Speech

Through out the story The Power of One the reader forms a emotional relation ship with the main character Peekay. Bryce Courtenay, the author of the novel, describes the many different aspects of the character Peekay very clearly to the reader in his novel. Through explicit detail the reader understands and is able to imagine many aspects to Peekay’s character.

Throughout the novel the character Peekay is often described through his speech. The reader of the novel is given a lot of incite into the character of Peekay through his speech. Through out the Bildungsroman Peekay speaks as an adult looking back on life. He maintains the story of his naïve younger life yet at times in the book we can hear his adult mature voice coming through. At the start of the book through Peekay’s speech about issues and other topic, the reader is given the picture that Peekay is a naïve young boy. This naïve characteristic of Peekay also is expanded upon through the Intertextual references to children novels like Alice in wonderland through out the story. At Peekay grows up and is taught about life, we can see through Peekay’s speech that his is maturing. When he spends time with Doc we can see that his naïve child like characteristic begin to fade away.

Peekay’s speech also helps the readers to understand him as a character. Through his speech the reader of the book is able to understand what type of character he is. An example of this is that through Peekay’s speech the reader can see that he is a polite boy, and that he shows respect to those who are older than him.

Through out the book Peekay also develops in his ability to speak at the beginning of the book Peekay could only understand English. Through out the novel Peekay’s vocabulary and languages develop. Peekay learns several native languages; he learns the Boer’s language as well as Latin and Greek, from his lessons with Doc and the Librarian.

Through Peekay’s actions the reader of the novel is also shown certain characteristics of Peekay. In the begging of the book Peekay was bullied, through his actions he shows that he is vulnerable and that he is unable to do anything about it. through his early years, Peekay acts as though he has to cover up his ability, and his intelligence, to help him in life. He does this by pretending not to understand and to play dumb, and ct like the other students. Through the actions of Peekay, the young, naïve nature that was also shown through his speech is confirmed. Through his actions he shows him self to be very naïve towards Hitler and the bulling by the Judge. The child like nature of Peekay that is show through his actions changes as the story progresses and Peekay grows older. As he grows into adult hood he shows understanding through his actions. He learns to box, by which he can overcome the bulling of other class members. He also earns the respect of his peers through his boxing and is seen as a hero. As a hero Peekay remains humble and continues to have one aim, one desire and one goal. Through his older years Peekay shows through his actions his desire to become the World Champion Welter weight boxer, through his actions he shows that he has one desire and one goal, he shows complete dedication to this goal, through his actions and training.

Through out the book we are not told a lot about how Peekay looked apart from that he was small and white. The author does this for a reason, this could be because he wanted to focus on the, more emotional and the characteristics that defined Peekay as a person. How a person looks does not give such a strong impression on the reader as the character’s speech and its actions.

The author of The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay, constructed the character Peekay with certain views to bring across the message of the book that he purposed. The author uses the conventions of bulling to make the reader sympathise with the protagonist. Through out the novel the author shows how Peekay progressed as a character. Through a theme of determination in adversity, through which determination conquers and comes out, and beats the adversity and struggles that it faces. The author also create him as a like able character, making it easy for the audience to see him as the protagonist and see him as a good character.

The author created Peekay as a ordinary person, Peekay was not the son of a millionaire or the daughter of the president, he was a nobody, it was only through his hard work, determination and goals that he was able to accomplish what he did. The conventions of a novel are that the protagonist over comes the problem of the story, in this novel this is also the case where Peekay is able to overcome the judge and so take a stand against bulling and racism.