Blog Entry 5

Blog 5

All throughout the book written by Bryce Courtenay The Power of One I kept reading about these symbols like the Nazi Swastika, the union Jack, the three waterfalls, the snake, the loneliness birds and the African term osmosis or the Tadpole Angel. All of these symbols had a different meaning and significance. These symbols are used in different situations to show us new things or to show us a different perspective on a situation.

The first symbol I mentioned was the Nazi Swastika. Most of us know what this was. It was a cross type symbol and Hitler used it to show their anti-Semitism or hate towards the Jews. In the book we read that Judge and the Jury all love Hitler. They look at him and the Germans as a saviour because he was supposed to get rid of all of the Rooineks in South Africa. They were going to come and march them all off of the cliff into the sea.  The Judge got a tattoo of the Swastika on his arm and this was a sign of his naivetés. He didn’t really know what Hitler was going to do, he didn’t realise that he would just as soon kill all of the Afrikaners. The Judge didn’t realise that Hitler was after the Jews. At the end of the book Peekay mutilates the Judge’s swastika by carving into his arm a union jack. The swastika could go away; one could scrape a tattoo off, even if it was painful. However, it was possible, but the scar that would be left by Peekay would be unfixable. This was a sign of Peekay’s final stand against his aggressors. Bryce Courtenay uses very graphic language to get his point across but there it is Peekay’s rebellion against the false ‘deity’ so to speak.

The third symbol was the three waterfalls. I didn’t find much about this topic, but I did find that in the book, Peekay returns home after his first year of school and his nanny commands the famous black chief Inkosi-Inkosikazi to solve Peekay's bed-wetting problem. Not only does Inkosi-Inkosikazi manage this, but he also opens Peekay's mind to a special place of "dreaming", a place of three waterfalls and ten stones, where Peekay may always find him. This could be Peekay’s sort of happy place, a place where he could go to take control of his ‘Zen’ so to speak.

The next symbol was the snake. First of all is his ‘hatless snake’. Now we all know that this referred to his circumcision and this was a source of shame to him. It set him apart from all of the other white boy’s. That is how they found out that he was a Rooinek. They tortured him as a result. The next snake we hear of is the one that Granpa Chook kills. Granpa Chook bites off the head of this snake and Peekay uses this as a sort of comfort because he is not the only one with a ‘headless snake’ anymore. These, however, are literal. Later on in the book the snake turns into a symbolic status. Starting in chapter eighteen, Peekay uses the symbol of the snake by applying the analogy of shedding his outer skin, similar to the snake. He conquers his earlier embarrassment of his ‘hatless snake’. Now, instead of feeling vulnerable, he comes to accept himself as he is. At the end of the book, while he has his mining job, he has a dream or ‘vision’ of the black mamba snake, the dream sign from Doc. This seemingly cautions Peekay of his disastrous incident with the running fuse and this dream saves his life.

After this there are the loneliness birds. These birds are Peekay’s childhood idea and their name describes what they are. They need no introduction. They are spread throughout the story but always happen to be mentioned when he is suffering from abuse and feels alone. Peekay finally gets rid of these loneliness birds when he beats the Judge to a pulp and mutilates his arm.

The last symbol is the Tadpole Angel. This is something that only the black people in the book seem to have. They can somehow transmit information through this Tadpole Angel. The Tadpole Angel is a symbol of hope and the black people along with the outsiders in the Prince of Wales school compare Peekay to the Tadpole Angel. This is because he is a symbol of hope; he does what others don’t dare and he succeeds.