Saturday, August 28, 2010
Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One
You've read the first chapter of Bryce Courtenay's novel about growing up in South Africa. What is the point of telling his readers a story about bed wetting? (Hint: It might have something to do with the title of the novel, "The Power of One.") What voice does Courtenay write in and why? What types of writing devices does he employ? Where and how does he use dialog? Name some rich details from his story...ie what details do you find memorable in this story and why?
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After reading the beginning of Bryce Courtenay’s novel I realized and feel like I experienced the anguish he suffered when he was forced off to boarding school. Courtenay vividly depicts every situation he encountered which allows me to feel the specific emotions he was trying to convey. The significance of bedwetting and its place in the story portrays Courtenay’s immaturity within the situation. He states, “I was the youngest child in the school by two years.” His age difference may be the cause for his bedwetting; however, his dependency on Nanny could also serve as an alternative explanation. Nanny was like a mother to Courtenay and losing the comfort of a ‘mother’ can cause many different affects for a young boy. The piece uses a voice of the young boy, describing his trials and tribulations though his young life. Courtenay uses dialogue to further emphasis his life events and give a stronger perspective into his hardships. Specifically, he uses rhetorical questions to make the reader think about the effects of the situation. Details I find memorable in the story are Courtenay’s descriptive depictions when talking about how he was dragged by two eleven-year-old boys to the seniors’ dorms. In the dormitory, Courtenay’s vividly describes his idea of a “death sentence.” Courtenay’s idea of his “death” translates into a scene that makes the reader feel as if they are standing there to witness this young boys pain.
ReplyDeleteBryce Courtenay's novel is about a young boy who is placed in a boarding school. He suffers great humiliation due to the fact he is the youngest child in the camp, he is the only one who is able to speak English, and that he wets the bed. The young boy's mother figure was his nanny who nurtured him with unconditional love and support. The young boy's mother was not around, therefore he may still wet the bed because he did not have his mother for support throughout his life. Courtenay's writes his novel through the voice of a young boy living in a South African boarding school. Through the perspective of a young boy, readers are more emotional and empathic because it is a child who is struggling and dealing with the many hardships. The dialogue demonstrates the pain and struggles that the young boy is dealing with. The details I find most memorable is when Courtenay is describing the shower room as "the stark granite walls of the shower recess stood sharply angles against the wet cement floor." The details vividly depict the shower room, even though the shower room was a horrifying experience for the young boy. I think Courtenay vividly described the shower room to allow readers to imagine if they were standing in the shower room with the young boy because they can conceptualize the room as a slaughterhouse.
ReplyDeleteThe first chapter of this story was very detailed, and led to a lot imagery that I imagined, and beckoned a good amount of sympathy from me. I believe he started with the story of the bedwetting for various reasons. One, it is most likely conducive to the plot of the book later on, as it gave a perspective of his life and how his mentality was shaped differently than that of the others in his tribe. Secondly, the story is included to give the perspective of how he was able to rely on his own power. He learned to become more than a man, yet less than a god. He wanted to show perspective on how he became himself. The story was written in the voice of the author when he was writing the story, not when it was happening, so therefore, the level of reflection, while the ideas themselves were those of the child's, were that of the educated and sophisticated author. I think he wrote like this so that the readers could see into his past in a way that allows them to understand where he is coming from and how that experience has changed him. He employs lots of imagery and powerful description of his story. He uses dialogue in order to accentuate the situations, and to make the story more credible, credible in regards to the speaking of Inkosi-inkosikazi. One of my favorite details was this: "We are the earth, that is why we are the color of the earth." That one really stuck out to me because it was very philosophical and important to getting through what the character had to get through. I also really enjoyed the interpretation of the narrator's experience in the "slaughterhouse". That was very enjoyable to me. The story was funny to me, and an enjoyable read.
ReplyDeleteThis story talks of how a boy is sent to boarding school at a very young age. He is the only boy that can speak english at the school and is constintly humiliated by his childish bedwetting that i think courtenay uses as a device to show his immaturity. He uses very vivid details and descriptive details to show everything that is happening at this time in life for the boy. He talks of himself as this boy and how he grew to be a man. Flashing back and showing the thoughts and emotions he expirenced, yet in a more adult and intelligent sort of style. He uses dialogue in the story to show and explain to the reader how the events actually took place, and to make it so it seemed like you were actually there when this conversation was taking place. One of my favorite moments from the story is when he describes the boy jumping into the river and going over the waterfalls, it was very well described and seemed like you were actually there hitting the water and being weightlessly carried by the current over the falls
ReplyDeletein the dream like state the man had put the boy in.
ReplyDeleteCourtenay is so funny I didn't even feel sympathy or sadness as I read about the narrator's woeful story; it's so encrypted with humor I chuckled through most of it. As for the bed wetting, it's hard to guess accurately especially with only the first chapter to read. However, I found an interesting explanation for it, there's a quote from the movie "We Own the Night," that goes: "If you piss in your pants, you only stay warm for so long." This is saying it's a temporary, futile defense mechanism for one to do something such as pee on themself for a short duration of warmth or safety because they will just get cold again shortly after. Courtenay writes through the voice of an ignorant, confused African boy but in the diction of an adult. The main literary device he uses is imagery, describing many vivid sights, smells, and sounds. He includes the dialogues that are powerful enough to remember; maybe only from certain characters or in certain scenarios. This also supports my idea that the details that are most memorable are the parts with dialogue; they leave lasting thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the sad yet humorous at the same time first chapter of Bryce Courtenay’s novel I have learned and observed several things. The point of him telling the bed wetting story is show how the main character as a young child, harsh and cruel treatment would deeply negatively affect him. The main character was abused at the very young age of five. He was urinated on, forced to take freezing showers, beaten, and teased for reasons beyond his ability to understand. To top it off he did not even have any one to cry to; no one was there to comfort him. After growing up so close to his nanny he must have had a very difficult time with coping with all the torture. I think the title is the “Power of One” because the main character will have to grow and survive after being beaten at such a young age. It takes a very strong and powerful person to overcome such hardships. Courtenay writes in first person so we can get an in depth and detailed look into the main characters life and feelings. The writing device that was most present to me was imagery. He uses rich details so the reader can imagine and feel what is going on in the story. He uses dialogue to exemplify the feelings and emotions that go on between the characters. For example, when the main character is being teased about how he is not circumcised, Courtenay has one of the African boys say, “hey, look, there is no hat on his snake!” (6). He uses dialogue rather than just telling how he gets teased to make a stronger point. The most memorable part to me because of the details used by Courtenay is the shower scene. The way he describes the freezing temperature of the water literally gave me the chills. When he described how the main character thought the shower was death, it really made me feel the horror of the experience.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first chapter of Bryce Courtney's novel, the boy's suffering while at boarding school quickly becomes apparent. The bed wetting is important since it relates the boy's nature as a social outcast to his relatively young age as a student. In my opinion, this scene generates the meaning of the story. It symbolizes how his "night water" weakness allows others to have a sense of power over him. Yet as the story progresses, Inkosi- Inkosikazi guides the boy through his problem and eventually teaches him the chicken magic trick. As the chicken adapts and becomes more accustomed to the boy's actions, the boy loses his sense of power over the chicken. This represents how the actions of an individual are powerful enough to influence any situation. The style and voice that Courtnay incorporates into his writing also provides a plethora of vivid sensory details. For this reason, the main writing device he utilizes is imagery. He also integrates dialogue within the chapter to allow the readers to follow how the boy was mistreated and harassed at boarding school. He uses the voice of a young boy to encapsulate the feeling of growing into himself throughout the story. The boy states, "I swam strongly and with great confidence to the first of the great stones glistening black and wet in the moonlight." I remember this component of the chapter specifically due to the fact that the details Courtnay uses represents the boy's shift in confidence.
ReplyDeleteBryce Courtenay's novel is very detailed. He incorporate these details in order to create an image for the reader. By doing this Courtenay was able to make the reader feel the humiliation the boy was going through as he continuously wet the bed. In my personal opinion I feel like Courtenay wrote this novel about bed wetting because many can relate to this topic at one point in their life. Most people might feel ashame and embarrassed about wetting their bed but the truth is that we all did it at. The only way to over come bed wetting is the person wetting the bed. In the novel "The Power of One" the main character was being harassed while at boarding school by older boys about wetting the bed. It is because of this humiliation that he always prayed to his nanny for guidance. Without the aid of his nanny this boy is completely helpless and without protection. Therefore the title "The Power of One" could also mean how the boy matured over a short period of time with the power of oneself. Courtenay uses the voice of the young boy in order to create sympathy for the character. Courtenay uses humor, South African slang and other quotations throughout the chapter. The author place dialogs where the readers least expects it in order to create humor and establish the humiliation the boy is going through. There are quite a few memorable details from this story. For example a boy yells out "there is no hat on his snake!" directing towards his circumcised penis. Also when he thought he was going to drown as he was being pissed on by a girl bigger than his nanny. Courtenay does a fantastic job of creating vivid pictures of all the torture and torment this boy has been through. When all said is done, it's you who needs to face your problems.
ReplyDeleteThe young character that Bryce Courtenay has introduced us to in the beginning of his novel shows to us a person that we can somewhat identify with. At one time or another, everyone has had a moment of loneliness, that feeling that you are alone in the situation in which you are involved in. By telling the story of a bed wetting, it is an event that most are familiar with. Whether or not they actually experienced it, they know the context of such a situation, with the context being that it has a background of being shameful and something that needs to be stopped.
ReplyDeleteI find the voice that Courtenay chooses to use particularly interesting. Although the present time is of a young boy, the author uses a mixture or an older man recalling his feelings at the time of his childhood, which gives us the interesting perspective of both the boy at the time and the man he turned into reflected on his past. Courtenay also uses devices such as the personification of the chicken to look into the mind of the boy, who feels that he has a special bond with it, and show that the chicken is able to outsmart him. He also uses a certain casual diction that represents the cultural influence of Africa.
Courtenay uses the dialogue as a present aspect, being something that is spoken between the constant actions of the surroundings. He also uses a great influence of dialect to again add to the culture of Africa as well as make it more personal and authentic. The entire chapter as a whole leaves the lasting impact of a child who goes through a lonely phase, but tries his hardest to endure through his trials. I feel that the details that truly stick around are the emotional entries Courtenay provides, including the personal thoughts of the young boy.
The description that Bryce Courtenay uses in this chapter makes me feel as if I was in boarding school right along side of him. He is the youngest boy at the school, the only one who can speak English, and also has a bed wetting problem which is why he suffers from great humiliation. I think the author tells this story to show his immaturity and to give insight into how his mentality on life was shaped different than others in his tribe. He was harshly tortured from a very young age and didn’t even have anyone to go which must have been hard for him since he was so close with his Nanny. I think the title, “The Power of One”, comes in here because he didn’t have anyone to help him and only had his own power to get through his problems. The humor that the author uses throughout the chapter takes some of the somberness and gloom out of the story. The author writes in first person as if he is reflecting back on the events that have transpired. He uses dialogue to help emphasize his points and make the story more credible. One of my favorite memorable details from the story was Courtenay’s description of the “slaughterhouse”. This description, along with the rest of the story was very enjoyable and humorous for me.
ReplyDeleteBryce Courtenay's novel "The Power of One" begins by Courtenay vividly describing the "pre-life" existence of a young African boy. Once depicting the boy, he begins to narrate the start of the boy's life: how the child actually began to live during his first day at boarding school at the age of five. The manner that Courtenay begins and continues his novel throughout the entire piece of literature is through the art of flashback - the entire novel is Courtenay looking back at the early years of his life. Therefore, Courtenay uses himself in the enigma of his life as a child as the voice of his novel. His purpose for making the voice of the story that: to create ethos with the audience and also give more in depth insight into the main character of the novel, the young boy. To further enhance the novel, Courtenay uses multiple writing devices: slang terminology to captivate the audience into believing they are actually in that region of the world; immense amounts of detail so that the audience can truly visualize the scene set before their eyes; humor to relieve the massive amount of pain and tension that rests within every page of the novel; and also various literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and personifications to create an impeccable piece of literature. Furthermore, in his novel, Courtenay uses dialogue during scenes or parts within his novel that hold an importance to the story so that the plot can thicken with the words of the characters. Lastly, I vividly recall details of his bed wetting problem, not so much the problem itself but the resolution that occurred and the scene it created. The medicine man has always played an important part in African culture and I was excited to read about it in the first chapter of Bryce's novel. Bryce put this problem into his novel because the majority of the audience can relate to such a fiasco, and it also symbolizes the change in power from a motherly figure to the child as he or she matures to find the power within himself or herself: just as the boy matured from needing a wet nurse to being able to relieve himself on his own with control.
ReplyDeleteIn Bryce Courtenay’s Opening chapter to his novel The Power of One I feel he uses the bed wetting as symbolic of entering a new hostile environment. As he is afraid of this new school and the challenges it faces him with he is also confused by the new technology of the shower and uses the metaphor of the water coming out of it as piss. How he wields no power in his new environment and how the problem of his bedwetting is never directly answered, he never says if he was cured just that he was eventually able to wield power over Grandpa Chook. Bryce tells this story from a first person perspective because he is taking you through his life and wants to put you in his shoes. Understand what his life was like at those exact moments. Throughout the story he uses several literary devices such as foreshadowing his bed-wetting problem by taking a lot about piss. Using strong metaphors of the water coming out of the shower describing the water as icy cold needles stinging his body. Onomatopoeia was used to describe the cracking green wood in the fire, and he often personified chickens. Dialogue is used in this story again to denote power people the have power over him are really the only wants to be given dialogue everyone else is just mentioned and maybe says something but their speech isn’t in quotations. Bryce does create some very memorable moments mostly while he is in the shower at the school. He used extensive descriptive detail to describe it, and the chickens and the circles in the ground is another memorable moment for the amusement that it brings.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the First Chapter of Bryce Courtenay’s novel, I feel as thogh he suffered throgh a lot to ultimately become the person he has become. The point of telling readers about his bed wetting proves this. If not for his Bed wetting situation, Peekay would have never met Inkosi-Inkosikazi, and in turn would not have had his Mind "opened to a special place of "dreaming."" Peekays Interaction with Inkosi-Inkosikazi gave him a Hollistic view of himself, which in turn gave him confidence or "Power".
ReplyDeleteIn the opening chapter of Bryce Courtenay's novel, The Power of One, he uses bedwetting as a way of showing how he was not ready for this new environment. He speaks of how he is two years younger then the next person at board. However, a more abstract reason for why he uses bedwetting is that he doesnt't have "nanny" anymore, whom served almost as a mother to him. I think that this could relate to the title because it shows people just need one person to change their life. The book is written through a young boy's perspective, which creates more emotion and feeling for the hardships that he faces. He uses many dialogues and rhetorical questions to make the reader really think about what is going on. The most memorable part to me was the shower scene. The way that he described the shower room made us realize how horrifying this situation was. When he talked about how the cold the water was and that the shower was like death gave vivid details of what the shower was really like.
ReplyDeleteThe first chapter of Courtney's book lays out an important part of his childhood and the experiences from it that shaped him. I find the importance of the bed wetting story to be an introduction to his cultural background and his own personal struggles as an outsider amongst his peers. His voice switches between himself as an innocent child and his current self which is pulling it together to a refined point which corresponds with the flashbacks. He uses dialog to further explain aspects of his culture by using native words and names to describe his surroundings. What I personally found humorous was his description his five year old pecker as an "acorn". I found the meaning of the title to be very profound once I interpreted it. Courtney shows that through his experiences he learns that the power to combat ones problems comes from one person, and one person alone, yourself. This means that only you can cure your "illnesses" and all you need is to believe that you have the power to do so. I get this from the medicine man showing him his, not so magical, magic trick. This latently shows him that you don't need magic but just confidence in your ability to help yourself. I also like his idea of death when he was a small child.
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