I had become an expert at camouflage. My precocity allowed me, chameleonlike, to be to each what they required me to be.

Peekay frequently needs to camouflage himself in various ways in order to survive the system. In the quotation above, from Chapter Twenty-Three, Peekay compares himself to a chameleon that is so adept at camouflage that he can submit his own will to that of everyone else. Towards the end of the novel Peekay begins to question the heavy-handed role that he has allowed other people to play in the creation of his destiny. He wishes to remove all camouflages and create his own destiny, harness "the power of one"-the independent spirit within him.