'Peekay's Character'

Peekay, the main character in the novel, was born in South Africa in the 1930’s. As he grew up, he was sent into an Afrikaans boarding school, where, being tormented by the elder pupils and teachers, found particular ways to pursue through his troubles and misdeeds. He meets many tough and cruel people through his time as a naive child. Many children at his age would not think or act like he does.

The language he uses throughout the book is most captivating as it intrigues the readers to interpret Peekay’s actions and look at him from a particular view. At his age, not many kids go through what he did, and not many kids act the way he does either. He has interaction with many adults in his time and not many of them respect him, because of his race/colour. His speech towards those older than him was mostly intended to be sympathetic as he tried to be respectful to those around him, but his intention was still a bit naïve, as this would blow his cover for a normal childhood.

Within the time zone of the 1930’s to the 1940’s, boys still had much respect for the elders, enough to call one father, sir. The “Power of One” was a life based story set in this period of time and therefore set a definite language code for the author to write for ‘Peekay’. Peekay was very respectful for those around him, well, outside his mind anyway. He always thought the opposite of what he was ‘almost forced’ to say by his elders. This changed the way Peekay acted towards those around him, for it made him think about every move he had to make. The camp/boarding school that he stayed in was a temporary mockery of his kind; this made him stronger and more willing to pursue his dreams to become a boxer and successful writer, despite the thoughts and actions of others.

As a boy who lived without a mother for a couple of years and without a father also, wasn’t expected to be raised as a well dressed and presentable looking boy. Being poor and having earlier experience with Christianity, Peekay was not taught the essential things in life, including the true knowledge of God. As he took care for himself, this added to his strengthening of his own will (he notices this on page 173) and this was shown on his dress.

Within the very first few sentences, it is mentioned that his life did not start properly, but rather had many troubles and strife follow up behind him. The book starts off with this sentence, so that throughout the whole book we are able to get detailed and accurate information about how this not so good life turned out before it became so good and how he did it. Conventions, like dialogue, and interpretation by the main character, are a good way to get the reader to understand and acknowledge the whole concept and journey made by Peekay. Language conventions used are certain ‘nicknames’ like, Pisskop, Rooineks and Kaffir. These allow the reader to interpret the culture applied and allow the controversy between the two races also to be seen.