The Power of One: Chapters 7-9

With the characterization of Peekay, Bryce Courtenay presents in the novel The Power of One that it is helpful to have friends and elders to guide someone in their life. The mentors in Peekay’s life have all helped him in different aspects of life. All of these people have given him simple words of advice on how he can be successful in the future. His first main mentor is Hoppie Groenewald who told him, “First with the head and then with the heart, that’s how a man stays ahead from the start.” This means that a person must have the knowledge of how they will encounter a problem and then have a passion to continue and persevere. Peekay says, “He had given me the power of one-one idea, one , one mind, one plan, one determination. Hoppie had sensed my need to grow, my need to be assured that the world around me had not been specially arranged to bring about my undoing. He gave me a defense system, and with it he gave me hope.” This demonstrates the fact that Hoppie had only been with Peekay for a short time, but he taught him a lot about the power of one person.

Another mentor that Peekay learned from was Big Hettie. She had accompanied Peekay on his journey to his grandpa’s house. When he asked her about where hate in a person comes from, she told him that many people have pride and courage. Peekay did not know what pride was, so he asked Big Hettie and she said, “Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.” She reminded him of these words the moment she was dying. Big Hettie had also said to Peekay, “You will be a great fighter, I know it.” Peekay tries to remember the thoughtful words his mentors give him, so eventually he will remember Big Hettie’s advice if he decides to become a fighter. The last mentor is Professor Karl von Vollensteen, but to Peekay he is known as Doc. Doc is a professor that asked for Peekay to join him on searches, and in exchange, Peekay will receive piano lessons. Doc is one of his mentors because he teaches Peekay how to play the piano and gives him knowledge about nature and humans. Doc tells Peekay, “Your brain, Peekay, has two functions; it is a place for original thought, but also it is a reference library. Use it to tell you where to look, and you will have for yourself all the brains that have ever been.” This is telling Peekay that all of the knowledge he will need in life is not in other people but in himself. 

The people that have made the most influence on Peekay’s life are not the ones who stay in his life for an eternity, but they are the people that Peekay is with for a short time. They learn his personality quickly and have the perfect advice to give him that he will always remember. Peekay remembers these people for what they said to him and the impact they had on his life. 

The Power of One: Chapters 4-6

In the novel The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay displays through the characterization of Peekay and Hoppie Groenewald that with the help of friends and “the power of one,” anyone can defeat who or whatever they choose. Peekay says he learned that the power of one is, “In each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed.” On his way to Barberton where his grandfather lives, Peekay meets a man named Hoppie Groenewald. Hoppie is a boxer and a guard on the train that Peekay is taking, and he becomes a mentor and one of his closest allies. Throughout the train ride, Hoppie looks after Peekay and takes good care of him. He makes sure Peekay gets good food to eat and does not make him pay for the food he eats. “‘You finish it. It will spoil my appetite for my mixed grill. You’re still going to have a mixed grill with me, aren’t you? I mean, I’m paying and all that.’” Hoppie also helps to be a good friend to Peekay. When he asked about how it would be for him to fight with the Judge, Hoppie says, “‘Who you want to fight, hey? What big kid gave you a bad time? Just you tell me, Peekay, and he’ll have to reckon with Hoppie Groenewald. I’m telling you, man, nobody hurts a friend of mine.’” Peekay learned a lot from Hoppie at the boxing match against Jackhammer Smit. When they first meet Jackhammer, he never stops taking badly to Hoppie and how their sizes do not compare. After Hoppie had defeated Jackhammer Smit, Peekay said, “It seemed certain now that small could beat big, all it took was brains and skill and heart and a play. A perfect plan.” He also says, “It was the greatest moment of my life. I had hope. I had witnessed small triumph over big. I was not powerless.” These relate to the problems Peekay had with the Judge and the jury at his boarding school. There sizes were much different which meant that they could easily beat Peekay. He learned from Hoppie Groenewald that size does not matter, but what matters is that a person should always be thinking and that everyone can overcome something if they have “the power of one” inside of them. 

The Power of One: Chapters 1-3

In the novel “The Power of One,” Bryce Courtenay displays through the characterization of Pisskop that it is not right to punish others for the actions of other people. Pisskop is the main character in the story; he is hated by the Judge and jury because he is English and they are Dutch. In South Africa the English were known as Rooineks, and the Dutch were called Boers or Afrikaners. The hatred of Pisskop comes from when the Dutch and English fought the Anglo-Boer War.”I spoke the language that had pronounced the sentences that had killed their grandfathers and sent their grandmothers to the world’s first concentration camps, where they had died like flies from dysentery, malaria, and blackwater fever.” Pisskop is the only English boy in his school full of Dutch boys, so the Boers decided that he would be an easy target. “The Boer War had created great malevolent feelings against the English, who were called rooineks. It was a hate that had entered the Afrikaner bloodstream and pocked the hearts and minds of the next generation. To the boys at school, I was the first live example of the congenital hate they carried for my kind.” 

To deal with the cruelty of the Judge and jury, Pisskop tries to camouflage. Throughout the first three chapters he is constantly saying how camouflaging would get him through until the end of the term. He said, “Mediocrity is the best camouflage known to man,” and “it became increasingly hard for the other kids to think of me as being different when no visible or audible differences separated us. Except, of course, for my hatless snake; but even this, like a kid with a birthmark or a little finger missing, started to go unnoticed. I was becoming the perfect stick insect.” At times, things go wrong and Pisskop’s camouflage disappears for a while. Examples of this are when he tells the doctor that his shoulder hurt from hitting the wall and when he recited times tables that they had not learned in class yet. Another way to deal with the cruelty was to tell his chicken, Granpa Chook, about everything that had happened, and Granpa Chook was there for Pisskop whenever he needed a friend. “I was constantly fearful for Granpa Chook, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Like me, he was a prisoner of war. Together we just had to hope for the best and try to muddle through.” 

The lesson that Bryce Courtenay wants readers to learn about human cruelty and prejudice is that something could have happened generations before a person was born and that person treats others badly for what the actions of their ancestors. People may not be the direct cause of a problem, but just because they are who they are does not mean they are the same as those who have done wrong. 

Bedroom Opening

The air is cold. With the loss of feeling, life, and love, there is no warmth in the air. There is no one. Lavender walls and green and tan cabinets give the room an earthy feeling. The rectangular, flower-designed bed sits in the middle of the south wall and takes up most of the area of the confined space. This bed contains four pillows and two blankets, which are the only source of warmth throughout the room. At the foot of the bed is a small cabinet for irrelevant objects, such as blankets and pillows for guests.  Parallel to the foot of the bed is a closet that is hidden by bleached white sliding doors. Adjacent to the bed is a night stand that holds many personal possessions. Atop the night stand is a purple-tinted, translucent lamp, an alarm clock, and a box of cereal. On the other side of the bed are two dressers, one is thin and tall while the other is short and twice as wide as the other. Pictures of only the closest family members are framed and placed on the tall dresser.  The wider dresser holds a mirror at the top. The mirror is bordered by a wood frame carved with a constant pattern. Along the border of the mirror are pictures depicting memories with good friends and loving family.  An abandoned television sits on the corner of the dresser, and next to it is a desk made perfectly for a computer. It even has a compartment that can pull out for the keyboard, but there is no computer. In the gap of the desk is a black, rolling chair just waiting to be sat on. The whole set of furniture in the room is an olive green shade with borders and knobs that are some kind of a light brown color; they resemble a caramel-covered green apple. Above the computer desk is a lonely window. This window is the only source of light for the lone room, and can only be fed in the early hours of the morning. The only thing on the west wall is a door, located towards the corner of the room, leading to a bathroom. The following necessary items are located in the bathroom: a sink, two mirrors, a toilet, and a shower. There is not much that goes on in this bedroom, and it barely has any visitors during the day. It is now half passed midnight and the room receives its first visitor. They lay in bed, think about the day’s events, pray to and thank God for the past day and many more to come, then quietly fall asleep. 

Of Mice and Men-Chapter 5: Does Curley's wife get what she deserves?

In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck demonstrates through the characterization of Curley’s wife that you should not judge someone before you get to know them, and the struggles they have been through. Throughout the book, most of the guys on the ranch always refer to Curley’s wife as “jail bait” because she is always flirting with everyone even though she is married to Curley, who barely gets her attention. For example, on page 51, Whit told George about the things she does, “‘Well, stick around an’ keep your eyes open. You’ll see plenty. She ain’t concealin’ nothing. I never seen nobody like her. She got the eye goin’ all the time on everybody. I bet she even gives the stable buck they eye. I don’t know what the hell she wants.’” The guys on the ranch already look down on her because she is a woman of their society. They barely know her and the hardships she has gone through. She as treated as if she is committing the worst sin in the world. She is just trying to deal with the circumstances she is in. On page 88, John Steinbeck expresses how Curley’s wife really feels about living on the ranch. She attempts to talk to Lennie but Lennie is trying to avoid her because of what George told him, “‘Well, George says you’ll get us in a mess.’ ‘Aw, nuts!’ she said. ‘what kinda harm am I doin’ to you? Seems like they ain’t non of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself.’” She did not deserve what had happened to her. Although Curley’s wife was not always “faithful” to Curley, she was not treated like a human being, so she just wanted to feel like someone cared about her. Everyone on the ranch acts like the only thing Curley’s wife should do is stay at home and wait until Curley gets home. She does not even want to be there. Again on page 88, she explains to Lennie her story of how she ended up there, even if though he was not really listening and paying attention to her, “‘ ‘Nother time I met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers. Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.’ She looked closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him ‘I never got that letter,’ she said. ‘I always thought my ol’ lady stole it. Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters. I ast her if she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside Dance Palace that same night,’” Marrying Curley was something his wife had done out of anger and rebellion. In the barn, she was trying to be friends with Lennie by letting him feel her hair because she now knows that he likes to pet soft things. She did not deserve to be killed by Lennie when he got scared because she was yelling. This exemplifies how it is not good to judge people before you get to know them.

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