James Andrew

James Andrew
The Power Of One
Bryce Courtenay
Historical fiction
challenge
just finished, pg. 511



4. My favorite character is by far Peekay. I like Peekay because he never gives up through out the whole book, even when times get tough. When he is in boarding school he gets abused  and bullied. He survives boarding school and that whole time, was forced to do some older kids schoolwork. Many of the people didn't like him because he was english and Africa wanted to overthrow the english government in Africa. So people were really racist. He also got yelled at because he had a bed wetting problem. So, after the first semester at boarding school his nanny who takes care of him has the best medicine man known to Africa (Inkosi-Inkosikazi) come to there village and get rid of Peekays bet wetting problems.

5. My least favorite character is Mevrou. She runs the bording school and is very mean to Peekay. She would not stop the other boys from beating up and abusing Peekay. She also abused him. Whenever he did anything wrong she would beat him with her sjambok. Which is a big bamboo stick. Also , Peekay is very young and will do and say stupid thing because he doesn't know any better, and she never took that into consideration. She was very harsh with her punishments. When Peekay brought Granpa Chook, (a kaffir chicken) to boarding school Mevrou wanted to kill it.  

3. I think that the theme of the book is to never give up. This is shown through out the whole book. At the beginning Peekay never gives up at boarding school, even when he is getting beaten and abused. Also, when he tries to become the boxing champion, he keeps pursuing and doesn't back down to try and get what he wants. I noticed this theme coming up again and again through out the whole book. I noticed that the theme appears mostly in the characters. Peekay never gives up, the judge at boarding school never gives up trying to make Peekays life awful, and the Nanny never gives up trying to raise Peekay and get the best for him.

2. I really loved this book. It had a really powerful theme and message. But the ending was really easy to predict. Just like almost all other books, the main character has a problem and or a goal and achieves it by the skin of their teeth. I was really surprised that Peekay even survived everything. At boarding school he was abused and beaten a lot and the "judge" wanted to kill him. He was in the middle of a political turmoil at the time because Hitler went to war with the English. It showed me the importance of having a mentor, studying hard, setting goals for yourself, and being considerate and understanding of others strengths and weaknesses. But the author had a really advanced style of writing and at some parts I got very confused. Also, she used words that I didn't know and I had to look them up.

1. The ending of the book was monumental. Although I could predict that Peekay would be able to fight in prison and win the Welterweight championship I was amazed that this feat would motivate the blacks from all around the prison to come to the special concert that Dock, Peekays mentor was aloud to perform. Peekays winning broke through all political feelings at the time and for a moment the whites and the blacks had respect for each other. This was extremely powerful and moving to me especially after this book described so well the hate that was beginning through out Africa.

6. The ending of the book was pretty much what a I expected. I expected that Peekay would win the Welterweight championship, but I did not expect that his winning would have such an effect on the whites who hated the blacks so much at this time in history. His winnings caused unity and peace for this moment in history. The concert were the blacks and the whites came together reminded me how Peekay lived his life were he respected and understood others feelings and strengths.