Power of One Theme Essay

666 Words3 Pages
Outsider “Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive,”(Jamais Cascio). Bryce Courtney’s Power of One brings to the life the coming of age story of Peekay. Peekay is an outsider. Throughout the novel this is made apparent. However Peekay doesn't let this bring him down, he is extremely resilient. When it comes to boxing, playing piano, and school Peekay is successful. Throughout the novel Courtney brings to light that even though one might be an outsider,they can still be successful in anything they do if they fight hard for it. Courtney uses an ironic situation to expose how Peekay is an outsider. “With some forty kids of my own age I was now undisputed leader, a situation I must confess I found to my liking. Being somebody after being nobody for so long was a heady experience, but I also found it, on occasion, a bit onerous. Fights had to be settled, bullying stopped, and the small kids set straight when they did things wrong. (225)”. Even when Peekay is the most popular kid in the school, he still feels like he doesn't belong. He's a leader, but not one of them. However even though Peekay is an outsider it doesn't stun him from becoming an outstanding student. Peekay still outshines everyone and reaches the top of the class. This was due to the fact that he kept fighting and didn’t let him being on the outside get him down. As Peekay grows he takes on a new type of camouflage,being the very best. It is ironic because standing out doesn't appear to be a way of hiding. Peekay explains that “While I told myself that each win was a small deposit on the ultimate ownership of the world welterweight crown, the enormous need in me to win touched on a whole heap of other responses a fourteen-year-old can't really work out. ...While I didn't think of it as camouflage
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