The Power of One Themes
Isolation
Let's zero in on the last word of the book's title, The Power of One. The "one" gives us an idea that this novel is going to be about an individual. But what you might not realize by looking at the...
Revenge
Served cold? With a side of French Fries? How do you like your revenge served up? Well, in The Power of One there are a lot of wrongs to right and injustices to…just? And the protagonist is a foc...
Principles
If The Power of One weren't so full of exciting boxing matches and magical encounters with witch doctors, it might be accused of being a little preachy. The protagonist meets many different people...
Race
Pretty much every kind of racism you can imagine gets a mention in The Power of One. Tribe-against-tribe, colonizer-against-native, colonizer-against-other-colonizer, continent-against-continent; r...
Dreams, Hopes, and Plans
Talk about a one-track mind! From the first part of the novel Peekay assigns himself a life goal after meeting an acquaintance on a train: to become the welterweight boxing champion of the world, a...
Society and Class
In The Power of One the protagonist, Peekay, is moved through various societal structures and learns about their limits and no-man's-lands—usually the hard way. He gets beaten up for being Englis...
Religion
Even though the protagonist is a staunch nonbeliever, religion plays a big part in shaping his life. His mother recovers from a nervous breakdown by joining a strict Christian church, which limits...
Coming of Age
The Power of One, in a nutshell, is all about coming of age. It starts with the protagonist's birth and ends with him becoming an adult, and doesn't leave out much detail in between. It really pack...