ADVANCED ENGLISH 3-4
Ms. LeCren, La Jolla High School Name:________________________________________
Period:____ Date:______________________________
Essay on The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Directions: Select one of the prompts below and write an essay about The Power of One. Create a thesis
statement that captures the point you want to make about the novel based on the prompt. Your essay will be
graded on its strong thesis statement, and its ability to back up statements with examples from the text. Use
MLA format. Type the essay. Due Date:_______________________________
The Prompts
1.
Select three characters from The Power of One and discuss how they interact with Peekay using internal and external conflicts, motivations, relationships, and influences. Discuss how these interactions
with Peekay affect the plot.
2.
How does the author, Bryce Courtenay, express one of the themes in the book? (Give specific techniques, examples or incidents that the author uses to express the theme. Don’t forget “why”the author
wants to express the theme.)
Themes from The Power of One: •
The way to survive is to blend in—camouflage.
•
First with your head, then with your heart.
•
Little beats big if…(you are smart).
•
A theme of your choice (you may want to use one of the nine topics that we
looked at from Things Fall Apart–just make sure you write them in the form of a complete
sentence).
3.
How does Peekay’s coming of age story compare to other book(s) with characters who make similar
journeys: Ender in Ender’s Game, Harry Potter, Siddhartha, (other coming of age stories that you can
think of). [The technical name for a coming of age story is a Bildungsroman].
4.
What are Peekay's character traits? How does the author, Bryce Courtenay, use narration, dialogue,
and any other techniques to reveal a character's traits? Make sure you point out that The Power of One
uses first person narration, and why/how that may be effective (or not) in revealing Peekay’s character
traits.
5.
Does The Power of One have a particular writing style, word choice, tone, mood? How (effectively)
does the author, Bryce Courtenay, illustrate the tone, mood, and theme using diction (word choice),
figurative language, and other writing techniques?
6.
Although epic conventions are specific to the genre of the epic poem, many of the conventions are seen
in other works of literature. In The Power of One how has the author, Bryce Courtenay, used “the hero
meets a mentor?” Why is this epic convention effective (or not) in telling this story?
7.
How does the author, Bryce Courtenay, use symbolism to reinforce the points he is trying to make
about his themes and/or his characters? [For example, do Doc’s cacti symbolize Peekay—hard and
prickly on the outside, resistant to letting people into the soft center inside?]
8.
What does the reader learn about life from this novel?
-over-
Quote You May Want to Use on the Essay
You may want to use any/all of the following quotes from the novel as inspiration or evidence for your essay.
The essay must be typed, and use MLA format for heading, parenthetical references, margins, etc.
Remember always, first with the head and then with the heart. Without both, I'm telling you, plans are useless" [Hoppie] (____).
[somewhere in Ch. 4-7]
"Sometimes in life, doing what we shouldn't do is the emergency, Peekay,"
he [Hoppie] said (___). [Ch. 4-7]
"Life is all beginnings and ends. Nothing stays the same, lad," my granpa
said at last. Then he puffed his pipe and seemed to be examining his
fingernails, which were broken and dirty from gardening. "Parting, losing
the thing we love the most, that's the whole business of life, that's what it's
mostly about" (__). [Ch. 8-11]
As I sat on the rock high on my hill, and as the sun began to set over the
bushveld, I grew up. Just like that. The loneliness birds stopped laying stone
eggs, they rose from their stone nests and flapped away on their ugly wings
and the eggs they left behind crumbled into dust. A fierce, howling wind
came along and blew the dust away until I was empty inside...The emptiness
was a new kind of loneliness, a free kind of loneliness (______). [Ch. 8-11]
Scoring Rubric: Essay
p follows the directions
p contains evidence that the student
finished reading the book; uses
examples from the last half of the
book (beyond Chapter 15)
p includes insight and creativity
p examples are accurate
p use of thesis statement and examples is correct
p turned in on time
Doc had persuaded me to drop my camouflage and not to play dumb. "To be
smart is not a sin. But to be smart and not use it, that, Peekay, is a sin. Absoloodle!" (______). [Ch. 8-11]
"Peekay," he [Doc] said, "in this world are very few things made from logic alone. It is illogical for a man to be too logical. Some
things we must just let stand. The mystery is more important than any possible explanation...." It was an answer that left me confused for some years, for Doc worshiped the truth and had always demanded it between us at any cost (______). [Ch. 12-15]
"We've got to start somewhere. Let's start by trusting each other."
"No offense, Peekay, but next time first the facts and then the trust." It was perhaps the most important thing Morrie ever
said to me. Morrie was the supreme example of Hoppie's dictum, first with the head, then with the heart. It was to be the basis of
our business operations from that time on (____). [Ch. 16-18]
As is so often the case with a legend, every incident has two possible interpretations, the plausible and the one that is molded to
suit the making of the myth. Man is a romantic at heart and will always put aside dull, plodding reason for the excitement of an
enigma. As Doc had pointed out, mystery, not logic, is what gives us hope and keeps us believing in a force greater than our own
insignificance (______). [Ch. 16-18]
Nineteen forty-eight was a great year in South Africa's history. Princess Elizabeth toured, and we all stood beside the
road and waved flags and caught a glimpse of our future queen as she rode past in a long, black, open Rolls-Royce.
It was also the year South Africa got white bread, an event which excited a lot more people than catching a glimpse of the
future queen of England....
Nineteen forty-eight was the year South Africa lost all hope of joining the brotherhood of man (____). [Ch. 19-21]
I knew that eventually something more was expected of me. All my life I'd been pushed around. By the Judge. By the Lord. By the
concept of the Tadpole Angel. In my own way I had fought and in return had been given Doc and Hoppie and Geel Piet as my mentors. The point of all this was difficult to understand. Perhaps, after all, life is like this. But I felt I needed to take one independent
action that would put my life back under my own control. It was as though I needed to lose but hadn't developed the mechanism to
do so. I had only one problem with this; I hadn't any idea how to go about doing so (___). [Ch. 22-24]
I told him of my fear of losing control of my destiny; how, because I had camouflaged myself so well, I seemed now to
be shaped and directed too much by the needs of others. How the power of one within me was being dissipated even though their
purposes for me were not corrupt or ill-intentioned. On the contrary, their deeds came swaddled in the innocence of love. I was
becoming powerless as those around me plundered my spirit with the gift of themselves.
It was as though there were a voice inside me explaining me to myself: I had become an expert at camouflage. My precocity allowed me, chameleonlike, to be to each what they required me to be. To Doc a companion, to Mrs. Boxall an enchantment, to
the People a champion, to Captain Smit a fulfillment, to Miss Bornstein a bright lint in a dull warp, to Morrie a foil, to Singe 'n'
Burn a product, and to my peers an idealized schoolboy, a winner, and a great guy (___). [Ch. 22-24]