Monday, February 28, 2011

The Power of One: Chapter 17

1. The Power of One Chapter 17 pgs. 349-378

2. In this chapter, the reader can find that Peekay and Morrie’s friendship is growing each day. Peekay and Morrie have created a bank where they work out their bets with the other boys at the school and sometimes boys from different schools. The success of Peekay’s boxing had spread and a larger number of people were showing up to his fights each time. The People made up a fraction of the crowd and their chanting and singing helped Peekay to win his fights. When Peekay is fourteen, he is going through puberty and all he can think about is “doing it.” His weekly letters from Miss Bornstein became a disturbance in history class because he and Morrie were constantly correcting and opposing whatever “Mango” Cobett had said. Being in the third form, the boys were eligible to become one of the six of Sinjun’s People, and they both had a spot as one of the people. Unknowingly, Peekay and Morrie had helped each other to gain their spots as Sinjun’s People. 

3)  a. Morrie Levy
b. “To have done the things you’ve done, led the life you’ve led? Believe me, being rich, in a Jewish household anyway, isn’t a lot of fun. Everything is overdone. Too much love, too much money, too much food, too much care, too much reminding you that you’re different, that you’re Jewish.”
c. Morrie is:
-Intellectual
-Helpful
-Cunning
-Persuasive
-Confident
d. Morrie was the first person Peekay met when he started going to the Prince of Wales School. He is a Jewish boy who is interested in gambling and making money. In the chapter sixteen Morrie said to Peekay, “You see, you’re different. I know that now. And I’m certainly different, I always have been, but being a Jew at a school like this makes me even more so. I reckon we’ll need each other.” Ever since then Morrie and Peekay were best friends and so far they have helped one another in many ways. For example, when Peekay had messed up Cooper’s cream bun Morrie helped by first offering to pay for another one; instead, he helped Peekay arrange the cream and escape being in trouble. In chapter seventeen it is easier to see that Peekay and Morrie have become partners in crime because of the many things they experience together such as boxing, The Bank, “According to Miss Bornstein,” and Sinjun’s People.

4. The quote I found meaningful was, “The power of one was based on the courage to remain separate, to think through to the truth, and not to be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expect to maintain power.” What made it stand out was that Peekay had another explanation of the power of one. He is saying that the power of one is being able to be yourself and independent instead of succumbing to someone who is trying to be superior than you. This is just like the saying of how it is better to be a leader and not a follower. The quote is important to the chapter because Peekay is growing up and learning what it is like to be more on his own and independent. He had realized that he is now being given the choice to do what he wants and to dream whatever he feels like dreaming about. 

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