J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: Post-Apartheid South Africa Essay -- South Afr

Through the billet of an unconventional college professor, J.M. Coetzees Disgrace addresses the transition into post-apartheid South Africa, societal word meaning and rape through David Lurie and Lucy Luries complex father-daughter relationship. While living in his daughters countryside home, David Luries experiences reveal that despite the powerful semipolitical reform, crime continues to dominate the African citizenry. Aspects of South African history ar utilise to emphasize racial tension and the faux pas from a snow-covered to a black dominated South Africa. Coetzee also suggests the instability of the African society through constantly depicting his characters as randyly ineffective to adapt to adverse situations. Although David and Lucy were initially introduced as polar opposites, their value of silence and refusal to endure public humiliation and shame draw a repeat between the predator and prey of the novel. David Lurie ultimately evolves from his informal enco unters with Soraya, Melanie and Bev Shaw by realizing the traumatizing implications of his actions by and by the Lucys rape. J.M. Coetzee, a white South African writer, was strongly influenced by his personal experiences while he witnessed the social barriers during the apartheid. As the novel begins, Coetzee describes the fireual relationship between the protagonist David Lurie and Soraya, a prostitute that David routinely indulged in every Thursday. For a man of his age, fifty- two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well (Coetzee 1). In his mind, however, he did not put into opinion the thoughts of Soraya. He satisfied his desires at the expense of anothers emotional wellbeing. Despite Sorayas acceptance of prostitution, her reaction towar... ...Originally, David uses his status as a white male in South Africa as his leverage and reference work of power, however, this tactic quickly fails and causes him to seek a new lifestyle. Lucys enhance li fe introduces David not only to natural beauties but the strength people have to provide the services that they do such as managing a last resort animal aid center. By the end of his experiences, he learns that he does not belong in the environment that he used to surround himself with in the city, but that he enjoys himself when he has the company of animals and his daughter. His shift in standards of living and customs demonstrates the racial impacts of the apartheid. The connection between Lucys disgrace as the victim and Davids shame as the raper demonstrates hardships both flaws. Each aspect of these flaws represents the difficulties of the apartheid in South Africa.