Narrative
Think about your students and how they see themselves, their lives, and their world. Then begin the study of this unit—the beginning of the school year—with the questions below, stopping to listen to your students' answers and let the discussion follow its own path.
What do people want? Do you want to be happy? What will it take? Is security happiness—not worrying about food, shelter, bills, etc.? How do you plan for this? Do you expect to work or do you have another plan—illegal gains or being supported by others? Let's consider freedom: how important is freedom to you? Is the most important thing? Is it more important than your family? Is freedom vital to a happy life? What must you do to achieve this? Is there a minimum you must do? If you have to accumulate a limited amount of information, will you stop there? What about the benefits of having additional info. Who plays basketball? Do you stop at knowing just enough plays, warming up just enough, or do you realize the benefit of more than just enough? When is more too much? Can you exercise too much, eat too much, learn too much? How do we know how much is enough?
What is school for? What are schools preparing you for? You study math, science, social studies, and literature—why? Are you going to be a scientist or a history professor? Why are these subjects our core subjects? They are interrelated, as are art, music, movement, and anything else you can think of. And so are all of us and the rest of the world. Some people live in a bubble, thinking, If I can't see it, then it doesn't affect me. Do you feel that way? Do you think that what happens on the other side of the world doesn't affect you? Does the condition of the ozone layer over Australia seem insignificant to you? Do you care about the rain forests in South America? How about hunger in underdeveloped nations? What is your purpose on earth and why do you think this? How do you learn new things about the world? Is it through math? Or science? Or YouTube? You must remember that your brain is not a computer and you won't run out of memory. You can continue to learn about all kinds of different things, and this knowledge will enable you to gain a broader perspective of the world, yourself, and how we all fit into life on earth. For some of us, learning about the world through a story is the first and easiest way to communicate information. Do we, as American citizens, have freedom? What about your freedom as students? Are there other places you go where your freedom is limited? How important is this?
After you finish this discussion it's time to move to the novel at hand. How does Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One fit into a study of democracy in America? As part of the senior English curriculum in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, students are exposed to literature that is diverse and multicultural. Using The Power of One to explore a government and its effect on a specific society in a particular time and place provides a contrast to what American students have experienced in their own lives. Students have studied Elie Wiesel's Night, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and Arthur Miller's The Crucible in their first three high school years, these works illustrating various injustices. Now, in their senior year, they will be able to tackle the Classic Novel of South Africa and will gain more from it having read the earlier works. On beginning the study of a book like The Power of One, it is valuable to begin with some basics. First, the book is considered a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel. This has become popular in school curricula recently. Novels of this type are considered important for teenagers to study as they are going through their own adolescent struggles and identity searches.
The novel is divided into three Books as follows: Book 1—15 chapters in 276 pages, Book 2—7 chapters in152 pages, and Book Three with just 2 chapters in 52 pages. The daily lessons are roughly one chapter per day with 2 chapters scheduled for a few of the days. There are three essay tests on specific chapters and a final essay assessment on the entire book. Also included are three video viewing worksheets and a printable bookmark with the chapter numbers and the starting pages for each and a glossary.
The first test of a well-written book is to examine the first paragraph. The opening of a book must not only grab the reader's attention, it must signal the intent and scope of the entire novel; that is, if it is a worthy book. Courtenay displays this skill with the opening of The Power of One: "This is what happened." 1 Immediately, the reader knows that there will be a retelling of events. The structure follows the Stasis-Instability-New Stasis model. 2Courtenay then plunges us into the comfort of "a pair of huge, soft black breasts," 3 the Stasis point of the novel. To understand the changes a character encounters, it is first vital to understand what was normal before introducing the disruption, or Instability that makes up the conflict of the story. Following this unstable period, the protagonist is either successful or unsuccessful; either way, a New Stasis has been realized. Following the introductory lecture on democracy on Day One, your discussion of Chapter 1 should include the material below.
After the safe and nurturing early childhood of our narrator (Stasis) comes the beginning of the trouble (Instability). Due to his mother's nervous breakdown, the five-year-old boy is sent to a boarding school where he is two years younger than the youngest class of students. Adding to the burden is his status as an English boy, a rooinek, the only one in the Afrikaner school. Our hero now experiences a complete tyranny led by a bully known as the Judge. The Boer students torture the child as only children can, forcing him to kneel in the shower while they all pee on him. He creeps back to his bed, stinking: "As I had never seen a shower, I had no idea how to turn one on." 4 However, the humor comes through the pain. When he is marched back to the shower in the morning by the headmistress he fears for his life: "If she pisses on me I will surely drown." 5 To his horror, the water that rains down on him is icy and he believes that it is death. It is worse than death, though, he lives, and it is the Judge and his followers who dub the boy "Pisskop" and ridicule him for being circumcised. This shames him and places another barrier between him and his Afrikaner classmates. To survive the cruelty of his situation, "Pisskop" decides he must adapt; he forgoes crying and tries to remain invisible, but the result of this trauma makes him into a bed wetter. The Judge is a forerunner of Adolf Hitler with his determination to rid his school of the English boy and return the racial purity of the Afrikaners. Through intimidation, the Judge neatly uses his status as a bigger boy with the support of the other older boys to terrify the five-year-old English boy. In this case, though, the Judge did not conquer; his torture of Pisskop only made the boy grow stronger. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then the Judge is a true example of cruelty inflicted on the minority in his treatment of Peekay. This is further magnified when Peekay sees how the whites in charge treat the blacks who are subordinate to them.
The close of the school year returns our hero to his beloved Nanny who listens to his tale of torture and who introduces the first flavor of Africa to the western reader; she summons the great Inkosi-Inkosikazi, a medicine man who will cure the boy of the "night water." Nanny tells the boy's story with all the eloquence of the great storytellers while Inkosi-Inkosikazi and the others listen. Even our hero is in awe: "I can tell you one thing, I was mighty impressed that any person, most of all me, could go through such a harrowing experience." 6 All is set for the night; the chickens have been put through their magic, our hero has had his sweet potato, and it is time for him to meet Inkosi-Inkosikazi in his dreams. When this happens, our hero is shown a quiet place to which he can return in times of trouble. He does this later in the book when he feels a crisis. In the morning, the night water problem has been solved and Inkosi-Inkosikazi presents the boy with the scrawniest of the chickens. He is named Granpa Chook.
This chapter is significant for several reasons. As an introduction to the bildungsroman style, our hero is situated in a time and a place. His early tribulations are addressed and he is given weapons to deal with them. His ability to think things over is revealed, and the chapter ends with one hurdle overcome and the boy set to begin another year at boarding school. This time, though, he has the magic of Inkosi-Inkosikazi and Granpa Chook, "the first living creature over which I had held power." 7 He is learning that there are ways to cope with injustice. Just as he had decided to remain invisible, our hero learns that there is strength inside of him and that he can summon that strength when needed. He is able to find ways to survive the Judge and other oppressors. This gives hope to any reader who has felt himself the underdog. As the novel progresses, our hero's ability to rise to the surface despite how different he is to his companions tells the reader that we are all unique and that the power of each one can overcome daunting odds.
The above material should serve as the basis for one class discussion. For each chapter, the teacher should examine what is essential to fuel the discussion. This next portion of the narrative will concentrate on the transitional points in Peekay's development and the instances in which politics affect his life and environment.
The remainder of the first section of Book 1, which will be evaluated through a written assessment (see Appendix C) takes Peekay on a journey to his new home in Barberton. Peekay finishes his time at boarding school where he learns to adapt to the Judge and his "storm troopers" by doing the Judge's homework in hopes that the older boy will graduate and be out of his life. The Judge has carved a crude swastika on his arm. He agrees to allow Pisskop and Granpa Chook live until he passes math and then says Hitler will surely deal with them and they will be dead meat. This plan is altered when Pisskop refuses to eat the turds the Judge forces into his hands and Granpa Chook defecates in the howling Judge's mouth. He and the storm troopers beat the bird to death, leaving our hero to bury and mourn his only companion.
The school term ends, the Judge departs, and Mevrou, who, interestingly, also addresses our hero as Pisskop, prepares him for the journey to his new home by brusquely informing him that he will take the train alone. Free from the Judge, yet mourning the loss of Granpa Chook, they set out. When they meet Harry Crown, the Jew who sells them tackies, the man is appalled at the boy's name and suggests "Peekay" which our hero gratefully accepts. Thus far, Peekay has been loved by his Zulu nanny, despised by his Afrikaner schoolmates and subjected to the cruelties of budding Nazis, and treated kindly by a Jewish storekeeper. The next step involves Mevrou's emotionless parting from the boy when she consigns him to the care of the railway. Then Peekay meets Hoppie Groenewald with whom he travels and who treats him as an individual and a friend. "Hoppie Groenewald was to prove to be a passing mentor who would set the next seventeen years of my life on an irrevocable course. He would do so in little more than a day and a night." 8 He introduces Peekay to boxing and brings him to his match where the boy is put under the care of Big Hettie, an aging, overweight Irish women who literally kills herself with food. She is the subject of her own drama which unfolds in the following chapter. Peekay learns from Hoppie that he is a worthwhile person. He learns that there is a goal in each life and to reach that goal one must focus. The most important piece of information he learns, though, is that the power of one can conquer. The child's mind takes in this crucial information along with his heart's response to the genuine kindness of the first person who seems to care about him since Nanny. To his dismay, he awakens the morning after the fight to find a note from Hoppie who has left the train. It contains the advice, "first with the head, then with the heart," 9 which Peekay follows in all his future endeavors.
This section of Peekay's journey allows characters from several different backgrounds to make their impressions on the boy. The threat of Hitler is somewhat removed, but the marked inequality in the way different groups of people are treated unfolds. From Peekay's embarrassment at Hoppie Groenewald seeing his circumcised penis and fearing that he will despise him because he is English, to hearing the beautiful Indian lady with the diamond in her tooth referred to as a "coolie," Peekay is constantly made aware that people in this society are unrelenting in their notion of social hierarchy. This baffles the boy who sees everyone as the same.
But how did he become the egalitarian child who grew into the freedom fighter? His beginnings show him with a bland and ineffectual mother who has a nervous breakdown and is essentially removed from his life. His nanny is the most important person in his small world. Granpa is kindly but vague. These conditions could account for the boy's acceptance of the blacks in his world, but how does it come about that he also accepts the other disdained groups? While he fears the Judge and his henchmen, he does not profess to despise all other Afrikaners. He takes to Harry Crown and is fascinated by the Indian woman. The key to this acceptance is in his nature as a person and his early experiences.
At school he is made into the outcast. For no reason other than his heritage, the boy is punished, humiliated, and threatened with death. He is bewildered, not understanding why he has been singled out this way, yet he does not see his treatment as an injustice in the beginning. His reaction is to try to blend in and remain impervious to the tortures with which he lives. The result of forcing this under the surface is that he becomes a bed wetter. The interesting point here is the cure; Nanny sets out to cure the boy in the only way she knows how. The acceptance into her culture without question or prejudice enlarges the boy's capacity to understand that all humans are part of the same whole. He communes with Inkosi-Inkosikazi in his dream and is linked to the older man's culture.
This early understanding of the interconnection between all people is what allows the boy to incorporate anyone he meets into his world, his space, and his family. The people who do not fit well are individuals who have strayed from the whole, those such as the Judge and Lt. Borman. These people must be dealt with but they are not representative of their entire race and do not engender hatred from Peekay as such; he can discern them as blotches on the whole of humanity and deal with them appropriately. This maturity is what all intelligent people strive for, hoping to assess an individual and his actions and not mistake the work of one person as representative of an entire race or ethnic group.
Peekay seems to exude the feeling of common brotherhood without consciously striving to communicate it, unlike Pastor Mulvery, who is portrayed as being as sincere as he is intellectually able, yet projecting all of his acquired ideals and dogma in a sickeningly conscious manner. Peekay reflects the world around him. He is everyman and everyman is his brother. Through his actions, Peekay speaks to the world around him and those who inhabit it answer him in kind.
Throughout the book there are subtle distinctions between the competing Afrikaners and the English, referred to by the Judge as the "verdomde rooineks," or "damned rednecks." Characters toss off ethnic references and racial epithets as a matter of everyday speech, such as, "I will tell Hoppie Groenewald you behaved like a proper Boer, a real white man," 10 and ". . . my mother was always getting splitting headaches because she was a white woman and like Nanny said, it was a very hard thing to be." 11 Peekay is essentially colorblind. To him, his Nanny is the most important person in the world. His mother is simply the woman who gave birth to him. Without a father, his grandfather is an absent-minded, distant personage who has little influence on the boy's life. All the figures in Peekay's life at this point, save the Judge, are adults, and it matters little whether they are Zulu, Shangaan, Afrikaner, Jewish, Indian, or "verdomde rooinek." To Peekay they are all people, each one an entity to examine and understand; sometimes to fear and sometimes to love. The combination of a child's point of view with the adult narrator's reflection on these memories frames the picture for the reader, creating a universal point of view for global readers of all ages.
After the disappointment of finding his mother under the religious spell of Pastor Mulvery, Peekay discovers that Nanny has been sent back to Zululand because she would not forsake her beliefs for the Christian religion. Peekay's life would have been unbearably bleak if he hadn't met Doc. Chapter Nine brings a breath of hope, both intellectual and aesthetic, into Peekay's life. Instead of remaining in the stifling company of his mother and Pastor Mulvery with the "escaping teeth," Peekay has found a mind and heart to nurture his own. His loneliness birds are at bay, and he realizes, at age six, that one can be alone but not lonely. In this part of the book, organized Christianity is portrayed as something to be avoided. None of the characters who embrace the Apostolic Faith Mission seems to be very bright. The whole question of what happens in heaven is almost funny, except that the only response to the little white girl's query about whether the blacks will still work for the whites is for Pastor Mulvery to tell her that nobody works in heaven. He sidesteps the entire issue of equality and leans toward the "separate but equal" stance held in the United States. Doc, in contrast, who is a German citizen and therefore perceived as a threat to society, is the most spiritual character in the book; it is he who unwraps the beauty of the natural world for Peekay. In Courtenay's world, those interested in war and politics are definitely less valuable than those who embrace nature.
In the second half of Book 1, Peekay grows from age 6 to 12. His relationship with Doc is the longest and most fruitful of any of his mentors. World War II begins and Doc is imprisoned for being an unregistered German. The injustice spreads as Peekay tries to intervene and is kicked in the jaw and touted as a hero who brought down a suspected traitor. When he comes to in the hospital, his broken jaw wired shut, Peekay is appalled at the report and relies on Mrs. Boxall, his friend and the town librarian, to sort it out and vindicate him. Peekay's observation of the treatment of the prisoners and the racial prejudice of the prison officials only strengthens his feelings of the necessity for equal rights and education for everyone. He does not think of himself as English; he is South African. Doc accepts his internment graciously, as he is allowed full freedom of movement in the prison and is allowed to have a cactus garden. There is a hierarchy among the prisoners as well. In every collection of humans who must coexist at close quarters there will be some order that emerges or that is imposed. Think of Lord of the Flies or The Admirable Crichton. Power struggles exist among any group of people. Seeing the power that Peekay attains without his seeking it points to the power inside him; the power of one person to make a change. This reinforces the notion that the one who should be held as an example is the one who does not seek power. This is more clearly illustrated in later chapters.
The character of Geel Piet could fill an entire book. His relevance to the theme of Peekay's story lies in his role as a symbol of the downtrodden, poor bastard. He has lived a life of crime, but he is not all bad. He has learned to function within the system to accept what he cannot change. His legacy is: Peekay's success, the eight-punch combination, and the music that Doc dedicated to him.
Peekay's boxing progresses, his musical abilities, although not masterful, proceed, and his academic career flourishes, due largely to his tutoring by Doc, Mrs. Boxall, and extra help from his teacher, Miss Bornstein, on whom he develops a crush. By the end of Book 1, Peekay has realized the enormity of the inequality of his country. His comprehension has grown from his early fear of Hitler coming to kill him and Granpa Chook to a resolve to continue to fight racial hatred and promote equality for all.
The circle of Peekay's acquaintance is widening and providing a wider scope from which he can view injustice in his environment. His status as the Tadpole Angel, the Onoshobishobi Ingelosi, which makes him someone special, universal, is heightened in this section and marks him as belonging to more than just one people. Geel Piet explains that the people call him this because Doc is known as the frog and Peekay is the small version of Doc. The people accept Peekay as their angel; someone who embodies the feelings and desires of all people. Peekay is not just the hero of his own story but has become a symbol of something greater; he is the inspiration and hope of freedom and equality to all the people. By the end of Book 1 Peekay has grown as a boxer, musician, cactus gardener, and humanitarian. He speaks the languages of the different groups of people in his life; enabling him to translate and to adapt translations for a greater understanding. When he conducts the tribes at the concert he is leading them in song but also in heart. He accepts this role with humility, as the chosen symbol by the People. With Geel Piet's death he has won and lost and learned to live on. He has learned that it is more important to live a short, free life than a long, enslaved one. The reader is confident of his success, but that's not the most important thing; what really matters is how he gets there and who he meets along the way. Part of the message is that whether a person wins or loses, how he plays the game is the interesting part. Contrast Geel Piet's life to Peekay's and decide which one was more successful and why? This is the lesson to all of us; the power of one can be the power to change one thing, or one person at a time. Geel Piet benefited many of his fellow prisoners with his black market. He was a superb boxing coach to Peekay, his loyalty to the boy resulting in his own death.
Peekay arrives at his second boarding school prepared: he has been schooled by Doc, Mrs. Boxall, and Miss Bornstein, trained by Geel Piet, and everyone, from Mr. Isaac Bornstein to Marie, has contributed to his necessary school wardrobe. Morrie Levy is the first person he meets upon arrival at the train station. Morrie revels in his status as the token Jew, never, for a moment, letting anyone forget that he's Jewish or that his dad pulled strings to get him into Prince of Wales School. He spots Peekay as a fellow oddball and strikes up a friendship. Peekay is destined to be the friend of the friendless, champion of the underdog, the one able to see beyond outward differences in people.
Before long, Morrie and Peekay have become a team in which Morrie handles the business and Peekay produces the goods, namely, wins in the boxing ring. While both boys excel in their studies, Peekay has his eyes on the prize of becoming the welterweight champion of South Africa. Morrie has a different agenda; to make his own money. He also wants to help Peekay so they can to go to Oxford together but rather than accept a handout from the Levy's, Peekay is determined to make his own way.
Through the story of Peekay's boxing career at school, another moral lesson is addressed. The other schools are all Afrikaner schools, while Prince of Wales is the only English school. Before Peekay came, boxing was a minor sport at the school and was all but dead. Peekay's presence breathes new life into the sport and the squad grows and begins to win. Peekay's fans from his Barberton days, referred to as the People, find him and support him. While they sing and chant prior to the matches, the black fans remain absolutely silent throughout the match so that they will not be made to leave. Morrie even persuades the coach to set Peekay's fight earlier in the lineup so that the People can see it and still get home before curfew. Peekay is admired by the Afrikaner boxers he defeats, he is revered by the People, and he is a champion and savior to the English boys from his own school. He has become a man for all people. When Peekay begins to notice the best cuts of meat at his table, his clothes washed, ironed, and mended, and all his chores completed for him he knows that each of the People has acted individually, doing what he deemed appropriate. There is an old saying that a person makes his own good luck. Peekay, in treating everyone equally, from speaking to the servants in their own languages to generally putting himself on a par with everyone, made his own luck with his unwitting cultivation of unspoken brotherhood with everyone around him.
Another stage in Peekay's development has to do with Doc's advancing age. While we all know that our elders are expected to pass on before we do, losing a mentor is never a comfortable thought. They set out on an overnight trip to find the crystal cave, an almost magical place where Doc tells Peekay it would be just the place to spend eternity; to become crystalline within the cave. Peekay, alarmed at this, says nothing. On his next trip home he thinks Doc looks ill and expresses his terror at the idea of his death. Doc assures him that he is fine; he will be 87 soon. Peekay says he must live until the welterweight championship is won—at least until Doc reaches 94 or 95. This is the child in Peekay talking, putting off thinking of the death our loved ones.
In 1948, Princess Elizabeth came to South Africa. Peekay notes, in his wry way, that a new game occurred along with the new government dominated by the Afrikaner party. In this game, black South Africans "voluntarily fell on their heads from the third story of police headquarters to the pavement below. It was curious that the whites, renowned for their sporting prowess, never learned how to play this game, and there isn't a single instance of a white South African becoming proficient at it." 12 Students may pick up on the meaning of this, but it will be worthwhile to explore this statement to ascertain their level of interpretation.
Peekay breaks new ground with the boxing match in which he fights Gideon Madoma, a Zulu boxer. When they meet, Peekay speaks to him in Zulu and discovers that he is the son of his Nanny, who, Gideon tells him, passed away five years earlier. The fight is a stunning win for Peekay. Gideon holds up Peekay's hand as the winner and the Onoshobishobi Ingelosi. Peekay says that they are brothers, suckled by the same breast. Suddenly, Peekay feels an overwhelming sadness, feeling that Doc is dead. He receives a message that Doc has disappeared and he knows that he has returned to crystal cave.
While pretending to help the search parties, Peekay harbors the secret of the crystal cave, traveling there alone to receive Doc's last message. In it, Doc tells Peekay that he has been his greatest friend and that Peekay must not return to the crystal cave until it is his time. He says that perhaps they will meet again in a hundred thousand years. Peekay's childhood has now come to an end. With the news of Nanny's death and the passing of Doc, Peekay must forge ahead alone. While he has many helpers along the way, he is now leading the way for himself.
Book 3 shows Peekay going it alone, refusing the help of Morrie's family and determined to earn his way to Oxford. He trains for a dangerous mining job and works longer than most. He makes a good friend in the Russian Rasputin, who speaks little English. They enjoy food, music, and chess together, and when Peekay finally does have an accident, it is Rasputin who rescues him, at the cost of his own life. In a stunning revelation at the end of the book, Peekay discovers that the top miner he had been working for all these months is the Judge. Peekay recognizes the swastika tattoo on the drunken Botha and confronts him. "Jaapie Botha, come! Come man, come! I have been waiting for you for most of my life." 13 His rage surfaces, raw from Rasputin's death, and he savagely beats Botha until he is unconscious. He then carves a Union Jack and "PK" over the swastika tattoo. He cannot contain his fury when confronting his tormentor and cannot help but blurt out, "You killed Granpa Chook!" 14 The child's grief spills out of him and is purged by his revenge on his own enemy. "There was nothing more to say. The slate was wiped clean. The hate was gone. Poor bastard." 15 He walks away feeling that the loneliness birds have vanished forever, and knowing that the power of one is strong.
In a true democracy every citizen has a voice. People like Geel Piet would have the same single vote that the richest and most powerful man in the community. Peekay's rise to fame shows that an individual can emerge from obscurity and prove himself. While he did this in a government that did not afford the same opportunity to its black citizens, it shows the possibility of a minority, an English boy, rising to the top of his game. It's a start, and Peekay determined to use his fame to shine light on the other oppressed citizens, using boxing to integrate and declare himself an equal and brother to his Zulu opponent.
Peekay became a focal point for so many others; from Doc to Mrs. Boxall, the Bornsteins, Marie, Morrie, and even Rasputin; all gained something from knowing him and this is what the reader should learn. We all give to the others with whom we interact and that is the essence of our time on earth. Whether we do it in a big way and become Onoshobishobi Ingelosi, or we humbly clean the boots of someone great, we are all integrated in our earthly existence. Peekay's tale of emergence from the anonymity of the despised outsider to the leader of many groups of people gives hope to anyone who has felt low or worthless, or who thinks he or she is not contributing to the easing of human suffering. This is the triumph of the book and the lesson to the students and to us all.
Comments: