ti Noel a rapist jarring.  I did not want to continue reading.  Historically--and today--rape was used as a power-play.  The slave women did not have any power over their own bodies.  The white women were shown to have power, through Mlle. Floridor.  She was shown to be rather sexual and she used this to her advantage.  She did not appreciate her husband's sexual nature and she punished the female slaves for it.  Ti Noel's decision to rape her could be due to that fact.  What I found disturbing was the lack of reason shown why he made that decision.  It leaves it open-ended for the reader.  The reader is given the tough task of choosing why Ti Noel made that decision.
In his novel, Carpentier shows that women have little to no power--regardless of their race.  Pauline is the exception.  Sex is way that he shows the women's lack of power.