His Own Schooling example essay topic

The Determination to Succeed The setting sun casts shadows deep across the African savannas. Behind a schoolhouse, in one of these shadows cast by an old tree, there is a boy. Blindfolded, he struggles with the weight of holding an iron bar upright. If he fails, he knows that his nemesis the Judge and the Judge's cronies, will beat him.

For a six-year-old boy to survive this experience is an incredible accomplishment. As told in Bryce Courtenay's novel The Power of One, the main character, Peekay, does just that. His whole life is a struggle against bounds that others lay upon him and by limits that he himself has set. The only tools that Peekay can use to fight these obstacles are the qualities inherent in his own mind.

If Peekay wants to accomplish anything, it must be done with his own strength. As must everyone else. A person's achievements are brought about only by the sheer force of his determination. In both boarding schools that Peekay attends, he is constantly striving to fit in.

When he is younger and running from the Judge, Peekay seeks his refuge in anonymity. His strategy is to, "adapt, blend, become part of the landscape, develop a camouflage, be a rock or a leaf or a stick insect, try in every way to be an Afrikaner" (23). He is convinced that if he tries hard enough he won't be recognized for the rooinek that he is. In school, for instance, he pretends to be slow so that no one will take offense. His plan backfires, however, for his schoolmates terrorize him for being who he is anyway.

At Peekay " second boarding school, The Prince of Whale's School, he perfects his camouflage technique. From his childhood, Peekay had realized that: only two places are available to those who wish to remain concealed. The choices are to be a nonentity or an exception. You either disappear into a plebeian background or move forward to where most others fear to follow (472). Instead of trying to blend in, he now realizes that it i even more effective if he stands above everyone else.

Peekay stops hiding his intellectual gifts. No one would think to question or torment someone who stood on a semi-pedestal above them. From his unbearable days at his first boarding school to the last one, Peekay was resolved that he would find a camouflage that worked, and he did. Even though it was through trial and error, Peekay discovered a way to survive in boarding school on his own. After finishing boarding school, Peekay desires to attend Oxford to study law. In order to attend, he must first come up with a way to finance his education.

He initially applies for a Rhodes Scholarship, which would grant him enough money to pay for his entire years of schooling. He is denied. Another choice would have been to accept a loan from his best friend's father. Instead of doing so, Peekay decides to work his way through school. He is positive that he can and will earn enough money in the mines to pay for his own schooling. He doesn't like the thought of being beholden to anyone, and this is his opportunity to prove that he can accomplish things on his own.

With all of the money tha the earns in the copper mines, Peekay has, "sufficient funds for three years at Oxford" (506). All on his own, Peekay managed to find the strength needed to work past opposition and to earn his way into college. Overriding all of his scholastic labors, lies Peekay's aspiration to be the welterweight boxing champion of the world. When he is seven-years-old, he starts practicing every morning for two hours. He just practices his punches, gains speed and agility, and strength trains until he is nine-years-old, and then Peekay finally has his first fight. From then on, Peekay practices and competes as much as possible in order to hone his skills.

He goes through a succession of coaches, learning more and more as he goes on. Even when working in the mines for a year to earn money, Peekay never stops thinking about being a champion. While he was working, "the flame that lit [his] ambition to be the welterweight champion of the world burned as fiercely as ever and had never left [him] for even one single moment of one single day" (506). Peekay sets his sights on his goal and never lets that goal out of view.

He is determined to make his vision come true. For every goal of his that he met, Peekay used only his own determination to bring it about. Throughout his life, he had obstacles thrown in his path and he always found ways to overcome them. Whether it be figuring out how to blend in, finding a way to continue school, or winning the world welterweight boxing championship, Peekay " 's resolve always brought him through. It was, "a solid force, a pure, clean feeling, totally controlled by [his] head" (510).

It was Peekay's own will to succeed that brought him through all of his hardships and all of his triumphs. He had, "the power of one - one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination" (103). He did it on his own.