Line #22 Literature/ThePowerOfOne


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6	->''First with the head, then with the heart.''
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8	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_power_of_one_bryce_courtenay_first_edition_signed_1989_rare_2_1.jpg]]
9	[[caption-width-right:350:First Edition]]
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11	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/powerofonesuperhrws_5.jpg]]
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14	''The Power of One'' (1989) is a novel by Bryce Courtenay set in South Africa just before and during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It follows the life of an English boy [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname known only as]] Peekay after his mother suffers a nervous breakdown and he gets sent to an Afrikaner BoardingSchoolOfHorrors. After leaving the school, Peekay gets on a train for Barberton and meets Hoppie Groenwald, the train guard and a welterweight boxer. After witnessing Hoppie's match, the young boy is entranced by the sport and encouraged by Hoppie to become the welterweight champion of the world.
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16	[[TheFilmOfTheBook A film adaption]] was released in 1992. It scores a 2 on the SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification. It should not be confused with the second feature-length Franchise/{{Pokemon}} movie, which in English bears the same title.
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19	!!Provides Examples Of:
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21	* AdaptationNameChange: The movie changes the name of Peekay's chicken from Grandpa Chook to Mother Courage.
22	* TheAlcoholic: In a few passages, Doc is noted to be a bit too fond of the drink for his own good. At one point, this leads to him lashing out at a couple of boorish cops (though, admittedly, they deserved it), and he's thrown in the clink as a result.
23	* AllGermansAreNazis: Subverted with Doc, and becomes a major plot point when he is sent to prison.
24	%%* AllJewsAreCheapskates
25	* AmoralAfrikaner: Every significant villain is an Afrikaner, filled with violent hatred not only for the black majority but for the English as well. Notably, the white protagonist is an English South African, making him almost as much of an outcast as the blacks. There are some sympathetic Afrikaner characters here and there (Maria being probably the most prominent), but they seem to be exceptions to the rule.
26	%%* AProtagonistShallLeadThem
27	%%* AxCrazy: Jaapie Botha.
28	%%* BadassBookworm: Peekay.
29	%%* TheBully: The Judge.
30	* CombatPragmatist: When Peekay's boxing opponent drinks water, he focuses on punching him in the gut. Ouch.
31	%%* CoolOldGuy: Doc.
32	* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Peekay would already be inherently unacceptable to Maria's father just based on his being English (the Afrikaners look down on the English almost as much as they do on people of other races), but the fact that he's an outspoken anti-Apartheid activist takes it to another level, and the fact that he influences ''Maria'' to question Apartheid is the final straw.
33	* DistinguishingMark: The Judge's crude Swastika.
34	* DuringTheWar: One of the earliest events in the novel is The Judge mentioning UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII invasion of Poland]]. Hoppie is later drafted to fight [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]].
35	* EmbarrassingNickname: Pisskop (Afrikaans for "Pisshead"), from which "Peekay" is derived. Also Rooinek ("Red Neck"), a disparaging term for Brits.
36	* EnemyMine: The Afrikaner boys' support for the Nazis, derived from their shared opposition to the British.
37	* FriendlessBackground: At the start, Peekay has absolutely no friends among his peers; the only people to whom he is remotely close are his elders. As time goes on, however, he starts to befriend people in his own age group.
38	* GoodOldFisticuffs: As the cover might suggest, boxing is central to the novel.
39	* HandsOffParenting: Peekay's mother is rather uninvolved with her son's rearing, even after she returns for him.
40	%%* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Rasputin.]]
41	%%* HotForTeacher
42	* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Peekay himself. He is distinguished by the traits of extreme generosity and a love for people of all races, but he rarely passes judgment on others.
43	* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Peekay is ridiculously intelligent (both naturally and from being tutored by Doc) and as such has no friends outside the boxing squad until he goes to The Prince of Wales School halfway through the book.
44	%%* JerkAss: The Judge.
45	%%* JewishAndNerdy
46	* KidHero: Peekay, who goes from a timid and friendless child to a resourceful, confident, and stout-hearted young man.
47	%%* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:The Judge.]]
48	* MightyWhitey: Having been raised primarily by his Zulu nurse, Peekay is sympathetic to the struggles of South Africa's indigenous peoples, but still, the fact that he tries to solve the problem by himself makes him come across as a "White Savior," which is bound to ruffle more than a few readers' feathers.
49	* MoodWhiplash: The first few chapters of the book are a nightmarish BoardingSchoolOfHorrors story. After that Peekay gets on a train back to home and suddenly the mood and events of the story turn more upbeat.
50	* NeverMyFault: The adult Botha holds a grudge against Peekay for getting him expelled from school. Naturally the fact that the teenaged Botha strung Peekay upside down and nearly killed him with a sling had ''nothing'' to do with his expulsion.
51	%%* NiceGuy: Peekay, in spades.
52	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Peekay gets a long-awaited one with Jaapie Botha at the end.
53	%%* TheObiWan: Doc.
54	* ParentalAbandonment: Peekay's mother suffered a breakdown following his birth, so he was raised by his Zulu nurse.
55	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Judge, who declares his support for the Nazis, and intends to follow their genocidal example against the English-descended South Africans, as well as obviously supporting suppression of black Africans under apartheid.
56	* PrisonerPerformance: In the film, Peekay helps organize a prison concert, in which the African prisoners defiantly StealthInsult [[HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier their ignorant white audience]]. The lyrics to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an49Ra-015U the song they sing]] are provided below:
57	-->''Asambe ba ya memeza'' (Let's go, they're watching)
58	-->''Asambe ba ya memeza''
59	-->''A re yeng! A re yeng!'' (Let's go! Let's go!)
60	-->''A re yang! Pula e ya na!'' (Let's go! It's raining)
61	-->''Hela! Pula e ya na!'' (Hey! It's raining!)
62	-->''A ya mema, a ya mema'' (They are looking around)
63	-->''A ya thithizela'' (They are shaking!)
64	-->''A yeza nga magwala'' (They are behaving like cowards!)
65	-->''A ya thathazela wema!'' (They are scared)
66	-->''O wenzenjani?'' (Oh why are you doing this?)
67	-->''Wenzenjani wema?'' (What are you doing?)
68	-->''O thithizela''
69	* TheReveal: Jaapie Botha is actually [[spoiler:The Judge.]]
70	%%* RedOniBlueOni: In the second half of the book Peekay is red to Hymie's blue.
71	%%* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: [[spoiler:Jaapie Botha, formerly known as The Judge.]]
72	%%* TheSociopath: The Judge.
73	%%* TeensAreMonsters: The Judge as a teenager and his entire crew.
74	* ShoutOut: In the movie Peekay's chicken Mother Courage is a reference to ''Theatre/MotherCourageAndHerChildren''.
75	* SuicideByPills: [[spoiler:Doc, Peekay's teacher and best friend, decides on a whim that his time has come after everyone else in South Africa accuses him of being a German spy. He dies quietly and neatly by overdosing on pills inside the Crystal Cave of Africa, where he and Peekay used to explore.]]
76	* TookALevelInBadass: Peekay, who starts out a meek and put-upon boy, and becomes stronger and more outspoken as the story progresses, standing up for the black South Africans, and finally [[spoiler:getting his revenge on Jaapie Botha at the very end.]]
77	* UnskilledButStrong: Jackhammer Smit and Jaapie Botha. [[spoiler:The "unskilled" part is their undoing.]]
78	* WeakButSkilled: Hoppie's strategy to take down the heavyweight Jackhammer Smit is to effectively blind him with punches to the eye. Peekay is entranced by this sort of tactic and uses it when ''he'' takes up boxing.
79	* WritersCannotDoMath: Simon Fenton is credited as, "P.K. Age 12," but the scenes featuring him explicitly take place in 1945. It's not exactly the hardest math in the world to figure out that if a character is born in 1930 and is eighteen in 1948, he should be fifteen in 1945.

Context Literature / ThePowerOfOne