The Judge/Nanny

[Katie]

Out of all of the characters in the beginning of the book, the Judge and Nanny were two of the most influential. Peekay's belief in the need for camouflage first came from his fear of the Judge. That fear in turn led to his first realization of the power of one. The Nanny was Peekay's source of nurture and care, the person he could trust, and the person he relied on the most in his youngest years. The feelings toward each of these people were quite opposite. When Peekay finally left the boarding school and the Judge, he felt no remorse and it was more of a weight being lifted without the constant worry of punishment. The loss of Nanny, on the other hand, devastated Peekay.
What surprised me was how both the Judge and Nanny ended up finding a way into the end of the book. Gideon ended up being Nanny's son, creating a crazy connection in the fight to prove the Tadpole Angel's power. The motivation for Gideon's revenge and the people's belief in Peekay added an extra twist to the book. The Judge reappeared in the story while Peekay was working in the mines. I think that the fight between Peekay and the Judge was a perfect way to end the book. It connected the beginning and the end and tied the whole book together. Everything Peekay had worked for in boxing and in school throughout the story was shown in the final fight.

[Matt]

I believe that Peekay's interaction with Hoppie Groenewald is what forces him to realize the power of one. Specifically, when Hoppie explains that small can beat big "as long as you have a plan". Hoppie, although his time with Peekay was brief, planted the seed in Peekay to become individual and to channel this newfound individualism through boxing.

[Yenifer]

Nanny and the Judge, I believe, were two of the most important character and people in Peekay's life. They help shape him as a person and the qualities that possesses latter in life are to thank this two people.

Nanny was his rock in the beginning of his life, and she was the main reason that he was not racist towards kaffirs or black people. When going to boarding school, he dreamt of going back to his Nanny. Without all the people he had left the door open to his life, Peekay would have turned out the same; I wish to have a percentage of what he had.

The Judge is an odd character that seems to only hurt Peekay but I see that the Judge helped Peekay a great deal. One of the things that he taught Peekay was to judge others. The Judge had judge Peekay to the point of war within himself. This gave Peekay a great view of the side of being mistreated because of what you are not who you are. The second is courage. Peekay has a great deal of courage and without it most of his life would not have continued the way it laided out. The third is knowledge, Peekay being fearful of the Judge not passing school required himself to learn beyond his own grade. And the last is stranght, if the judge did not kill Granpa Chook perhaps Peekay would not be able to handle the departure of his beloved nanny.

[Sarah]

Earlier Katie talked about Peekay’s realization of camouflage. I have never really thought of the fact that when people keep to themselves and do the same things every day and not to any extremes how easily they can vanish into the shadows of everyday life. The more I think about people like that, this idea makes a lot of sense. Peekay's fear for the judge did cause him to use camouflage, Katie is right on that fact, but she fails to mention that Peekay does, somewhat, come out of the shadows to do the judges homework for him. Also to bring Nanny into this conversation, Peekay does not need any camouflage with her because he trusts her fully. He learns fast that camouflage can help him but it can also help if he lets that same camouflage fall a bit. Think about Geel Piet in the Barberton prison. Peekay sees the way he uses camouflage and just goes about his days in prison without disturbance (most of the time). I just feel that pondering people like this is a very interesting thing to do.