For many years Hollywood has been making blockbuster movies based on bestselling novels, but often these movies differ greatly from the novel . The movie The Power of One based on a book of the same name follows this trend. The Power of One tells the story of Peekay, a boy living in South Africa who dreams of becoming the welterweight champion of the world, and who tries to correct the injustice that goes on around him. Although the movie does keep the main themes of the novel like racism and how one person can change the world. The film adds new plot twists and characters that make the story more exciting, but also changes important characters and storylines from the book that makes the novel endearing.
The movie eliminates and changes important characters that are included in the book. Hoppie Gronewald is one of the novels most memorable characters .Even though he only appeared in a few chapters; he is able to leave a long lasting impact on the readers minds like he did in Peekay's life. In the novel Hoppie is a welterweight boxer that introduces Peekay to boxing and gives him the idea of the Power of One. The character of Hoppie Gronewald in the movie is completely different from the character in the book.The character in the movie is an anti-racist Boxing coach who owns the gym Peekay trains at. In the novel this character is called Solly goldman not Hoppie Gronewald. Hoppies quote “First with the head and then with the heart, that way small can beat big” [Courtenay 510] is told to Peekay by Geel piet in the movie.The character in the movie is unable to make the same impact on Peekays life like he does in the novel. By changing the character of Hoppie, the audience never gets to see how Peekay is comes across the idea of The Power of One. By
Including Hoppie in the novel, Bryce Courtenay teaches his readers an important lesson, someone can change your life