People Can Make Mistakes

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Liem Le

Professor: Scott Inguito

English 1B

Disgrace

J.M. Coetzee is the author who wrote the novel "Disgrace." It is a well-written human story that audiences can relate to. People can make mistakes even though they get old. However, that does not mean the end of the world. In this novel, it makes the audiences realize that people can learn how to change after those mistakes. The main character in this novel-David Lurie, a 52-year-old professor at University, is an example. He falls in love and has sex with a twenty-year-old student named Melanie. He is asked to quit job after this affair is exposed. After this event happened, he moves to where his daughter lives as he avoids his responsibility. He thinks that he would find peace to forget what happened, but a frightened event happens to David and his daughter. Three men rape David’s daughter and makes him get burned. He really wants three men to get in jail, but his daughter disagrees because she feels embarrassed. After that event, David feels regretted for what he did to his student, Melanie. He thinks that he looks like three men who rape his daughter. In addition, he realizes and starts to understand what he wants may hurt other people. Therefore, he changes a lot when he moves to his daughter’s home: first, he is interested in what he is doing, then he changes the way he loves, and he changes his attitude.

In the beginning of the novel, the author describes David as a professor teaching in a university. Of course, his job is dealing with students, grades, papers, and teaching styles. However, David is not willing to teach all his students. As a result, most of his students are not interested in the ways he teaches. The author writes, "Because he has no respect for the material he teaches, he makes no impression on his students. They look him through him when he speaks, forget his name" (page 4). Indeed, the way David teaches is very boring, and he seems not to care. Especially, when David asks questions, all students keep silence (page 21). When David moves to his daughter’s home, he really changes and enthusiastically does what he has never done. For example, David helps Bev Shaw at Animal Welfare. Although those animals are ugly, David still feed and takes care of them (page 83 and 84). The author even adds, "Nevertheless, he is the one who holds the dog still as the needle finds the vein and the drug hits the heart and the legs buckle and the eyes dim" (page 142). Moreover, after three men raped his daughter and killed six dogs, David helps her to bury dogs even though his back is sore, his arms are sore, his wrist aches again (page 110). Additionally, after that event, Lucy suffers a big emotional shock and cannot go to the market. To help Lucy keep her stall, David must wake up at five in the morning, and he goes with Petrus to the market to sell his daughter’s farm products. Furthermore, the author also writes:

"This is how his days are spent on the farm. He helps Petrus clean up the irrigation system. He keeps the garden from going to ruin. He packs produce for the markets. He helps Bev Shaw at the clinic. He sweeps the floors, cooks the meals, does all the things that Lucy no longer does. He is busy from dawn to dusk" (page 120).

It is not very easy for David to do these jobs that he has never done before. Now, however, he does. But what makes David change so much? I wonder. He even shows me that he is a hard worker. I think he begins to care and wants to help. He may think that helping others may make him feel happy or find a peaceful connection to live in the farm. Probably, he thinks what he did may be redemptions for his mistakes. Whatever reasons are, I am very happy for his good improvement.

Second, David changes the way he loves. Before moving to his daughter’s farm, David is a person who loves sex. He is willing to have sex with women as long as they have their beautiful looks, sexy curves, and hot bodies. For example, in the beginning of the novel, the author describes that David had sex with Soraya, a call girl with a hot body working under an agent. When she left, David called an agency to demand another girl to satisfy his lusts. And when he met Melanie, he begins to fall in love with her because she has a young, sexy, hot body. David had sex with Melanie whether she agrees or disagrees. On page 25, the author describes the scene between David and Melanie. David undresses and has sex with Melanie. Of course, in that situation, Melanie looks like "a rabbit when the jaws of the fox close on its neck." This is not David’s love, but his lustful, carnal desires. And if those women do not look sexy to him, David does not want to talk to them. Bev Shaw is an example. The author writes, "He has not taken to Bev Shaw, a dumpy, bustling little woman with black freckles, close-cropped, wiry hair, and no neck. He does like women who make no effort to be attractive" (page 72). David describes, "The veins on her ears are visible as a filigree of red and purple. The veins of her nose too. And then a chin that comes straight out of her chest, like a pouter pigeon’s. As an ensemble, remarkably unattractive (page 81 and 82)." David does not even want his daughter to make friend with Bev Shaw because he thinks that she will not lead his daughter into a higher live (page 73 and 74). Now, however, David changes. He loves women by their inner beauty. Time after time working side by side in clinic with Bev Shaw, David thinks that Bev Shaw has a great personality and an inner beauty. And I think, in the first time, he enjoys talking to Bev Shaw about what happened to him in Cape Town. Before that, David will not share too much information that related to him. It is a good sign, in my opinion. The more David and Bev Shaw have conversation, the deeper they fall in love. Indeed, David has sex with Bev Shaw (page 149). This is David’s real love, not his lust. I am so proud of him for his success of changing the way he loves.

Third, David Lurie changes his attitudes from bad to good. At the age of 52, he is very stubborn, cold, and impatient. David insists to refuse his colleagues’ helps when he has a scandal with Melanie. In addition, David says, "I have stated my position. I am guilty of all that I am charged with" (page 49). His confession lacks honesty. It seems that David accepts his wrongs to refuse his responsibilities. David even believes that he and Melanie really fall in love, and that someone forces Melanie to sue him and makes her emaciated. Nonetheless, after an event happened to David’s daughter, he thinks of what he did to Melanie. He feels guilty and regretted. As a result, he goes back to Cape Town to apologize to Melanie’ parents. Now, his apology is full of honesty. On page 173, the author writes, "With careful ceremony he gets to his knees and touches his forehead to the floor." Of course, it is true after all bad things happen to David’s daughter. He clearly understands how disgrace and embarrassed Melanie feels. David Lurie says, "For which I am sorry. I am sorry for what I took your daughter through. You have a wonderful family. I apologize for the grief I have caused you and Mrs Isaacs. I ask for your pardon" (page 171). In addition, the author describes David as a cold person. He does not care about animal’s lives, and he believes that animals do not have souls and were born to be killed. However, he changes after moving to his daughter. For example, when David helps Bev Shaw kill animals, he feels guilty. The author writes, "He had thought he would get used to it. But that is not what happens. The more killings he assists in, the more jittery he gets. One Sunday evening, driving home in Lucy’s kombi, he actually has to stop at the roadside to recover himself. Tears flow down his face that he cannot stop; his hands shake" (page 142 and 143). Throughout this example, David proves to readers that he still has a good side behind his heart. In addition, this is the only time I see David cry-an honest regret. Hence, I believe that David has changed attitudes from bad to good.

It is great for everyone to read the novel "Disgrace" because the idea has a human value. It makes audiences consider that sometimes what we want is not always what people want. And if we insist to do that, it can bring backfire for that person. He/she feels hurt, embarrassed, and disgrace if others know the truth, like Lucy in this novel. She does not want her father expose those who raped her, for she want to keep that secret and does not want to get hurt again. Additionally, the idea in this novel makes readers understand that making mistakes is not the end of the world, like David Lurie. He loves women because they had great bodies, but now he understands what love is. He also changes his attitude. He was a cold, stubborn person, but now his heart fills up a lot of emotions-emotions for animal and for women’s inner beauty.

Work Citations

Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Penguin, 2000. Print. 5/8/2013