The Power of One Allusions & Cultural References

Literary and Philosophical References

• Calvinism (1.7)
• The twin kitchen servants are named Dee and Dum
• Moses (6.5, 13.28, 17.25)
• David and Goliath (6.32-34, 6.54, 6.77, 19.111)
• Romans 12:19, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord" (7.32)
• Exodus 20:5, "for I the Lord they God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me" (7.38)
• Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (8.43, 8.96)
• Golgotha, the place where Jesus Christ was crucified, according to the New Testament (10.35, 19.28)
• Abraham & Isaac, a biblical story in which Abraham is instructed to sacrifice his son, Isaac, to the Lord, and is given a ram in replacement at the last minute (10.48)
• Cinderella (12.15)
• Herod, the king who ordered all male babies killed in order to try to get rid of the threat of Jesus (13.111)
• Jesus Christ (13.28, 22.46)
• Elijah, an Old Testament prophet (13.28, 24.16-17)
• Joshua, an Old Testament prophet (13.28)
• St. Paul (15.1, 15.5)
• Wordsworth (15.37)
• John Masefield, a 20th-century English poet and writer (15.37)
• Keats (15.37)
• Lord Byron (15.37, 17.150, 23.26-32)
• Tennyson (15.37)
• Walter de la Mare, an English poet and writer (15.37)
• Goethe (15.37)
• Charles Dickens (17.89)
• John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (17.197)
• Merlin (19.36-37, 19.43)
• Wilfred Owen, a 20th-century English poet (22.32)
• Rupert Brooke, an English poet (22.32)
• William Shakespeare, Othello (22.63, 22.71)
• Ichabod Crane (23.20, 23.23, 23.26)
• Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (23.162)
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (24.8)

Historical References

• Boer Wars (1.6, 9.126, 12.63, 17.34, 17.90)
• Dingaan kaSenzangakhona Zulu, a Zulu chief from the 19th century (1.57, 13.110, 21.54, 21.147)
• Battle of Blood River, a battle between Boers and Dingaan's Zulu army (1.57)
• Shaka Zulu, a Zulu chief from the 19th century (1.100, 3.101, 21.147)
• Adolf Hitler (2.34, 3.32, 3.59-60, 3.63, 3.70-105, 3.119, 3.153, 5.140-44, 8.19, 8.27, 9.52-53, 9.126, 12.24, 13.113, 15.2-3, 16.64-68, 17.122, 22.192)
• Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the UK who declared war on Germany in 1939 (2.107)
• The Battle of Rorke's Drift, an 1879 battle between British and Zulus. (8.34)
• Pharisees and Sadducees, powerful religious groups from the time of the Roman Empire (9.122)
• Paul Kruger, a president of the South African Republic who fought against the British in the Boer Wars (10.129)
• Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during the World War II (10.58)
• King George, George VI, the King of England during World War II (10.129, 15.29, 16.219, 17.76, 18.2)
• V.E. Day, the day that World War II ended in Europe (13.114, 13.120, 14.5, 14.16, 14.41)
• Piet Retief, a South African Boer leader (13.110)
• The Battle of Dundee, a battle in the Boer Wars (15.8)
• Ovid (15.37, 23.20)
• Cicero (15.37)
• Conquest of Gaul, Julius' Caesar's invasion of northern territories (15.37)
• Virgil (15.37)
• The Rothschilds, a German Jewish banking family (17.17)
• The Prince of Wales (17.25)
• The Battle of Britain, the German Air Force's attack on the United Kingdom during World War II (17.36)
• The Black Sash, a movement against apartheid laws in South Africa (17.77)
• The Crimean War, a war between the Russian Empire and the French, British, and Ottoman Turkish Empires in the 19th century (18.80)
• The Charge of the Light Brigade, a very costly battle where the British were sent into a death trap during the Crimean War (17.14, 17.80, 17.113, 17.106-108)
• Lord Cardigan, the officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War (17.80, 17.89, 17.107, 17.109)
• Lord Raglan, a British officer during the Crimean War (17.83, 17.89, 17.94)
• Princess Elizabeth (21.1)
• D.F. Malan, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid (21.3)
• Chief Albert Luthuli, a South African politician who was president of the African National Congress (21.5)
• African National Congress (ANC), a South African political party (21.5)
• Monty Naicker, a South African activist against apartheid (21.5)
• Indian National Congress, a political party in India (21.5)
• Cetshwayo kaMpande, a 19th-century Zulu king (21.92-93, 21.54, 21.147)
• Karl Marx (22.49)

Pop Culture References

• Joe Louis, an American boxer who won the World Heavyweight Championship (5.113-17, 5.132-33, 22.107)
• Jack Sharkey, an American boxer (5.113, 5.130-33)
• Frederic Chopin, a 19th-century Polish composer (10.5, 12.23, 12.73, 12.78, 18.18, 22.25)
• Franz Liszt, a 19th-century Hungarian composer (10.5)
• Johannes Brahms, a 19th-century German composer (10.5, 12.74, 12.78, 18.18, 22.25)
• Beethoven's 5th Symphony (10.5, 10.190, 10.196, 10.205, 10.206, 10.222, 19.15)
• Arthur Rubinstein, a 20th-century Polish-American pianist (10.206, 15.40)
• Fred Astaire, an American dancer (11.13)
• Bojangles, an American tap dancer and actor (11.13)
• Beethoven (12.74-78, 18.14, 18.18, 22.25)
• Mozart (12.78, 12.141, 12.96, 12.157, 12.187, 22.25)
• Richard Wagner, a German composer (12.96, 12.141)
• Billy Bunter, a comic strip character (17.158)
• Yehudi Menuhin, a 20th-century American violinist and conductor (18.7)
• Erroll Garner, an American jazz pianist and composer (18.11, 18.18-20)
• W.C. Handy, a blues composer and musician (18.12-14, 18.18)
• Bach (18.14, 19.15)
• Johnny Ralph, a South African boxer (21.126)
• Raphael (23.88)
• Tchaikovsky (23.172, 23.175)
• Francisco Goya, a Spanish painter (24.98)