J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: Post-Apartheid South Africa Essays

As the characters age throughout the book, their self-awareness grows significantly. An example of this is while Sophie washes “the blood off her arms and cleans the knife” (175), her bravery and loyalty shines. She evolves from a shy child to a brave, young adult; Sophie becomes willing to sacrifice her life for others rather than a child who is insecure of her deviation. Equally important, David says, “When there is that, where is the word? There is only the inadequacy of the word that exists” (166). This thought identifies how he is able to acknowledge the capacity of his own deviation and the insignificance of spoken words; David recognizes the development of his comprehension about communication with “thought shapes.” Additionally, David recalls, “A series of memories cut off what my eyes were seeing—my Aunt Harriet’s face in the water, her hair gently waving in the current; poor Anne a limp figure hanging from a beam; Sally, wringing her hands in anguish for Katherine, and in terror for herself; Sophie, degraded to a savage, sliding in the dust, with an arrow in her neck…” (197). He exhibits a vision of the Waknuk community and its dark effects upon certain individuals. Seeing that he progresses towards more sophisticated topics, his realization of these impacts identifies a growth in his overall understanding about recent ventures. In conclusion, the advancement to adulthood corresponds with the journey from innocence to

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.

David must pretend, not just for the remainder of the novel, but for the next forty years, to be ignorant of Frank’s crimes, and much of what is happening because his parents do not realise that he has

An example in text of Lucy feeling disgraceful is in this next quote where she talks directly to the reader. “I should tell you right now how I got to where I am: single mother on the door, public housing, all that. It wasn’t a goal of mine, certainly.”-Pg15 As Lucy tells the story of her having a child she talks about how embarrassing and painful it is to be in her situation. She speaks of how she never dreamed for this and that she had other plans but in the end she has failed herself. Later in the story Lucy has to go to a dole appointment. While she is there she talks about how the workers there recognize that she is of lower class and it disgusts the worker at the desk. “With the puke now on his pants and one boot missing he looked horrible, and I think seeing him depressed the dole staff. Anyway, they got me in and out of there pretty quickly.” Pg-50 At the end of this quote she says that they got her in and out really quick, thinking that the staff wanted her out as fast as they could so they didn’t have to deal with her because they didn’t want her there because her lower class, grossed them out making her feel like a stain on society. Seeing this Lucy takes into account that just because she’s a single mom people start thinking of her differently adding onto her insecurities. Amir also faces the feelings of disgrace, for example in this quote

David spends the first two chapters eavesdropping into the conversations of his mother and father. This way of finding information in itself is very juvenile but is the only way. Because of the eavesdropping, the information David hears is interfered by his childish ways for example “part of me said to leave, get away, run now before it’s too late before you hear something you can’t unhear.” This quote displays David’s naïve thinking. The naivety of David is also shown though his feeling towards his Uncle Frank, he sees Frank as the charming, town doctor and loving uncle. In David’s eyes, Frank can do no wrong, and when he does, he along with his father does not believe the allegations, “why are you telling me this” “are you telling me this because I’m Frank’s brother? Because I’m your husband? Because I’m Maries employer? He paused “or because I’m the

The novel begins with David standing at his window watching his reflection in the darkening window pane. There is a repetition of the words still and same. This is a self-reflection of himself as David is staring into his dark past where he is longing to move away from his lost identity. David is in denial with his manhood and he flees to France and leaves behind his life in America to attempt to leave the issues with his sexuality back home. At one point, David says that “perhaps home is not a place, but simply an irrevocable condition” (92). David realizes the internal, emotional state rather than just the physical

The description of their relationship draws on the language of navigation and discovery. She is seen as “undiscovered country” p.32 and David is a “battered vessel”. The narrator suggests there is no map for love

Another predominate lesson in the novel is, how change is possible, but quite difficult to become accustomed to. David proves this point in a conversation he shares with Uncle Axel. Since David was raised in a society where change was not an option, but instead it was mandatory for the people of Waknuk to move towards Gods true image and move away from all deviations. David and many others had a hard time going against their way of living. David admits that he is reluctant to change saying, “Moreover, I was reluctant to admit the flaw in the tidy, familiar orthodoxy I had been taught (pg 64). Similarly, Waknuk is against change and always resisted when change was an option. David reveals that change is quite difficult to become accustomed to when he states, “The place may have been called Waknuk then, anyways, Waknuk it had become; an orderly, law-abiding, God- respecting community of some hundred scattered holding, large and small” (pg 17). This shows that their town, Waknuk, had never become anything different through-out many years. Also Joseph Strorm was a very strict and rigid man who unfortunately was at a point where he and many others who lived in Waknuk were brain washed with the Bible, and Nicholson’s Repentances. Therefore change was a possible option but hard to go forward with it. In this novel it therefore teaches us how change is possible, but overall very hard to do.

Sophie allows for doubt to pierce its way into David’s life for the first time. At the start of the novel, when David first meets Sophie, he gets an insight into a deviant’s life. She has proven to be the first blow to efficiently impact David’s thoughts and make him question the authenticity of his society’s belief system. “It is hind-sight that enables me to fix that as the day when my first small doubts started to germinate.”

(Hord Zinn). David is a telepathic boy living in a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, called the “Tribulation” in the book The Chrysalids. David manages to change the world and the vision of mutation and deviants. David would have never able to do that without the people around that changed him. This Essay will explore how Sophie, Uncle Axel and Gordon though minor characters have a major impact on David's development.

Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to

A recurring theme in the character of David Bell is his inflated opinion of himself. Chapter Two begins with David stating, “I was an extremely handsome young man” (DeLillo 2.11). David continues to describe his appearance in an almost scientific manner that would appear to be simply a factual statement. When David equates his relationship with his mirror as therapeutic, however, we see how much he stakes his opinion of himself on the way he looks. “I was blue-eyed David Bell. Obviously my life depended on this fact” (DeLillo 2.11).

This unforsaken tragedy, an untimely death for one proves to be a new beginning blossoming for the pair. The death also leads to the figurative death of the “old” Lucy, and makes for a shifting, dynamic character to arise. A defining moment of her transformation occurs when lonesomely wander the city, her thoughts begin to take control. Her mind wandered “the gates of liberty seemed still unopened. [Lucy] was conscious of her discontent; it was new to her to be conscious of it. "The world," she thought, "is certainly full of beautiful things, if only I could come across them" (27). It is clear here that she seems trapped, in a way she her self can’t explain, she is only aware that she isn’t happy with the way she is and has been living. This feeling was new and she was aware of just that, she had unlocked a new level on consciousness she had been unable to acquire in the home country of England. She knew she needed to leave it behind, to break away from this feeling that was consuming her, but how she was going to go about it, had her confused. Subconsciously she knew this was a step in the right direction to finding her identity. Her whole life Lucy had merely allowed other to make decisions on her behalf, she was no stranger in being told what to do. As Lucy began discovering her own identity and becoming her own person she struggled with the new obligation of thinking for herself, “This solitude oppressed her; she was accustomed to have her thoughts

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be considered inferior because of your race? The people of South Africa had to endure racial inferiority during the era of apartheid. The apartheid laws the government of South Africa made led to an unequal lifestyle for the blacks and produced opposition.

opinion of how the country works as he grew up, and when he was 16 the