Analyzing the Book Disgrace by J.M Coetzee (Book Review Sample)

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Disgrace
Disgrace by J.M Coetzee is a book that brings out an emotional appeal from its reader while questioning the darker side of life. It prompts the user to be alive to the ethical issues and the known instincts of man's life. Nevertheless, the author does not give a solution to the ethical issues he brings out in the novel. It is apparent that Coetzee pushes images presented in the book to the reader and forces them to be alive to these problems internally. The story offers a tragic life of David Lurie's life as well as that of the other characters. This paper talks about the theme of power as it plays out in the novel "Disgrace”. Power at the university, power in the society, and power when dealing with women is well orchestrated in the novel.
The story elucidates on the powerful and the powerless in society. As the novel begins, David Lurie is in a position of power at the Cape Town Technical University which later turns to powerlessness after a series of sad happenings. David a professor of communications and who teaches his students a poem by Byron tells them the poem speaks about people who are condemned to silence (34). Ironically, the poem predicts in a way what is to befall him later. He does not find it easy in love. Either he loses his job and reputation after the tragic turn of events and later goes to live with his daughter, Lucy, who is then raped while he is locked up in the bathroom. After some time, his residence is destroyed and belongings stolen and he finally finds a job in a kernel killing and burning dogs. Coetzee sets off comparison among the different types of power and powerlessness in most parts of the novel.
Coetzee brings out the inherent theme of powerlessness in his description of the rape of Lucy. Rape is one way through which women are oppressed since time immemorial whereby rape was the way to have a woman get married to a man. As Donna McNamara and Bonnie Clairmont describe rape as taking, or carrying away from the Latin word ‘rapier’. Nonetheless, rape is still seen as a way of stealing or carrying away and having the rapist force himself into her private parts. Lucy states in the book that the act is of "Subjection. Subjugation" (Coetzee 159). Lucy tells her father that rape is not simply about women’s subjugation. She says that what happened to her was a purely her affair just because it happened in South Africa. She continues to say that could it have happened somewhere else then it could have been a public matter. She ends by saying it is solely her business (Coetzee 112).
As the novel describes further, Lucy is incorrect in assuming that her rape is her sole business. In the book, the theme of powerlessness and oppression are seen as things that happen in everyday life.
Lucy being raped is just one instance of sexual power and powerlessness that is described in the novel. While teaching at Cape Technical University, he meets one of his students, Melaine. When he visits Melaine at her apartment, the action could quickly pass out as a rape when he makes advances towards her. In contrast, she aides him in removing her clothes by lifting her hands and hips up. Knowing whether she consented to it, or she was raped is not clear, maybe the lady was intimidated by the power and influence the professor wielded at the University. Coetzee predicts future happenings when David says in the scene that Melaine is amazed at the intruder who forces himself into her (24). He as well points to the intrusion of the professor in her life.
David knows too well that by forcing himself into Melaine, he is also intruding into her house, her private life, her peaceful well-being, her school, and career path CITATION Koc \l 2057 (Kochin). Melaine is a victim of sex. Unfortunately, she is not mature enough to handle the consequences that come with the ordeal.
The theme of power and powerlessness is exhibited in what is done to her by David. In the beginning, David has power over her but after his actions he loses his power.
It is sympathetic that David Lurie is ashamed after raping a college student but when Lucy is raped and men try to kill her; the men are not punished. The power and powerlessness of David and Lucy brings out the racial prejudice that is in South Africa. Towards the end there is a definite solution when David, despite failing in life, his love of women, sees it appropriate to agree to his daughter's decision to have the baby even though she does not love her now but trusts that love will grow naturally (216).
The novel "Disgrace" brings out the aspect of racial oppression of black people in South Africa with their treatment and how people are viewed in South Africa CITATION Usc15 \l 2057 (Uscupstate.edu). This picture is presented when Lucy has a discussion with David about animals. David says that as regards animals we should offer them kindness since they are only animals, and we are better than them (74). In this scene, David is not referring to real dogs; he refers to whites and the view they have of black people. In post-Apartheid Africa tis was the exact view whites had towards the blacks. His statement never talks about his power over the dogs that are powerless even though he says he is remorseful for them.
In the novel, we see the remnants of the old South Africa, where white racial discrimination has been defeated and in its place is tribalism exhibited by the blacks. Lurie discovers that the past prohibition on sex is finished and in its place is a new prohibition on sex that is across all the generations, whether whites or blacks. Melanie’s boyfriend comes in so that the affair is stopped and together with Melanie’s father they join hands to ensure that David is prosecuted and finally dismissed from work. Consequently, David Lurie runs away to live with his daughter, Lucy in the Eastern Cape, where he hides. Lucy boards dogs and his father does the humble task of helping incinerate them CITATION Koc \l 2057 (Kochin).
The outside world away from the university is seen in "Disgrace" as brutal thereby leaving the people vulnerable to violence and economic inequity. In the new South Africa, it is disgraceful not to have the power to protect what belongs to an individual. This is evident to Lurie after Lucy is raped (109, 115). There is an evident gap between the strict university moral standards and the outside world which explains the university's judgement system. The policies of the University are alienated from that of the wider community as earlier invoked by Dr. Farodia Rasool (50). At the university, power relations are not in any way linked to sexual relations as is evidenced by the punishment of David Lurie (52-53).
Lurie’s powers of seduction have vanished and to return to glory he is poised to learn how to treat women, older women in particular. He wonders whether Byron Teresa has it to be the woman (160). One characteristic that plays out in David is that he is never sympathetic to women as is shown in many instances in the novel. He makes use of his desire to misuse women at every opportunity. At the beginning when David has a chance to meet Spray, a prostitute he uses her to satisfy his bestial urge for sex and afterwards he makes use of his power to prove his superiority CITATION Usc15 \l 2057 (Uscupstate.edu). David tries to change the appearance of the girl by telling her that he did not like the stickiness of the makeup and that she had to remove it. For Soraya, because she feels powerless, she removes it and she makes sure that she never wears it again (Coetzee 5), it is the first instance in the novel that Lurie uses his position to show how powerful he is. David is persistently looking for Soraya despite her making it known that she needs to be alone. His persistence shows that he does not regard other people's opinion and that he prevails (Coetzee 9-10).
When David seduces, Melanie Isaacs, one of his students, he ultimately gets prosecuted. He is so engrossed on what he wants that he does not care whether Melanie refuses his advances or not. Melanie’s weakness plays out in this part. Women are usually looked as a naïve, emotional and weak when it comes to traditional gender roles as it has played out by Melanie. David meets Melanie in the streets and decides to seduce her in immediately and coerces her to spend the night with him against her will (Coetzee 16).