Introduction
J. M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel is a metaphor for the twenty-century world and events happening in it. While the book events revolve around David Lurie and his personal and intrapersonal complicated issues, the author manages to present a picture of the present-day difficulties in South Africa and describes the reasons that caused these problems. The outcomes of apartheid are depicted through Lurie’s daughter’s character who prefers to get accustomed to the new state of things rather than rebel and fight against them. The newly aroused power of the previously oppressed part of the population is revealed through the characters of Petrus and Pollux. However, the one who personifies a whole set of internal and external confrontations, who is trying to resist the pressure, who loses everything and attempts to start the life all over again, is David. The novel, therefore, revolves around David Lurie, a University lecturer who faces one disgrace after another.
Lurie’s Disgraces
David Lurie is the protagonist of the story, but this fact does not make the audience unconditionally like him. Rather, there is a number of conditions that make us dislike his character. His first big disgrace comes with his weekly sessions with Soraya. While it is not disgraceful for a divorced man to meet a prostitute, there is something disrespectful in the way he treats these meetings: in spite of his affection towards the woman, he admits that he “solved the problem of sex” in this way (Coetzee n. p.). However, as we can see later, this issue is not the most complicated one in Lurie’s life.
His other disgrace is the story with Melanie – a student he seduced and whose accusations he later tries to disregard. In this situation, David’s arrogance makes the readers feel unsympathetic and even hateful. This situation is bad not only because of his actions but because of his attitude towards these actions. He refuses to admit that he has done something wrong. He refuses to apologize to Melanie. What is worst of all, he refuses to understand. Instead of answering to Melanie’s father, he “stands tongue-tied, the blood thudding in his ears” (Coetzee n. p.) and then just leaves.
Lurie’s next disgrace comes with his arrival to his daughter Lucy’s farm. Several things add up to the character’s negative features. First of all, he does not really know his daughter. The fact that he disapproves of what she is doing even feels some contempt towards her life choices, which means that he is a bad father. Secondly, in a situation when they are attacked, Lurie is helpless. At this point, however, the character realizes his disadvantage. He understands that he does not know how to discuss the situation with his daughter and he realizes his
Resistance to Change
At the beginning of the book, Lurie is opposed to changing anything in his life. He does not want to admit his faults, and he does not see why he should adjust to the circumstances. He emphasizes that a person’s character is rigid and impossible to impact: “The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body” (Coetzee n. p.).
Another time when Lurie refuses to alter his attitudes and beliefs is when he ignores the faculty’s demand to apologize to Melanie (Manhart 5). The character believes he has done nothing wrong and prefers to lose his job rather than say he is sorry.
The third situation in which we see the character’s defiance is his treatment of the changes in South Africa (“In Retrospect: “Disgrace,” Coetzee’s Masterpiece”). He is not particularly approving of the new possibilities of the people who used to be oppressed. He is not happy at the fact that the man who used to be like a servant at his daughter’s farm is now merely a neighbor and a co-proprietor (“In Retrospect: “Disgrace,” Coetzee’s Masterpiece”). Lurie is not ready for such innovations.
Transformation of Lurie’s Character
As well as Lurie’s disgraces develop through the novel, so do his character transformations. The first one happens when he sees how probably the only stable thing in his life is not so stable. When on a walk in the city he sees Soraya with two boys who, he unmistakably understands, are her sons, he realizes their relationship has come to an end. He, who has always been “a man of the city,” is sorry about “this glance” (Coetzee n. p.) since it means that Soraya has noticed him, too. In this situation, we can wee that Lurie is not that hopeless and that he is not completely void of human feelings.
The second change in David’s character takes place after the accident at Lucy’s farm. Probably for the first time in his life, he feels powerless and devastated. He does not know how to help his daughter or even talk to her about what had happened. The accident makes Lurie another person. He finally wants to apologize to Melanie’s family. The feeling of regret, at last, wakes up in him.
The last significant transformation occurs after meeting Melanie’s family. Lurie suddenly (and finally) realizes that he wants to be with his daughter and needs to protect her. While these aims are not fully achieved, his arrival back to the farm does make something good for David. After so much time spent on self-contemplation, he decides to do at least something good and starts with helping Bev at a dog clinic. Even though he replies “I suspect it is too late for me” (Coetzee n. p.) when his daughter says he should try to be a nice person, the audience is willing to think that he still has a chance.
Conclusion
Coetzee’s book comprises a whole set of ideas and characters in it. The main character, David Lurie, is both a negative and a positive one. The audience has an opportunity to follow his development through the course of the story. His conduct evolves from stubborn and arrogant in the beginning to resilient and regretful towards the end. The author raises such important themes as family, justice, masculinity, femininity, violence, and hate in his book. However, the biggest impact is produced by the story’s protagonist David Lurie. Coetzee allows the readers to follow the character’s metamorphosis, to hate him for his decisions and actions, and to start liking him for his altered opinions. Lurie’s disgraces are numerous, but there is hope at the end of the novel that they will eventually stop, and he will live the rest of his life in a noble way, leaving behind his past failures but never forgetting the lessons they have taught him.
Works Cited
Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. Penguin Books, 2000.
“In Retrospect: “Disgrace,” Coetzee’s Masterpiece.” Critical Mass. 2008, Web.
Manhart, Niklas. J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: A Realistic Criticism of “New” South Africa? GRIN Verlag, 2007.