How One Man Can Impact Thousands

The movie The Power of One is the story of the life of a young British boy named Peter Philip or PK, in South Africa during the mid-1900s. When the movie starts the boy is seven years old. We find out that his dad was killed by an elephant so he lives with his mother and their black servants. The cows on his farm die due to disease and due to the sensitivity of his mother PK is sent to Afrikaans boarding school. There he is treated very badly because he is British. An older boy named Jaapie Botha especially bullies PK by calling him piss cock and peeing on him. This causes PK to experience terrible night terrors which he overcomes with the help of a medicine man named Dabula Manzi. PK is given a chicken which he names Mother Courage that helps him overcome his fears. Unfortunately Jaapie captures both of them and hold a mock court where Jaapie kills Mother Courage and injures PK. The court is opportunely interrupted by a teacher who later expels Jaapie. PK returns home to find out that his mother has died. He is sent to live with his grandfather in Barberton and there he meets a German cactus farmer named Kark "Doc" von Vollensteen. Doc is imprisoned as an enemy alien during World War Two and PK goes to the prison with him. PK begins to express sympathy to the black prisoners and learns boxing from a black prisoner named Geel Piet. He is a natural at boxing and ends up being very successful. While at a boxing championship PK meets a girl named Maria. They begin dating in secret due to her father’s strictness.  On one of their dates they meet a black man named Giden Duma who is a prominent boxer in Alexandra, a notorious black township. Dumas direct resistance of apartheid inspires PK to teach English to many Africans. Due to PKs ties to an interracial gym and relationship with his daughter, Marias father has PK put under close supervision. One of the men watching him is Jaapie Botha. The police soon realize that he is teaching English to the Africans and raid one of their classes. During the raid Maria is killed and PK is full of heartache. He considers fleeing to England but is stopped by Duma who tells him of all the good he can still do for the Africans in South Africa that are being discriminated against. The following night Botha leads a raid on Alexandra and is bent on killing PK. They meet and PK knocks out Botha. Botha wakes up and is about to kill PK when he is struck and killed, by Duma, with a cricket bat. This movie directly relates to the anguish and horrible treatment of the natives in South Africa. It not only shows the bad treatment of the Africans but it shows the treatment that some English received from the Dutch. The movie shows that not everyone in South Africa agreed with apartheid. Certain people wanted to do something but they were too afraid. With PK with wasn’t the case. He took action and taught the African people how to speak, read and write English. The African people that were imprisoned were beaten and deprived of food and water. They were separated by tribe and couldn’t speak to the others. In the white areas of towns natives were given degrading looks and weren’t welcome. Police beat and arrested many natives for simply looking at someone wrong. This movie displays what one person can do to make a difference in thousands of people’s lives. Because PK was able to teach a small number of people English, many other people could learn from the people PK had taught. There is a display of hatred in this movie but also a display of kindness and generosity. I recommend that you watch this movie in your free time. It is very educational and quite entertaining.

Luke Mikszta 1A

 

• http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE2DB1E3DF934A15750C0A964958260
• The Power of One (1992)