The Power of One

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child abuse as well as racist violence and language.

Granpa Chook is a symbol of “the People” and an important part of Peekay’s early character development. He is one of many black Orpington chickens raised on the farm where Peekay is born. Inkosi-Inkosikazi gives the chicken to Peekay after teaching him “the trick of the chicken sleep” (14). He explains that the bird is a symbol of the bond between Peekay and the Zulu medicine man (14). Though Peekay describes the chicken as a sad specimen with a bare neck, bald head, and “battered” cock’s comb (19), he quickly begins to regard the chicken as “pretty exceptional” (17). This alludes to the state of “the People.”

The narrator expands the initial significance of Granpa Chook when he explains that the chicken was “the first living creature over which [Peekay] had held power” (18), reflecting Peekay’s power and privilege as a resistor and an enactor of racism. Peekay goes on to say that the “not-so-dumb cluck [finds] a way of getting back on even terms” (18). While this observation initially annoys the narrator, his annoyance quickly turns to admiration and respect for the bird’s ability to adapt and survive, similar to the respect and admiration that Peekay later feels for