The Power of One Ch 1-3

In the novel, The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, Pisskop I ridiculed and hated throughout the school he attends. Everyday, Pisskop is beaten by the judge, jury, and Mevrou. On his first day of school at night the judge and jury came to him and forced him to sit naked in the shower and pissed on him. Pisskop knows that he is hated and he knows that it is for two reasons, being a rooinek and bed wetter. He shows that he knows this in this quote, “I was a rooinek and a Pisskop. I spoke the wrong language. And now I was obviously made differently.” Pisskop deals with this bed-wetting problem when he gets home for break. He tells his nanny what happened. She tells Inkosi-Inkosikazi the great medicine man and he agrees to help Pisskop’s “problem.” When he arrives there are many gifts and food waiting for him but he ignores them and gets right to the business of treating Pisskop. Pisskop hopes that when he is treated, then he will not be treated differently than anyone else. He expresses this to us in his thoughts when Nanny tells his story. “…But when Nanny got to the part where my snake had no hat, (why he is called Pisskop) which in my opinion was the most important bit of the lot…” this quote is showing that this is why Pisskop wants to be with Inkosi-Inkosikazi, so he wont be different so in turn he wont be beaten. The lesson that the author most likely wants readers to learn about the nature of human cruelty and prejudice is that it can happen to anyone for any reason. For Pisskop, the reason is that he is a rooinek and all the boys in the judge and jury are Boers so the hate Pisskop for what his forefathers did not for what he did as shown in this quote, ”The Boer War had created great malevolent feelings against the English, who were called rooineks. It was a hate that had entered the Afrikaner bloodstream and pocked the hearts and minds of the next generation.” He is ridiculed constantly and he thinks he is an outcast, but he knows he is special and that he is maybe glad to be different at times.

Steinbeck Opening Revised

The room is place of comfort, pain, happiness, and sadness.  The days silently go by and the inhabitants never notice.  For, it is dark, because the shades are always closed.  There is not even a light; the only light comes in slivers through the cracks between the wall and the shades.  The place is cluttered and chaotic.  There are papers, clothes, CD’s and even sheet music laying all in the confinement of this, this prison.  The world outside is rarely seen and when it is, it is a dark star-less night.  The moons rays light the whole room in an eerie pale light as a person walks in.  He is small, almost scrawny, but he is also composed in a way that cannot be described.  He sits down on the bed, which is as messy as the room.  He just sits and stares at the ceiling as he listens to his music.

Of Mice and Men-Chapter five response

In the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife is depicted as many things and they are mostly bad, but did she deserve what happened to her?  Curley’s wife is often seen as the antagonist of the story because she is responsible for “killing” George and Lennie’s dream.  But, is she really the cause of this?  She was just looking for someone to reach out and talk to, because in the time of the book women were not treated as equals of men, and this is depicted throughout the book by John Steinbeck because he doesn’t even give her a name all anyone calls her is “Curley’s wife.”  She is treated like and outsider all she is “supposed to do” is stay at home and cook and clean and do everything for the man of house, but she never gets to be herself or do anything especially in the depression era.  This prompt can tie into the last prompt because maybe the reason she is jailbait and flirts with all the guys is because she is lonely something she has in common with Lennie, Crooks, and Candy.  She talks to Lennie and realizes that he is just a little kid in a big big body and she says this in this quote, “‘you’re nuts,’ she said. ‘But you’re a kinda nice fella.  Jus’ like a big baby.’”  And she lets him feel her hair and this leads to that and so on.  But, maybe she just needed someone to be there for her to pour her feelings into and understand her and that was exactly what Lennie did for her just like he did for Crooks.  But she never deserved what she got.  No one deserves that, especially just because she was a so called “tramp.”  So all in all Curley’s wife can be seen as a tramp a flirt or even jailbait, but she is still a loving caring human being and she just wants the “American Dream” and she knows she cant do it without being with a man.  So she flirts around and wears fancy clothes so she can try and get that dream.  But, she is mistreated and misunderstood and she tries to reach out and she is killed, now why would anyone deserve that?