Journal 8

The adult characters in The Power of One are divided into three main categories – people whom Peekay respects and loves; people whom Peekay despises or is afraid of; and people whom Peekay regards with confusion and, with the hindsight of an adult, gentle derision – with the exception of his mother, whom he simply doesn’t understand. Characters such as Hoppy, Doc and Geel Piet fall into the first category and are represented as being mentors to Peekay. Having no father and an emotionally weak mother, Peekay needs mature people to guide him as he grows up.

We are first met by Hoppy Groenewald when Peekay hops on the train for Kaipmudein. When Peekay stumbles on the steps into the carriage, Hoppy sympathises with him by saying ‘Don’t worry little brother, I too have fallen up those verdomde steps many a time.’ By making Hoppy sympathise with Peekay, Courtenay represents Hoppy as a father-like figure for him. Hoppy is also the one who introduces Peekay to the sport of boxing. As Peekay puts it ‘I had known him [Hoppie] a little over twenty-four hours, yet he had managed to change my life.’

We first meet Doc after Peekay has run away from home. Doc immediately notices that Peekay needs cheering up: ‘You have some problems I think, ja?’  He is represented as wise, calm and somehow above the brutality of so many men around him. In return for helping Doc find cacti plants on the mountain side, Doc begins to teach Peekay the piano. However, not long after Peekay meets him, Doc is arrested and put in prison. He still mentors Peekay in prison by giving piano lessons in order to see him. In one of these meetings Doc tells Peekay that he loves him more than his own life! Once Doc has been released from prison they continue their strolls over the mountain side. Together they find the ‘crystal cave of Africa’ and it is here where Doc takes himself to die. Doc’s peaceful death has a huge impact on Peekay, since it shows how much Doc meant to him. He described their relationship as ‘so fierce that it burned like a flame inside of us’.

Geel Piet is another adult who becomes a mentor and father-like figure for Peekay. Working at the Barberton prison, he becomes Peekay’s boxing coach and teaches Peekay his famous eight-punch combination. Piet introduces Peekay to the black market of the prison and they work together to supply the prisoners with tabbaco, sugar and letters. The purpose of Geel Piet in Peekay’s life was to guide Peekay and make his dream – to become a welterweight champion – more real. In the story, he is representative of every oppressed coloured person in Africa.  He has to live by his wits, and dies a brutal death. At the conclusion of Doc’s performance of Requiem for Geel Piet, the author points out that Geel Piet ‘was the new man of Southern Africa, the result of three hundred years of torture, treachery, racism and slaughter in the name of one colour or another.’

Characters such as Lieutenant Borman are representative of the type of mindless brutality that comes from blind prejudice.  Borman’s attitude towards ‘Kaffirs’ and any other non-whites is not generally commented on by Peekay himself, but the description of brutality juxtaposed with the knowledge that Peekay is good friends with some of these people is enough to make the reader despise both Borman and his actions.

            In The Power of One, children are portrayed very differently than the adults. The representation of the children slowly changes as the story progressed. This is because Peekay’s attitude to the people around him changed as he grew up. When he entered boarding school he was extremely vulnerable, and the children in his class made a mockery of him. The first day of school Peekay was treated the worst – all the boys peed on him – but as he grew older and wiser, he was able to avoid getting bullied. The Judge (who is representative of children who absorb the prejudices of their parents, even though it has nothing to do with them) realised that Peekay was not just a stupid Rooinek and declared: ‘that I only be beaten up a little at a time. A punch here, a flat-hander there and if I could stop being a Pisskop, he’d stop even that.’ Once Peekay started his boxing career and became more independent, the kids around him became friendlier. This is evident when you compare how the kids at boarding school treated him to the way that the kids at Barberton did. His boxing friends were proud of Peekay and he was almost a role-model to them.  In a similar way, the students at the Prince of Wales school respected him because he made himself invaluable.  Hymie, although slightly ‘obsessed with the Holocaust’ is represented as somebody who values thinking and logic – the sort of person Peekay likes to be around.

Peekay’s attitudes values and beliefs are largely influenced by those he loves and idolises. Peekay grew up so close to his nanny that she became almost a god to him. When he thought that the kids at boarding school were going to kill him, he prayed, not to God but to his nanny. His mother obviously didn’t spiritually educate him enough, possibly due to her weak mental state. When Peekay is finally confronted with Christianity, he finds it repulsive. When his mother explains that she got rid of his nanny because she believed in a pagan African god, Peekay gets mad at God. However this is before he really got to know about the gospel and this was only a reaction to the removal of what he loved most. Once he grows older, physically and spiritually, he begins to recognise that there is a God, but he is not quite sure what to believe. Doc explained God as too busy making the world go round to worry about pathetic little sins. As he admired Doc, Peekay could relate to Doc’s explanation and stated that he ‘liked Doc’s God more than Mother’s.’

Peekay’s attitudes values and beliefs can also be found in the way he responds to each of these types of characters. By treating all adults with respect, they answer all his inquisitive questions and give him guidance as he grows older. Treating the black Africans the same as the whites shows he values equality. By making me idolise Peekay and then showing me Peekay’s attitudes, values and beliefs, Courtenay has forced me to review my attitudes and values.

           

Journal 7

Peekay is one of the most inspiring characters I have ever read about. The moment he went to ‘sit down’ and tell his life story, I felt attracted to him and stuck up for him. Yet I realise that I was heavily influenced by the way Bryce Courtenay represented Peekay, by way of his speech, actions and appearance.

            As a narrator, Peekay tells his story with the ‘voice’ or tone of an adult, tracing his life from the age of five up until he was seventeen. However he describes every event of his life as he experienced it, with ignorance and inexperience. For example when Peekay says ‘I felt a sudden splash on my neck and then warm blood trickled over my trembling naked body’, he narrates the event in the ignorance that he experienced it in, not acknowledging that he knows the boys were peeing on him. As a character, Peekay does not talk much in the first half of the book. As a five year old boy he is quite shy and his childhood at the boarding school haunts him, leaving him insecure and vulnerable. This vulnerability along with his tongue-in-cheek humor makes him a likeable person with whom I can identify.

            What also makes Peekay an attractive character is that although he undertakes many extraordinary adventures, he is not an arrogant hero. On the contrary he is seen to be a generous and loving person, which he displays to all people whatever their race – much to the surprise of others around him. Peekay’s name was given to him by a Jewish man, Harry Crown, as a more decent name then the one given by Judge – ‘pisskop’. This is another example of how Peekay is formed by and dependent on the people around him. In spite of his horrific youth, Peekay becomes a ‘winner’. He excels in boxing, not losing a match throughout the novel, and before the book ends he is admitted to Oxford University. This was the result of Peekay trying to become independent – not relying on others such as his Nanny or Hoppy Groenewald – and this is actually the basis of the idea of ‘the power of one’.

            In The Power of One, Peekay shows his attitude toward Christianity and the apostolic faith mission. Courtenay divulges this attitude by the way he wrote, including certain words and using the right tone. Marie, the fourteen year old girl who talked with Peekay, was described with numerous pimples that ‘stuck-out’ of her face. This immediately makes her and all of her values and beliefs repulsive and you are inclined to disagree with them. Courtenay also creates the same effect with Pastor Mulvery and his beliefs. He is described as having crooked teeth “as if they were trying to escape”. Courtenay actually makes Peekay state “that the members of the Apostolic faith tended to be on the losers’ side”. When the Sunday school teacher cannot answer any of his questions, Peekay uses the phrase “Biblical malpractice”. These are strong words that Courtenay uses to reveal the full character Peekay. It is obvious that he and Peekay have very little respect for Christians.

Journal 6

The Australian author of The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay, grew up in a racist South Africa. Facing many struggles throughout his younger years, he eventually made it to Oxford University where he studied journalism. Banned from returning to Africa, from starting a weekend school for black children, Courtenay moved to Australia where he lived with his new wife Benita. Retiring at the age of 55, he became an author, writing his best-selling The Power of One.

            The way he wrote his first book is quite interesting. It has a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ style and tone where it sounds like the main character, Peekay, has sat himself down by the campfire and is about to tell his life story. As I have noted before, this can be seen already on the first line: ‘This is how it happened.’ This style and tone may also be sub-consciously used as the story of Peekay is very similar to that of Courtenay’s, The Power of One being an opportunity for Courtenay to share his story to the world.

            Throughout the novel, Courtenay shares his point of view on many different aspects of life. He does this through the use of tone, structuring his sentences to promote certain attitudes, values and beliefs. Christianity is one theme on which Courtenay instils a certain viewpoint to his readers. At the beginning of chapter eight (page 153), Christianity is introduced to Peekay and he immediately doesn’t like it. Peekay doesn’t understand what has happened to his mother and wonders what this weird man (Pastor Mulvery) has done to her. By first making the reader idolise Peekay and his morals, and then making Peekay look at Christianity with animosity, Courtenay induces the reader to dislike it. In this set of pages, where Peekay is presented with the idea of Christianity, Courtenay sets the tone for Christianity. This tone appears whenever Christianity is brought up, giving the reader a negative view toward Christians and what they believe.

            Courtenay also reveals his view on racism through the tone that is present in The Power of One. Peekay treats all people the same, no matter what their skin colour is. The Afrikaans boxers call him a proper Boer while his black supporters believe his is one of their chiefs, coming to challenge the white government. This was strongly contrasted with the way the Afrikaners treated the blacks showing that Peekay did not have the same racist attitude. In many ways the author was similar to Peekay – not only in his life story but also his attitudes, values and beliefs. Wanting to overcome the racial discrimination in South Africa resulted in him being exiled from the country. He told the world his story and beliefs through the character Peekay and through the style and tone of the book.

Journal 5

Symbols are used regularly in novels and Courtenay’s The Power of One is no exception. They are appealing to use because they are universal, crossing language and ethnic barriers. Symbols create emotions and ideas quite easily as readers perceive a picture of the object or event.   Some of the symbols, such as the loneliness birds, are beautiful metaphors that enhance the ‘African storytelling’ tone.

In Peekay’s life, full moon symbolises death, occurring after almost all of the deaths in the book. In chapter nineteen (pg 487) he actually points out that it was full moon on both Grandpa Chook and Geel Piet’s deaths. “It had also been full moon when Geel Piet had died.”  Also when Doc talks about his death with Peekay at the ‘crystal cave of Africa’, it is again full moon. In the concluding sentences of the book, when Peekay kills the ‘Judge’, once again it is a full moon. Usually being a sign of rejuvenation, full moon is used in The Power of One as a symbol of death, possibly giving Peekay some hope amid the sorrow he is confronted with.

                  The word ‘snake’ appears very early in the book (page 5) and is a term used by Peekay and his peers at the boarding school. When he recognises that his penis is different than that from everyone else’s (being English, Peekay is circumcised) Peekay refers to it as his ‘hatless snake’, assuming that there is something wrong with it. This ‘hatless snake’ is a source of shame to him as it is the only thing that distinguishes him being English and the ‘enemy’ in the eyes of his classmates. Grandpa Chook shows support for Peekay’s ‘hatless snake’ dilemma by biting the head off a real snake. Peekay can see the correlation between the dead and headless snake and his own hatless snake. Later in the novel the snake becomes a symbol. Peekay uses the expression ‘sloughing’ his outer skin to reveal his real self. Instead of feeling exposed and embarrassed about his ‘hatless snake’, he learns to accept who he is. Later on in the book, the black mamba snake also becomes a symbol – a symbol of imminent danger. With this symbol Doc forewarns his fatal accident in the cave and Peekay’s fight with the Judge.  (Find page number, quote?)

Another symbol used directly by Peekay is ‘the loneliness birds’. The birds arrive in Peekay’s mind every time he becomes lonesome and forlorn, making their first appearance when Peekay was being bullied by the Judge and his jury. Surfacing numerous times later on in the book they eventually leave when Peekay knows that he has finally overcome their grip: “I knew that when the bone-beaked birds returned, I would be in complete control, master of loneliness and no longer its servant.”

Waterfalls were a symbol of safety and courage for Peekay. Inkosi-Inkosikazi brought Peekay to a place of three waterfalls under hypnosis in order to fix his bed-wetting habit. Peekay was to be swept down the three waterfalls and if he could make it back to the beach, stepping on the ten stepping stones, he would be cured of his ‘night-water’. Peekay uses the waterfalls as a place where he can escape to in his mind (such as when he is tortured at boarding school) and a place where can gain courage (such as before a fight).

Courtenay uses these symbols to create powerful emotions that would otherwise be difficult to form. I think the secret that Courtenay uses to so powerfully convince and persuade his readers’ views is to coincide the different symbols with tone and style of the text (which we’ll see in the next blog entry).

Journal 4

The Power of One contains a number of references to a group of people called Kaffirs – or heathens. They consisted of the native black and coloured (part black) population of South Africa, and were regarded as inferior to the white people. After South Africa was colonised by the British and Dutch in the seventeenth century, the British took total control of the country (as seen in previous blog entry). After the country was declared independent from England, there was an uneasy power-sharing between the Afrikaners (Boers) and the Anglo-African (British). Then, in the 1940’s, the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. The South African apartheid originated from this political party and was a means to reinforce their control over the economic and social system. Initially the aim of the apartheid was to maintain the white dominance while keeping the blacks away from the whites.

            The Population Registration Act classified all South Africans into three major categories: white, black (African) and coloured (Indians and Asians). People were classified into these categories by appearance, social acceptance and descent. For example, a white person would be defined as “in appearance obviously a white person, or generally accepted as a white person” (Act No. 30 of 1950). Any person that is a member of an African tribe is categorised as black and a coloured person is one that is neither black nor white. This categorisation was coordinated by the Department of Home Affairs, and any rebellion to the race laws were dealt with strictly.

            The racial discrimination touched every aspect of social life. The Blacks had different transport services, toilets and hospitals, to name just a few things, and lived in completely different areas than the blacks. There were designated white-only areas, and black people were required to carry ‘pass books’, containing their fingerprints and photo ID, to gain access to these white zones. The government sanctioned white-only jobs, and also prohibited marriage between whites and non-whites. Voting rights were also stripped from the native Africans, allowing them to vote only in their designated homeland. The idea of the apartheid was that every African would lose their citizenship in South Africa – they even needed passports to enter into South Africa, their own country!

Any protest or rebellion to the dominant white regime, such as 1960, when a large group of blacks refused to carry their passes, would result in punishments being imposed. Those who were put on trial were sentenced to death, banished or imprisoned for life, like the famous Nelson Mandela.

The racial discrimination present in South Africa during the mid-1900’s is also evident in The Power of One. I was first confronted with the reality of the racism on page 231 when Johannes Oudendaal, or ‘Kilpkop’, violently harasses a black African. Accusing the prisoner of eating some biscuits, he punched him in the face. With his nose bleeding all over the floor and on Klipkop’s shoes, the African was forced to lick the blood clean! Even the ‘nice’ characters in the book, such as Hoppie Groenewald, are guilty of treating non-white Africans badly (page 95). Peekay does not share in the racist ideas that others around him have, treating everybody the same. When he and Hoppy are talking with Patel the shopkeeper, a black African, Hoppy is surprised to see Peekay talk to him as if he was a ‘normal’ white: ‘You don’t call a blerrie coolie a “Mister”’. Peekay, with his actions to those around him, was considered peculiar and nobody understood his attitude. 

Journal 3

 The Power of One is set amongst the people of South Africa in the 1930’s – 1950’s. The main character, Anglo-African Peekay, grows up in a boarding school where he is confronted with racist people. This was a result of the conflict between the British and the Dutch settlers (Boers) who fought over African land in what’s known as the Second Boer War. Peekay’s peers, who were Boers, treat him like an enemy because he is a Rooinek (literally ‘red-neck’, the name given to British soldiers who invaded the Boers’ land).

The Second Boer War was a result of the conflict between the British Empire and the Dutch settlers from two independent republics, the Transvaal republic and the Orange Free State. Fought from the 11^th of October 1899 till the 31st of May 1902, the war ended with a British victory, both republics then being taken over by the British Empire. In contrast to the First Boer War it was quite lengthy, involving many British soldiers. The British fought directly against the two Dutch republics, defeating their forces first in open warfare and then an extensive guerilla battle. Many British soldiers were lost due to combat but also disease. The Dutch republics had no real army but relied on mounted militias, coined commandos. Their strategy was to strike swiftly, before any more British soldiers could arrive, and cause a rebellion amongst the colonists. At the open of the war, some 40,000 commandos invaded Natal (east of South Africa) causing a humongous civil war as thousands of colonists took up arms on the Boer side.

With no choice but to spread their army thinly, the Boer offensive soon ‘ran out of steam’. However the British army could not claim victory as soon as people had expected. The army had not enough mounted troops to keep up the Boer commandos, so it was divided into three separate armies. During what is known as ‘black week’, all three of these armies were defeated in three different battles on October 10^th, 11^th and 15^th.

The Boers had the sympathy of Europe and the Americans, but the American army were themselves fighting over another state in the Philippines. Both the Britons and Boers agreed that the black and coloured men of South Africa should not be used as soldiers, so as not to unsettle the white dominance. They were afraid that the non-white community would gain military strength giving them the opportunity to rebel against the dominant whites. The constant immigration of foreigners who reinforced the Boer army was halted as the British forced Portugal to close access from Transvaal to East Africa. On the other hand the British were constantly strengthening their army mostly with mounted infantry from different parts of the world.

At the end of 1901, 60,000 British troops marched against the Boer capitals. It took only seven months before the Boers admitted defeat, when 14,000 commandos handed over their weapons. However many Boers would not accept their downfall. The British army was largely stretched, trying to guard cities and goldmines and escort convoys. This allowed the young Boer commandos to harass their vulnerable opponent, opening negotiations with them. On one such occasion, a small army of Boer fighters captured a British general, Lord Methuen.

However, all resistance effort had minimal effect on the British, as the Boer army was hopelessly outnumbered. Boer Leaders were faced with the choice of British rule or death. On the 31^st May 1902 a peace agreement was signed, leading to a federated British South Africa in which both Boers and Britons had power over the black. Taking over 22,000 British and 53,000 Boer soldiers, the Second Boer War was simply two different parties fighting for a country that wasn’t theirs.

            

Journal 2

When I first heard Bryce Courtenay’s name, I was totally unfamiliar with it. My mother told me what she knew about Bryce Courtenay, mentioning that he was a famous author, but that he used rough language. I had to do a bit of research to get to know more about the background of the author.

Courtenay experienced a lot of struggles and hardships throughout his life. Peekay’s struggle through life loosely follows the struggles in Courtenay’s life. Courtenay was born in South Africa, 1933, and spent the first years of his life on a farm. He was sent to boarding school at the same age as Peekay, just five years old. Courtenay was also bullied at school, learning to box in order to defend himself from the older kids. Not long after, he and his family moved to a different part of South Africa. There Courtenay was taught by a music teacher whom he called ‘Doc’. Just like Peekay, Courtenay spent many hours wandering around the bush with Doc.

After completing school, Courtenay studied Journalism at university. Courtenay set up a weekend school for the black African kids, but was ‘exiled’ from the country by the government. He began to live in England where he met Benita, who became his wife. He retired at the age of 55, allowing him to write a number of novels.

The Power of One was the first of his best selling classics, which he published in 1989. The story became famous mainly because of the relaxed atmosphere it has. The story line is quite simple, following in a logical order, the life of a small African boy. Everyone likes a story about the underdog who comes out on top, and a story where the small boy ends up beating his bullies resonates with many. I especially was amazed at how powerfully Courtenay could manipulate my emotions toward the different characters in The Power of One.

For a book to be published by Penguin books it has to have reached a certain level of popularity and critical acclaim. It says something about this novel that over 1 million copies have been sold and it has been made into a feature film. Now that I think about it, it seems like Courtenay had no particular audience in mind when he wrote this book. Because he is African, you would expect his target audience to be the upper class of Africa. However, the message of anti-racialism in The Power of One is applicable to everyone. The actual audience of The Power of One includes people from all continents of the globe. It has brought the message of determination and racial acceptance in thirty different languages. After reading only the first seven chapters, it does not seem surprising how popular the story of Peekay is.