The Power of One Plot
Bryce Courtenay’s Novel on Youth in Apartheid South Africa
Best-selling Australian writer Bryce Courtenay (author of Jessica, Tandia, and The Potato Factory) tells the story of Peekay, a boy growing up in apartheid South Africa.
Plot: Abuse at Boarding School
A little English boy is sent to an Afrikaner boarding school. He is tormented by older boys, lead by the Judge. The Judge, crude and fiercely pro-Nazism, sees the little boy as a representation of English cruelties to Afrikaners in the Boer War and exacts revenge by abusing the boy, urinating on him, killing his pet chicken, forcing him to eat human feces, and promising that Hitler will come to kill him.
Finally, the boy is sent to live with his mother and grandfather in Barberton. Hoppie escorts the boy and teaches him two things: a passion for boxing and the dictum, “first with the head, then with the heart”. The Judge used to call the boy “pisskop” (pisshead), so the boy tells Hoppie that his name is Peekay (PK).
Plot: Peekay’s Education by Doc and Geel Piet
Peekay misses his Zulu nanny but meets two new mentors. Doc, Peekay’s piano teacher, teaches him to think critically. An inmate at the local prison, Geel Piet, teaches him to box by “dancing”, using evasion and surprise.
When Doc (a German) is imprisoned for failing to note his nationality at the beginning of WWII, he, Geel Piet, and Peekay work to improve inmates’ lives. They smuggle tobacco and mail. The inmates celebrate Peekay’s boxing victories and mysteriously know when he has won before the news reaches Barberton. They believe that Peekay is a savior figure and call him “The Tadpole Angel”.
Tragedy strikes during a concert in the prison. Peekay leaves the celebrations in search of Geel Piet and finds him in the boxing area, beaten to death and anally abused by the warden’s baton.
Peekay needs a new avenue for his skills. He is accepted to the prestigious Prince of Wales school in Johannesburg.
Plot: Prince of Wales School and Friendship with Morrie
Peekay is a standout student and athlete in private school. He becomes hyper-aware of the fact that, despite his success, he is “hiding” his true self by being so much better than everyone else.
The only person with whom he does not hide is his best friend, Morrie. Morrie is wealthy and enjoys scheming for money as an intellectual pursuit. He includes Peekay in his plans, and they get rich. Morrie is the only peer who can match Peekay for independent thinking, and his friendship helps Peekay grow intellectually.
Peekay works with a world-class boxing instructor, Solly Goldman. Peekay beats a young Zulu man who turns out to be his childhood nanny’s son, and they become friends.
Meanwhile, Doc goes missing. Peekay knows exactly where his old teacher is: dead in the Crystal Cave of Africa, a magical place they discovered on a hike. Peekay makes a trip to mourn for Doc.
Plot: Peekay’s Revenge on the Judge
Peekay is admitted to Oxford but not given a full scholarship. Rather than take Morrie’s father’s money, Peekay takes a dangerous job as a “grizzly man” in Northern Rhodesian mines to save his tuition.
Peekay meets another mine worker and recognizes the Judge. Alcoholic, fattened, and angry, the Judge has not fared well in life. He and Peekay fight and Peekay knocks him out, carving PK into the Judge's swastika tattoo. At last, Peekay feels cleansed.
Now read the next article in this three-part series, Bryce Courtenay and Peekay or skip ahead to The Power of One: Themes.
Courtenay, Bryce. The Power of One. Ballantine Books: 1996. ISBN 978-0345410054.
