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).