Describe a key relationship between two or more characters or individuals in the text. Explain how this relationship helped you to understand at least one of these characters or individuals.
The novel, The Power of One, by Bryce Courtney, is a novel about how a young English boy grows up in Africa during the second world war. There was a key relationship in this book between two characters Peekay, who was one of the main protagonists and Doc, who was a German professor of music. This relationship helped me to understand how Peekay’s journey was affected by oppression, logic and the power of one.
Oppression helped me to understand Peekay’s relationship with Doc because they both shared this problem and that it changed the way that Peekay acted and thought. Oppression is cruel and unjust treatment of somebody, and we can see this in Peekay’s early childhood and throughout the book. Racism was one of the key problems in Doc and Peekay’s lives because they were born in countries hated by the Boer people. Peekay was verbally bullied a lot in school by the Judge and his Nazi Party because he was English and circumcised. Doc was falsely accused of being a spy only because he was German. The newspaper said that Doc tried to kill Peekay even though he was only teaching him music. After Doc’s innocence was proven, the newspaper said ‘No spy, but still a German!’ This shows how much hatred Africa had for the Germans, but the charges laid against Doc were removed and he was set free. Unfortunately, we can see that this problem is still happening today. Donald Trump has been ruling over America, mainly by racism and sexism, and the people support that just like the African government used racism against the blacks and gained many white supporters. I believe that the actions that were taken were harsh, but practical for the time this book was set in, and after Doc’s innocence was proven, my opinion was set even more this way.
The other way that Peekay and Doc were oppressed was that they were physically harmed. Physically harming somebody is the attempt to cripple or injure somebody, and we see this many times throughout the book even in Peekay’s choice of boxing as a hobby, the goal was to hurt and weaken them. The first mention of physical bullying was near the start of the novel where Peekay first met the Judge and his Nazi Party at school. The Judge was a harsh person and often beat Peekay if he did not obey his orders. His primary goal was to make him cry so he could feel powerful which I thought was quite silly because Peekay was only five and the Judge was twelve, so making a five-year-old cry isn’t much of an achievement let alone being kind to someone who is in a mentally crippled state because of the environment he was in. Doc was beaten up by one of the Barberton Prison Guards when he was getting arrested. The prison guard was drunk, so he started to blindly kick and punch at Doc for no reason at all, but Peekay saved Doc from getting seriously injured by blocking a kick to the chest with his own chin. I think this was a very brave and kind thing to do, especially for somebody he had only known for a matter of days. Doc said to Peekay that ‘Man brutalised, thinks only of his survival’, and I found this quite fitting because we see that during the Apartheid period in Africa, people only thought of themselves and of how they were going to survive this racist oppression. I think that the horrible abusement of Doc and Peekay were unjust and cruel, but they helped me to understand how it made Peekay act with more compassion for Doc while he was in prison and for the other prisoners there. Unfortunately, we can also relate this to our world today. Donald Trump’s election caused a major spike in hate crimes and violence because of the way he treated people, and this can be related to the black violence towards the government because of Apartheid. This also helped me to understand Peekay as a person because before he was bullied, he was a scared, helpless little boy, lost in a horrible world that he didn’t understand to a confident, compassionate person.
Logic helped me to understand the relationship between Doc and Peekay because they needed it to think and act smarter in the situation they were in. Logic is the reasoning according to strict principles of accuracy, and we see that Doc teaches that to Peekay in a variety of ways. The first time we see Doc teaching Peekay was when Peekay, Doc and Peekay’s mother were having a conversation about religion early in Doc’s role in the story. Peekay was reasoning that if he’d already done the dying for black people’s sins, why was the white man always punishing the black man?’ (he being Jesus). Peekay was reasoning out of racism and Doc furthered that when he was arrested by saying ‘white men never forgive sins, they only punish you for them, especially if you are black’. This was quite true in Doc’s case because the white people didn’t forgive for his “sins” and refused to admit they were wrong after his innocence was proven. The case is even worse for black people because of the harsh Apartheid rule. This reasoning taught Peekay how to question against things that didn’t seem right to him or didn’t make sense which helped me to understand Peekay’s growing up life because I can’t relate to Peekay’s situation because I live in a majority first world country, and I haven’t been exposed to much of the things that Peekay had to go through early in his life.
Logic also helped me to understand the relationship between Peekay and Doc in another way which was how it taught and showed Peekay’s belonging in the world. Belonging is a natural liking for a place. We see the relationship between logic and racism to be far between, but they link to each other very well because logic denounces racism. Peekay’s belonging in the world as a white person was a very high one, but he saw the black people just as important as the white. This was because spending time with Doc in his cactus garden made him see that no matter what race people are, they all have an equal place in society, but white people view themselves superior which I think is not very nice because it isn’t your fault that you were born a different colour than somebody else, but they get bullied for it anyway. At the beginning of the book, Peekay gets photographed by Doc, and later it is put in the newspaper along with Doc’s arrest news. Peekay said that ‘the photograph captured the exact moment when I understood with the conviction that racism is a primary force of evil designed to destroy good men’. I felt that this showed that even though Peekay was white he still realised that racism wasn’t a good part of the world and that he appreciated being a white person and it gave him a sad sense of belonging because he saw how sad and cruel the Apartheid rule was to the black people of Africa, but he felt that he belonged there because he felt compassionately for the people of his country and he wanted to help them. I thought that Peekay was an amazing person to want to do that, especially for his age, and I felt really happy for his efforts later in the book, and this helped me to understand him.
The power of one was the final key attribute that helped me to understand the relationship between Peekay and Doc. The power of one is the will inside you to do what you believe is right. The first time Peekay finds the Power of one because Doc has taught him how to think logically and it shows him how to think fairly and compassionately, and he shows that he has learned this when he, Mrs Boxall, Doc and Geel Piet initiate the Earl of Sandwich Fund, so the prisoners can have some enjoyment and relief back in their lives. Sometimes the power of one means being different, and Bryce Courtney showed us this when one of the characters said ‘Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it’. This means that even if nobody has the courage to do something, you should do it unless it is something illegal or against your conscience. The key moment where Peekay finds the power of one in himself after the fight with Mandooma is where he sees that he and Doc are part of Africa, the crystal cave of Africa and the action that came from having that realisation was that he built the school for black boxers. This was important because it showed that Peekay was willing to help others because of the power of one. The power of one is also believing that you can stand up for what is right, and we see this when Doc says ‘always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention’. This shows how much faith Doc has in Peekay to do things right because he knows he has the courage within himself to do the best he can. I would find this quite consoling in Peekay’s point of view because he was in a depressed state after the death of Geel Piet. This helped me to understand Peekay as a kind person towards all races and people.
In conclusion, the novel The Power of One, by Bryce Courtney I learned how the relationship between Doc and Peekay helped me to understand how the journey of Peekay was affected by oppression, logic and the power of one.
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