The Power of One
Much of The Power of One is based on Bryce Courtenay's own life. Courtenay was born in 1933
in South Africa. He was raised amidst black South Africans in an isolated homestead in the
Lebombo Mountains. At five years of age, he was sent to a boarding school, which was a
mixture between a reform school and an orphans' home. Here he learned how to box in order to
survive. He then moved to Barberton in the North Eastern part of South Africa and met a
German music teacher called Doc, who was perpetually drunk. Courtenay and Doc spent much
time wandering in the African bush together. Courtenay attended a prestigious private high
school, and then studied journalism at an English university. He was banned from returning to
South Africa since he had initiated a weekend school for black people at his high school. He fell
in love with an Australian woman, Benita, while studying in England and he followed her to
Sydney, where they were married. They now have three sons and two grandsons. Courtenay
began to write at the age of fifty-five, after a long and highly successful career in advertising.
The Power of One, published in 1989, was the first of his many best-selling novels.
Date
Dec 2/3
In Class
South Africa - A brief history
The Hero’s Journey
Peekay’s journey
Character analysis
Homework
Get to Know South Africa Project
Choose ONE of the following projects:
* Sign up to cook one of the South African
recipes. Make the dish and bring in enough
for each person to have a small taste.
* Choose an element of American life, e.g.
music, sport, minerals, etc. Do research on
the same element of life in South Africa.
Compare these in a 17x22 poster.
* Choose one of the important South African
figures available on my list. Research the
person and prepare a 5-minute speech (with
5 power point slides) about this person and
how this person is important in the RSA.
Due Dec 9 & 10
Dec 4/5
Character analysis continued
Theme – Logic and Magic
Motifs explored Onoshobishobi Ingelosi
The snake
The loneliness birds
Civil Disobedience
Get to Know South Africa
Project
presentations
The bildungsroman – in what
different ways is coming of
age explored in the novel.
Get to Know South Africa Project
Dec 9/10
Dec 11/12
Dec 16/17
Dec 18/19
Jan 6/7
Jan 8/9
Jan 13/14
Jan 15 – Jan 23
Apartheid power point
Theme – Apartheid and hatred
Theme – Boxing and Fighting
Symbolism
Discussion of the final chapter.
In class essay
You have the whole period to
write this essay. You may use
notes and the novel to assist
you. This is a timed writing
and does not need to be in
MLA format. Please write
legibly as we are grading this
draft.
Essay Prompt
On the basis of his actions at the end of the
novel, Peekay might be considered immoral
or evil. In a well-organized essay, explain
both how and why the full presentation of
the character in the work makes us react
more sympathetically than we otherwise
might.
Consider: Is Peekay a hero or not? How do
his actions relate to and expose the themes
in the novel? Are his actions symbolic of
more than just one boy’s revenge?
Your essay should be 600 – 750 words long.
Field of Dreams – Group
assignments
Complete Field of Dreams
Ray Kinsella’s Hero’s Journey
Group reports
Ray Kinsella - Character
Analysis
Presentation of Auditory Autobiographies