Disgrace Analysis

Disgrace

The concepts of power, change, sex and race, are all ideologies described and lived in Disgrace by J.M Coetzee. In the case of the author 's home country, South Africa, history has shown a great misuse of power by a white society believing to be superior than blacks. Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects in South Africa. In a time of post apartheid, one of the darkest times of the nation, David Lurie, the main character in Disgrace is faced with some intense and terrifying experiences which make him change just as South Africa did. J.M Coetzee’s work describes his countries disgrace through David Lurie’s disgrace, written in present tense complimenting a racial issue examined but yet to be resolved.

Professor Lurie is a 52-year-old man who has "solved the problem of sex rather well" by visiting a prostitute and fulfilling his desires once a week. Lurie seems to be in control of his life, but after engaging in an affair with a student in his romantics course, his life takes an unexpected spin. David Lurie loses his job, his status and his dignity. Opting for a change of scene, Lurie moves to a rural town of Salem in Eastern Cape. In this town, his daughter Lucy lives alone on a smallholding, growing vegetables to sell at the farmers market and running a kennel for dogs. Lurie seems to adjust, yet his distaste for the life Lucy has chosen for herself is evident. Lucy is a supporter of The Animal Welfare League which was shut down. She has made acquaintances with Bev Shaw, who still runs a clinic of animal welfare, but Lurie isn’t quite ecstatic of her animal-lover friends. “As for animals, by all means let us be kind to them. But let us not lose perspective. We are of a different

Lurie and Lucy are encountered by three men outside of the farm, asking to use the house phone. In a matter of seconds, Lurie gets knocked out and locked in the house bathroom while Lucy is being raped. When Lurie comes to his senses, the men have stolen his car and raped his daughter. “”It was so personal”, she says. “It was done with such personal hatred. That was what stunned me more than anything. The rest was...expected. But why did they hate me so?”” (Coetzee 156). The raping of Lucy can be seen as an example of the shift in power that was going on at the time in regards to white over black. The black Africans of South Africa had anger, fear, hatred, and resentment towards whites. This was not only the result of the misuse of power by the whites of South Africa and the inhuman system of Apartheid, but this can be traced longer back to the colonizing of South Africa. Black Africans had been oppressed for years and times were finally changing for them. Lucy and Lurie were at the time in a rural town in Salem, predominantly inhabited by blacks so this made them liable to these sorts of events happening. After the happening, Lurie insisted that Lucy should report it to the police or that she should leave town. “I think I am their territory. They have marked me. They will come back for me” (Coetzee 158). Lucy says this to Lurie who immediately responds that she can’t