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Bryce Courtenay's The Power Of One

897 Words4 Pages

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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