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Paper #102185 :: Truth and Illusion in Coetzee's "Disgrace"
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An examinatin of truth and illusion in South Africa in J.M. Coetzee's novel "Disgrace".

Written in 2008; 1,630 words; 1 source; APA; $ 53.95

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes J.M. Coetzee's novel "Disgrace" as a reflection of the cultural changes in South Africa since the fall of the racially oppressive policies of apartheid. Thepaper notes that, in no small way, the adaptation of both blacks and whites to the developing conditions of racial equalization is a process still very much unresolved. The paper further points out that the new liberties and reparations being forged for South Africa's black populations have had a substantial impact on the conditions with which white South Africans had become accustomed, socially, politically and economically. Additionally, the paper relates that, in a character such as the protagonist of the novel, David Lurie, the reader finds an embodiment of the friction created by this transition. The paper maintains that "Disgrace" is a compelling examination of the topic because of its unflinching remarks on the realties of both racial and sexual progress in South Africa. The paper concludes that, absent of a connotation or value judgments on the rightness of change in a nation so desperately in need of a progressive policy on equality, the novel presents a very straight-forward portrait of a population struggling to find an identity.

From the Paper:

"After the disgrace of his illicit affair with a student and his uninhibited misconduct as her instructor, it is still not fully apparent to David Lurie that his representation of power does not mesh with reality. The beginning of Lurie's stay with his daughter is uneasy. His generally poor relationship with the female gender is challenged to the effect of friction between him and his offspring. Such is exacerbated by the presence of Petrus, a black man with ambitions for land ownership and upward social mobility sparked by the reformations since Apartheid. Lurie's mistrust for Petrus is primarily engendered by a resentment that the house-hand formerly responsible for subordinating to Lucy's domestic needs was now her equal. Lucy admonishes Lurie of this perspective, explaining that Petrus "is not some hired labourer whom I can sack because in my opinion he is mixed up with the wrong people. That's all gone, gone with the wind." (p. 133) This begins to orient Lurie to a perspective that can only be made fully apparent to him by the trauma of Lucy's rape, bringing into full view the connection between race, sexuality and truth, all theretofore densely obfuscated by the protagonist's constructions of reality."

Tags: racism discrimination apartheid blacks

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