Disgrace by J.M Coetzee

In The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram introduces us to his experimental studies on the conflict between one’s own conscience and obedience to authority. From these experiments, Milgram discovered that a lot of people will obey a figure in authority; irrespective of the task given - even if it goes against their own moral belief and values. Milgram’s decision to conduct these experiments was to investigate the role of Adolf Eichmann (who played a major part in the Holocaust) and ascertain if his actions were based on the fact that he was just following orders; as most Germans accused of being guilty for war crimes commonly explained that they were only being obedient to persons in higher authority.

Before we television existed people had to depend on Radio stations to receive there little bit of entertainment and news. But in 1878, the invention of TV began. The first TV made didn’t look anything like the way TV’s look today, it was a mechanical camera with a large spinning disc attached to it (Kids Work). But as over the years, of course inventions of different TV’s progressed and by the 20th century about 90 percent of our population had a TV in their household(). Television today is mainly used for people take a break from their life by relaxing and enjoying some entertainment.

Thesis Statement: Apartheid may have been a horrible era in South African history, but only so because the whites were forced to take action against the outrageous and threatening deeds of the blacks in order to sustain their power.

Morality in its basic definition, is the knowledge between what is right and what is wrong. In Joan Didion’s essay, “On Morality,” she uses examples to show how morality is used to justify actions and decisions by people. She explains that morality can have a profound effect on the decisions that people chose to make. I think that morality is an idea that is different for every individual based on morals and background.

As a political personality, Robert Reich writes a book that closely relates the deteriorating status of the U.S. economy with the greed of other politicians and the government as a whole. To some extent, Robert Reich pulls out the sense in economy deterioration with the help of pinning the major government policies. Robert Reich 's argument comes out clearly, directly, and at some point presented willfully. From the heading of the topic of the book, what went wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it, a reader can clearly picture the content of the book that is politics and the financial mess that the United States of America is in today. The book provides a clear, simple, and easy to understand information on how the author, Robert Reich relates the cause a bad financial status for the country and how the government and other wealthy people living in America contribute to causing the financial crisis.

If anyone in the United States were asked, "What is the best part about living in this country?," most people would answer "equality". The United States is built on and known for the equality among its citizens and is often referred to as the 'melting pot'. After reading Jonathan Kozol's, The Shame of the Nation, equality is nonexistent within the schools he has gone to, and has been employed through. With his travels, expert testimony and personal stories gathered from the people within the community and schools, he shows the exact opposite of equality. Minority schools being his main focus, he discusses the inequalities these students endure and truly opens up your eyes to just how awful these minority schools have it. Jonathan Kozol is successful in his writing of The Shame of the Nation, and makes himself a voice for these minority schools that are denied of their voices.

The book in Contempt was written by Paul Hawken. Paul Hawken is a famous environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author on the subject of corporate sustainability. In his book, Paul Hawken charges business and industry as, one, the major culprit in causing the deterioration of the biosphere, and, two, the only institution that is large, pervasive and powerful enough, to really lead humankind out of this situation. The book focus on the total of damage to the ecosystem and the risks that it poses for mankind. Environmental risks comes from in the extinction of many different species, and many species have already become extinct due to human. All and every species is a part of the ecosystem and each species play a role in the global system. When

David is an important character because he shows us the idea of acceptance. This is shown when David finds about Sophie’s sixth toe when she injured her ankle, and still wants to be her friend despite her being a deviation. In Wanuk - the place where David lives- deviations, like Sophie, are not accepted are human. David mentions multiple times that he knows being around Sophie is wrong but even though he knew he would be shunned for his actions, he remains Sophie’s friend anyway. Others are not as accepting as David, in fact, most people are quick to disown deviations or attempt to report or harm them. An example of this is when Allen sees Sophie’s six-toed footprint by the river then threatens to report what he saw which would mean Sophie’s capture, exile and/or death and possibly even her families too. This manner of thinking is shown again when the inspector says: “Although deviations may look like us in many ways, they can never really be human,” This, again, shows that deviations are frowned down upon by most of Wanuk. This conflict of acceptance reminds me of desegregation. People of colour would be treated less than human when they started peacefully protesting against their treatment and some were even killed. In fact, most of what is said reminds me of racism.

Acclaimed writer , Dave Eggers, in his riveting novel Zeitoun retells the story of a New Orleans painter as he finds himself in the city following Hurricane Katrina. Throughout his harrowing journey throughout the aftermath, Eggers exhibits the horrifying results a disaster can have on the dignity of victims. There are countless examples throughout the novel of those who have been dispossessed of their dignity and humanity, and there is no better example than that of Zeitoun himself. Egger’s portrayal of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the devastating effect a disaster has on the dignity of individuals and how it can strip the

A lack of dignity was shown throughout A Lesson Before Dying in the characters of Grant, Jefferson, Miss Emma, Tante Lou, and Vivian. All of these characters in the novel struggled with their lack of human morals which reflected on their impertinent actions towards themselves and among others. The story takes place in the1940’s small Cajun town of Bayonne, Louisiana. In this time period there was an abundance of racial segregation between african american people and a strong bias towards white people. This shouldn’t be an excuse or reason of why there was very little dignity throughout the novel. Furthermore, Ernest J. Gaines gives us plenty of examples of how these characters showed this lack of dignity among themselves and others.

The writing Shame, was taken from Nigger, an autobiography written by Dick Gregory. This narrative was about two childhood experiences that can teach a lesson on how the negative actions of a person can have a profound effect on a person’s life. Gregory tells about two different situations and how they affect his childhood, one in which he has no control over, and the other, where given a choice, he fails to respond.

“I Am David” is a novel based on a young boy named David. The book began with David laying in a concentration camp listening to men mutter. Throughout the novel, David experiences a lot of change mentally, physically and socially. David was a brave boy that was not ready to give up. He discovered the beautiful world around him and he also learns about who he is and where he came from.

Guilt is defined as an emotion of regret or accountability for some offense, which drives a person to make amends in some way. Shame is defined as a painful emotion arising from the consciousness of committing something immoral. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, is a novel that is filled with various examples of guilt and shame. Guilt is especially important because the symbolic meaning of the story contains illustrations of both collective and personal guilt. This emphasis on guilt begs the question: “How can the novel, The Reader, be seen as a study in collective and personal guilt?” The Reader can be seen as a study in collective and personal guilt because it shows how Hanna and Michael represent the guilt of Germans communally and individually.

Disgrace is a novel that takes place in South Africa during post-apartheid. As Loxley mentions, “The inequalities inherent in apartheid, and the weakness of the role South Africa plays in the world economy, have combined to generate political and economic instability” (Loxley 1). This is slowly shifted throughout the novel when we trace the actions of Petrus and his development in the novel. Not only is inequality a factor, but as Fantu mentions, “South Africa is a very unequal society, consisting of a highly developed, 'first world' sector on the one hand and an underdeveloped, 'third-world' sector on the other. Racial and class differences generally coincide; most members of the wealthy minority are white, and most members of the poor majority are black” (Fantu 1). This shift is underlyingly noticeable when David arrives to South Africa and is greeted by Petrus.

During a reading of the novel “Disgrace” and analysis of Petrus, my mind wandered to the aftermath of the revolution in my home country Serbia. After fifty-five years of rule, the oppressive communist regime was finally overthrown and regular citizens could be heard, with almost contagious optimism, saying “I breathe with full lungs again”. However, while we had many benefits of adopting democracy and joining the international institution, one part of the population quickly started theft of ex-government companies; bribery and corruption were rampant within the new democratic ruling class. That brings me back to my analysis; while the situation is not fully comparable, the actions and behavior of Petrus in the novel Disgrace by J.M Coetzee symbolize positive as well as negative power shift and socio-economical changes of long-oppressed majority black population in post-apartheid South African society. Much the same what my home country experienced after the establishment of the new democratic institution, in a power vacuum, sometimes immoral people who committed unlawful acts rise first in the hierarchy of the new society. All the revolutions or transformation of the state have brought us advancements of humanity, but also the dark reign of terror; we all can remember examples of French and Russian revolution. I will present to you that J.M. Coetzee showed us both sides of that transfer of power in the character of Petrus.