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 focused little guy who will not give up, training for years just to take revenge on the first evildoer he ever met in his life, a mean bully at boarding school who tortured him horrendously and also killed his pet chicken. You have to get through about 500 pages to get there, but when you do, the vengeance is poetic.
Questions About Revenge
- Do you think that the novel promotes revenge as a good option for dealing with the world? Why or why not?
- Do you think that Peekay's revenge against the Judge is an effective one? Will the Judge change his ways in the future?
- Besides the ultimate revenge against the Judge, what other scenes are representative of revenge in the novel and how do they fit into Peekay's overall philosophy?
Chew on This
Even though the novel seems to be criticizing an unjust, violent system, it actually perpetuates that very violence by promoting revenge.
The novel shows how revenge is really just a way for the avenger to feel better, but doesn't actually change anything in society.