Coetzee

Disgrace discussion

Plot summary: Set in postcolonialism South Africa, J.M. Coetzee, tells the story of David Lurie, a twice-divorced 50-year-old Professor of Communications and Romantic Poetry at Cape Technical University. He is forced to resign after an affair with one of his students, and he goes to spend sometime with his daughter Lucy out on the farm in South Africa. He works on his Byron studies and decides his future. But unfortunately one day they are visited by two black men who rape Lucy and set David to fire. After his daughter is violated by black men, David's views towards women and his life is changed forever. Disgrace is a novel by South-African born author John Maxwell Coetzee also known as J.M. Coetzee. J.M Coetzee's Disgrace is about a lot of things, but it's heart is about the racial changes in the modern South Africa. Disgrace is clearly a work about South Africas present state.

Characters: This David character knew from the beginning what he was all about: "The company of a woman made him of a lover of women and to an extent, a womanizer. With his height, his good bones, his olive skin, his flowing hair, he could always count on a degree of magnetism (Coetzee 1999 p.7). David undergoes a deep change as the story progresses from the beginning to the end. From being stubborn and a determined character as it's reflected in his unformed and unmanageable stand when asked to apologize and undergo counseling; "I'm beyond counseling" (Coetzee 1999 p.43), he says when he's told to get help by the committee who deals with sexual harassment charges against him. Lucy is Lurie's daughter who owns a farm and takes care of dogs. Lurie lives with her after he is dismissed from his position at the University. Lucy is a strong independent woman and has her own responsibility towards this changed hierarchy. A flight to Europe to escape and forget her problems isn't acceptable to her. She sees her life in South Africa and nowhere else. Petrus, "the dog-man", portrays the changing face of South Africa, he is: "a man of patience, energy, resilience. A peasant, a paysan, a man of the country. A plotter and a schemer and no doubt a liar too, like peasants everywhere. Honest toil and honest cunning (Coetzee 1999 p.117). From helping hand to landowner, the change we notice in this Petrus character does, is more of a status. However, David who is the main character in Disgrace, seems like he has given up on himself and he is ready to give up everything that he loves and cherish in his life. His self-esteem and even the dogs he cares for. He used to be so sure of himself and his choices he made, but now he has become confused as the fast changes taking place in the country and addition to this he is not able to cope with those changes.

The main differences with