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Bryce Courtenay's The Power Of One

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Recommended: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay and its symbolic meanings

Every now and then, an event or something overheard in the street causes your brain to frantically search to find something to relate to it. When reminded of current world events, something as meaningful, memorable and as relatable as The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, is hard not to think of. If The Power of One was a person, it would be the most wise and broad minded person imaginable, addressing bullying, racism, the threat of, and the act of savage war and the unforgettable historical time of Apartheid causing the worst period of physical and mental segregation since Hitler. However it also addresses deeper topics such as sacred culture, the spirit world and the infinite limits of inner power (for those who like that sort of thing anyway.) The novel traces the adventures of Peekay, an English-speaking South African boy, from the year 1939 to 1951, most of which occurred during the Boer War. Peekay is raised by his Zulu nanny Mary Mandoma and his Grandpa on a farm in the province of Natal, South Africa. Soon after, he attends an Afrikaans boarding school, where, as the youngest of all the students, and the only English-speaker, he is brutally tortured by the other boys because of his ethnicity and traditions, his bed-wetting habit and his …show more content…

He decides that certain acts are a sign of weakness, and he assigns that to his inner being. As he learns from Inkosi-Inkosikazi (The medicine man) Peekay masters the ability to move between his inner and outer selves . Peekay states that he leads a double life and it takes the character of Doc, one of Peekay’s closest friends, to teach him how to trust the love that they have for one another which, in turn, allows Peekay to drop his camouflage to some extent, and reveal his intelligence and the strength of his heart, which as is discovered later, is crucial in his rise to becoming “The great chief; Tadpole

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Gene is the protagonist in this novel. He is a 16-year old boy living in New England around the time of WWII. He’s about 5’8 ½ inches tall, although he tells others he is 5’9. He and many other pupils are attending school at Devon. He is in his junior year and the end of the academic year is by coming rapidly.

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Throughout the novel The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, Peekay the protagonist, describes the hardships of his life. Early on, he experiences major internal conflicts. The major internal conflict he goes through is separation. In the first few chapters of the novel, he is separated from his best friend who happens to be a chicken, Grandpa Chook, Big Hettie who he meets with briefly. Lastly, he is separated from his nanny and caregiver.

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When Peekay witnesses the behavior of whites while the second photograph is taken on page 265, he first understands “with conviction that racism is a primary force of evil designed to destroy good men.” This is the point in his life where he is mature enough to understand the way racism permeated South African society during the 1940s. He suddenly realizes the evils of racism when he posed for a photograph next to Geel Piet. No one except Doc, Gert, Lieutenant Smit, and Peekay wanted to be seen in the same photograph with a black man. No matter how good a boxing coach Geel Piet was, he was black, and therefore inferior in the eyes of most of the boxing squad.

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Many people also feel that this book is irrelevant to student’s lives. However, kids should learn what life would be like for kids at their age in a different time period. Like what was stated before, in a history class, when we learn about the history, we learn about the straight facts, not as much of the personal lives of people living in that time. Since the novel is showing the personal recollections of one boy in the time period, students can identify the similarities between the two lessons. Since the similarities will be present, the students could make connections to both of the

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“He had given me the power of one, one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination”(). In the novel The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, the power of one, as shown by the quote is to focus on the one. Hoppie gives Peekay his first idea of the power of one, a solid idea of where one stands. One idea of how they feel and where they are going. Peekay takes this and usis this power of one throughout the novel.

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Yesterday afternoon I finished reading The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. This novel is about a young boy, Peekay, and his journey to find the power of one. This novel is very well-written and kept me on my feet from start to finish. Bryce Courtenay wrote in many different styles throughout the course of this book. At the start of the novel, he wrote in a very basic narrative, representing Peekay’s youth.

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In the story the power of one there are three themes. The power of one, racial prejudice, and cultural prejudice. The book and the movie both show these themes one can do better than the other though. The book does better in the power of one and cultural prejudice and the movie does better in racial prejudice. In the book the main theme is the power of one and it does a better job than the movie Because of the movie having to shorten things they left out many important details leaving the book to do a better job in some things like the power of one.

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  Reading this book uncovers a great vault of divine truth.   When the truth of its content is engraved in the hearts of readers, radiant hope begins to build up in

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