Welcome to
my blog entries on the book by Bryce Courtenay called The Power of One! The Power of One is a bildungsroman
which is a coming-of-age story that focuses on the psychological and moral
growth of the protagonist. Before reading this book I knew that Bryce Courtenay
was Australia’s bestselling author so my expectations for this novel were quite
high. As soon as I read the first line of The
Power of One I knew that I would be in for an interesting read. The line
simply read ‘This is what happened’. It’s short but it's interesting which
makes me want to read on. It tells us that the story is written from a current
perspective of past events. I was a little confused in the first chapter or so
but after the first couple of chapters I really started to get enveloped into
this novel. When I read the exposition I was introduced to
several characters such as the Zulu nanny, the mother and the protagonist
Peekay, though we aren’t told his name right at the beginning. Courtenay has
used the exposition to inform us about some of the characters and to introduce the readers to the setting, namely Africa. This is evident by the mention of the Zulu tribe,
African traditions and baboons. He has
also used the exposition to make us empathize with Peekay as Courtenay
described the adversities that the little boy has been though at such an early
age. In the first chapters Courtenay introduces us to several themes and ideas
that continue to reappear throughout the rest of the story.
So far I have only read the first eight chapters or so and in these
chapters we hear about the hardships Peekay endured while at boarding school.
The story follows Peekay's endeavours from the young age of five through to the age of seventeen.
His mother suffers a nervous breakdown and sends Peekay off to boarding school
when he is very young. At boarding school he is bullied mentally and physically
by someone he calls the ‘judge’. This ‘judge’ is an older boy who picks on him
and calls him ‘pisskop’ instead of Peekay, which is South African for a not very
nice English word (‘piss head’). Peekay is picked on for having an English
accent as the Afrikaners did not like the English since the Boer War*. In these
chapters the conflict between the three races becomes evident. These races are
the Boers (or the Afrikaners), the English and the native black South Africans. Slowly, Peekay’s boarding school experience becomes a little easier and the abuse dies
down a little, though the judge makes Peekay eat human faeces and kills his pet
chicken, Granpa Chook which in my opinion is absolutely disgusting. These acts
really shows the judge's true character which I doubt will change much
throughout the rest of the story. However I will have to wait to see how he
turns out. For the time being I dislike the judge very much, a view that was
influenced by the way Courtenay has portrayed the judge. Peekay longs to return
to his nanny however he is told to travel to a town called Barberton where he
is to meet his grandfather. On the train
he meets a boxer called Hoppie Groenewald and
Hoppie invites Peekay to watch him box. This is where Peekay’s dream of
becoming a boxing champion is born.
Finishing the first seven chapters was satisfying
as I felt that Peekay’s life was turning around and that much more excitement
was to come. So far I have found The
Power of One quite strange in some areas but overall I am enjoying the book. I think the reason why I found the book a little strange is because I am
not used to this type of book with this type of language so I was a bit shocked
when reading it. I must admit that I didn’t fully enjoy the first several chapters
as they we not very captivating but after that I felt I was literally watching Peekay go through life. I think that the strange parts in this novel
are what make it so interesting.
*see blog entry #3 for more on the Anglo-Boer War
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