Analysis Of Disgrace By J. M. Coetzee: When Abuser Becomes The Abused
J. M. Coetzee’s “Disgrace” takes place in post-apartheid South Africa in the year 1999. The novel is about a self-centered white professor who at the time was teaching in Cape Town, South Africa. He took advantage of his privileges by raping a black female student where the majority of the people are of dark skinned. The roles change, and the abuser becomes the abused. In a form of karma David Lure later finds himself in a difficult position when his daughter Lucy was raped by not one but three dark-skinned men.
David Lure was a divorced middle-age man whose temptation for sex was bigger than his integrity. In the beginning the of the novel, he was so tempted for sex that he went out of his way and paid a woman to fornicate with him. David’s point of view was that every woman had a price and in order for him to be in control he saw them as fun trills. To make matters worse not only did he pay for sex, but his choice of women was dark-skinned. He later became infatuated with a specific woman named Soraya. It even states in book, that he became her regular customer with every visit his obsession for her grew. Over time, Soraya began to realize what was going on, he eventually crossed the line by calling her home phone number, as a result of this event Soraya kindly told him that she is unable to continue to see him. Her excuse was that she had to take care of her mom, but it was clear that she just did not want anything to do with David as he was starting to become a problem. This left David with the urge to find Soraya’s replacement. During his hunt for a new conquest he came cross a young girl dark-skinned girl or how he stated her in the book “the dark one.”
Her name was Melanie, from one of the classes he used to teach at the university, the fact that she was black, and half his age allowed him to manipulate her in to giving him what he wanted; which was sex. “His relationship with Melanie very quickly started to mirror his past relationship with Soraya. He later started to fall back into the same pattern with Melanie. From the beginning this relationship was very unpredictable due to the fact that if he was caught have sexual intercourse with one of his student he would immediately be at risk of losing his position as a professor at the university. Melanie had enough a confessed to the school everything that had been going on with her Professor. Upon the news spreading David faced a trail which resulted in him being removed from the university. As it states in the article “Significantly, both instances of Sexual violence are focalized through Lurie’s perspective rather than through the Victims’. Lurie’s own sexual infraction, which he identifies as “not quite” rape”.
David felt like it was not of higher importance to him because since the student was of darker skin he felt that she was isolate to the community and that it was not rape but lust in his mind. David Lure’s current position led him to contact his daughter, who he has not spoken to in a very long time. As a result of this conversation he went to go visit with her in Eastern Cape, which was mostly farm. He started to reestablish his relationship with her by helping her out around the house. Lucy was very minimalistic women, she was not into fashion nor did she care about how her body looked. As he stayed over the relationship between father and daughter started to grow. Things started to look up until the unexpected happened, while walking her dogs David and Lucy came across three men who asked to us her phone. Eventually she lets one man into her house, but the two other males run in after her and shut the doors. Together overpowering Lucy, they raped her. She goes on to tell the police that the incident was a robbery. David starts questions her on why she did not report the rape to the police and Lucy responds with “In another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter. But in this place, at this time, it is not. It is my business, mine alone. ” Lucy did not want to get the police involved because she felt like it would not do any good other than cause harm to others.
He later started questioning himself whether or not he could have done something to stop the rape. In the article “Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J. M Coetzee’s Disgrace. ” The author states “notably in each case, the experience of the violated body is absent, hidden from the reader. Although Lurie acknowledges that his sexual violation of a student Melanie Isaacs, was 'undesired' by her. ” He starts to realize that what he had done to Melanie was as importance as his own daughters.
In conclusion, David Lurie at first, he did not see it has a big deal that he had raped his student and did not want to accept that he had done something wrong. He said that Melanie was not important enough to care about but when roles are switched, and it ends up happening to his daughter he starts to question if what he did was right and how can he change the way he is. Starting to realize that no matter what color you are you have equal important as the other.
