Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace is one of the fundamental books written by J. M. Coetzee, a prominent South Africa's author.
Summary
The focus of the book is based on some of the issues which human beings face on their day to day activities. The primary setting being in South Africa, during the period apartheid regime in which the whites discriminated the blacks in their land, thus raising cases of sexual violence and rape cases, as well as injustices in judicial systems and violations of human rights. The main actor for this book is the David Lurie, a communications professor at Cape Town Technical University. Other characters include Soraya, a prostitute, Melanie, a student at Cape Town Technical University, Lucy, the daughter to David Lurie, Petrus, a neighbor and friend to Lucy, Bev Shaw among other minor characters (Barnard, Coetzee, 2003).
Analysis
The Title name for the book "Disgrace" focuses on various issues which occurred in the story setup, which were considered to be a disgrace to human beings at the entire society. One of these issues include the rape cases as it can be depicted from the character of Lucy, the daughter to David Lurie. Although her parents are professionals, Lucy choose to live her life in rural areas attending to her farm in Salem. But while she is in her farm, she is attacked by three men who rape her brutally. The cases of rape is considered to be a disgrace and a vice which should remain condemned in the society, thus the three men who actualized the rape become disgrace to the society. In addition, Lucy fails to report the rape case because she believes that justice will not be achieved due to various problems which were occurring in South Africa, and therefore, Lucy decided not to report the rape case (Mardorossian, 2011). For this reason, failure to have a judicial system which can offer justice is a disgrace.
David Lurie on the other hand, can be considered to be a disgrace, although he later learns his lessons in the hard manner. He is a professor and an educated person, but his behaviors poses a significant questions on his academic credentials, since he is involved in different sexual activities with a prostitute and later Melanie a student. Later, Melanie withdraws from all her classes after having several sexual encounter with David, and then she files a sexual harassment case against David, who is later fired (Coetzee, 2008). It is a disgrace and unethical for a professor to have sexual encounter with his student, whom he teaches. Later, she decides to visit her daughter Lucy in her farm, and it is during this period, Lucy is raped while the rapist closed him at a bathroom and tried to set him ablaze although it's only the hair which got ablaze. The rape case of her daughter subjected him as the father to psychological torture, and it is during this time where David learns on the importance of respecting other people, and the disadvantage of misusing one's office to your advantage as it was the case for him when he was a professor at Cape Town Technical University.
In addition to the Primary setting of the story in South Africa, where there were cases of injustice and apartheid rule were rampant. The setting depicts cases of segregation between the women and men as well as the supremacy of whites to the blacks. Through the book, David is seen to be supreme and takes advantage of the women for sexual harassment, until the moment he was fired from the university (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). We also see Lucy being raped by three men, and she cannot do anything to prevent such since men are depicted to be supreme over the women and they can take advantage of them, when they wish. Then after David has been fired, we see him moving from Cape Town, considered to a supreme city for the whites, to Eastern Cape, which is considered to be a blacks land, to the people whom he mistreated while in power (in Cape town).
Further, the author of this book uses various literary devices to narrate the story. Coetzee uses the literary device of symbolisms and imagery in his narration, in which he uses the Dog to depict various characters in the book. For example, some of the dogs which Lucy reared in her farm were given names such as Katy the bulldog, which have recognizable personalities. In other case, Coetzee uses the image of dog in this story as a way of emphasizing the books interests in personal disgrace and social status. The symbolism and imagery of the dog are used to represent the status in which people are living or hold in the society. For example, Lucy states that, "I don't want to come back in another existence as a dog or a pig and have to live as dogs or pigs live under us" (Chapter 8. Pg. 71). This means that the dogs are living a low life as compared to human beings, and therefore, when one lives in such a life, it means they are in pathetic conditions (Coetzee, 2008). In addition, Petrus considers himself as "Dog-man" (Chapter 7, Pg. 55), when he occupies the role of Lucy's Assistance, meaning that he is living a low life. Lastly, the life of David is symbolized with that of a dog where he later lives in shame and disgrace after being fired, his daughter raped and all his belongings stolen. He compares himself with a dog which is beaten for following its sexual instincts.
Lastly, on the narrator's point of view, the narrator adopts the third person (limited), where he is not a character in the novel. "Disgrace." Therefore, he does not participate in any action, but he seems to exist directly in Professor David's head, and therefore, everything within the novel comes from David's perspective, even at the point where he is not the one who is actually telling the story.
Conclusion
The novel "Disgrace" is fundamental in exploring various reactions in the case where human beings fight for their rights, even at the point where they have nothing to start with for them to be human beings. The novel depicts some of the things which the society should not do for they will remain to be a shame and disgrace. Lastly, the novel puts it clear that, we should be careful on what we do, for what goes around, comes around.
References
Barnard, R., " Coetzee, J. M. (2003). JM Coetzee's" Disgrace" and the South African Pastoral. Contemporary Literature, 44(2), 199-224.
Coetzee, J. M. (2008). Disgrace: A Novel . Westminster, London: Penguin Books.
Mardorossian, C. M. (2011). Rape and the Violence of Representation in JM Coetzee's Disgrace. Research in African literatures, 42(4), 72-83.
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, 11 November) “Disgrace Setting.” Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc.
