Lucy Lurie the Novel Disgrace character analysis

The novel Shame describes some of the events that characterized South Africa's apartheid regime, as well as the horrors that emerged as a result of such hostility, resentment, and rage among the people of South Africa. The book tells the story of how people chose to manipulate each other based on bigotry, as well as the horrors committed against many characters in the novel, including Lucy Lurie. Lucy Lurie, David Lurie's daughter, is a prominent character in the novel who has an influential role. We meet her with several instances that tell a story of a struggling, inner peace resolution, and even understanding and forgiveness, as some of the aspects she depicts after her ordeal with her attackers (Graham 130).

The character Lucy in the novel becomes a victim of hate, and a hatred driven act is done to her, on her house, Lucy encounters three men who decide to act with violence towards her. The attackers were there to also steal from her home; the three decided not just to rape her but also take her belongings. Lucy becomes a victim of hate and animosity that has been building up for a long period and finally, the revenge was befallen upon her. Lucy tries to describe the ordeal as something that is "personal." To her being raped was not only shameful but also something not to be discussed in public, she decides to keep it as her personal issue. She doesn’t see the need to keep the incident a public affair. We are also showed through the character Lucy the failed institutions mandated to dispense their duties such as the prosecution of justice; this is evident when she relishes that it is not possible that she will get justice swiftly in South Africa, rather she decided not to press charges. We also see interpersonal relationship struggles as Lucy and her father doesn't get to have the same relationship again after she undergoes the rape it changes her life and how she views the world both politically as well as socially. Lucy is seen to be struggling with emotional trauma, depression, and fear, during all this no one provides her solace, not even her father, as she sees him as just other men. Lucy develops a clear distinction between men and women after her rape ordeal she becomes less trusting of her father.

Lucy undergoes a personal worst ordeal when she is raped by multiple attackers, she, however, decides to hide this as she prefers it to be an issue she faces personally than make it into a public matter. She says this after being asked what happened to her by her father. This shows a society that is not keen on deliberating on women welfare, especially when there is violence matted towards women. This is how she responds to her father’s quest of telling her to say what happened to her. “Would you mind keeping to your own story, to what happened to you” she replies? “I tell what happened to me” (99). “As far as I am concerned,” she says, “what happened to me is a purely private matter” (112).

Lucy is also self-conscious of what the social, political effect of apartheid did to cause the actions that befall her, she is seen having personal thought (Barnard 200). She even decides not to press charges as she fears the issue will be plainly used to propagate political policies that may end up worsening the situation as it is. Lucy even believes the social, political systems placed to govern the natives which massively favored the whites, including her somehow owe a debt to those the very systems oppressed. She says this is “some form of private salvation “(112) despite her rape she feels sorry for those oppressed even though they wronged her. Lucy decides to stay behind but is conflicted by her own thoughts as well as her moral standings. However, Lucy still believes that staying behind will provoke more attacks but her conviction of peace gives her stronger determinations to stay behind. Besides, she politically believes that the favoritism whites enjoy due to unfair political rules and legislations caused all the disharmony. She believes a debt is owed to those subjugated (Mardorossian 195). “What if [another attack] is the price one has to pay for staying on? … Why should I be allowed to live here without paying?” (158), she muses. “Subjection. Subjugation,” she sees this as the ultimate sacrifice she is determined to pay for if she has to stay (159).

We see Lucy has no regrets for staying behind and even tries to blindly have compulsive urge to remain. One even has to wonder her stubbornness to stay behind despite all she has gone through.She thinks that it will not make any difference and stay behind renders her almost dead emotionally but at the same time making her face her inner struggles, after her attacker raped her. She views herself through a mirror of reflection for all that is happening in her life to be somehow related to her bad ordeals,” she says (112). Later she writes (to Lurie) “I am a dead person and I do not know yet what will bring me back to life. All I know is that I cannot go away” (161). “A bad idea … not safe,” “it was never safe, and it’s not an idea, good or bad. I’m not going back for the sake of an idea. I’m just going back” (105). This staying behind to her father does not seem safe, but she is however determined to find peace in the same place she was attacked (Poyner 144). She still believes in a better society as despite what she goes through ; Lucy still hopes to have a better future hence decides to remain.

Conclusion

The struggles that Lucy went through, amidst the attacks and political mishaps makes us have a glimpse of just how much animosity, was felt between the native South Africans and the white settlers. Themes like political subjugation are partly told through the character Lucy and the consequences that come about due to such form of social, political form of governance. The ordeals Lucy goes thru transforms her opinion of men, social, political injustice as well as the moral consciousness of those that were supposed to uphold a society of uprightness, foster peace and unity without causing animosity and racial discrimination.







































Works Cited

Barnard, Rita, and J. M. Coetzee. “J. M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" and the South African Pastoral.” Contemporary Literature, vol. 44, no. 2, 2003, p. 199. doi:10.2307/1209095.

Graham, Lucy Valerie. “Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace.” Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, 2003, pp. 433–444. doi:10.1080/03057070306207.

Mardorossian, Carine M. “Rape and the Violence of Representation in J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 42, no. 4, 2011, pp. 72–83. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.42.4.72.

Poyner, Jane. “Truth and Reconciliation in JM Coetzee'SDisgrace.” Scrutiny2, vol. 5, no. 2, 2000, pp. 67–77. doi:10.1080/18125440008565972.