In the novel The Power Of One by Bryce Courtney set in Africa where the black people are suffering from apartheid it shows a key relationship between Peekay and Doc and how it helped me to understand Peekay as a character. Doc and Peekay helped me understand peekay as a character and how he deals with racism, how he spreads hope to the black and how he uses the thought of the power of one.
Firstly Peekay’s and doc’s relationship helps me understand Peekay’s understanding of the racism around him. Doc helped Pekay understand what was happening in the world in terms of racism and oppression. Peekay first really noticed it when he had the fight with Mandoma this was when he first saw apartheid and was shocked and upset. He saw all of the white and black people separated and the blacks were all in a worse place physically and socially then the whites.“We were simply intellectually forced to take the side of the prisoners.” This is because he saw the brutality that the prisoners were going through and knew what was right and what was wrong.
Secondly Doc and Peekay helped me understand Peekay as a character on the night of the concert. The night of the concert was an extremely important part in the book because it was the day Geel Peit was killed and was also the day that Peekay found “the power of one” inside him. On the night of the “Concerto Of The Great Southland” which is what the concert was called. It was called this because it was a lament for Southland but it also had hope soaring through the air. “All the Africans sang in their different languages” They all had hope and were enjoying themselves because they weren’t getting treated poorly. Doc and Peekay were running the concert Doc representing the white Afrikans and Peekay representing all of the Africans. Geel Piet said that “the concert will be blessed with the Tadpole Angel” the tadpole angel is a symbol of hope to all of the prisoners it is what Peekay gets known for due to running the concert with doc. Later in the chapter Geel Piet gets killed and the concert gets named “Requiem For Geel Piet” to celebrate his life but mourn for his death.
Lastly Doc helped Peekay to find “the power of one”. Throughout the book Doc helps Peekay find this power inside him and he uses it for good to help spread hope and happiness to all of the people that believed in him. Peekay mainly used the power of one to spread hope to the black saying it will all get better one day. “The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated” . This is saying that everyone has “the thought of the power of one”. It may be a dormant power yet to come out but this power is greater than all other powers that you may have or previously showed.
Bryce Courtney portrayed how tough it was in Africa by using the thought of “the power of one”, hope, and racism. The big one for these thoughts were all shown at the concert. Hope was shown by the symbol of music when all of the prisoners sang together in their languages. It showed how the power of one can bring people together once again everyone singing. Lastly it showed racism by how badly the prisoners got treated especially Geel Piet.
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