Analysis Of Rape In J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace

In Disgrace, there are multiple different controversies we can explore, I have found an article that explores the controversies of rape as it is discussed in the book. The article I chose is called Rape and The Foundation of Nations in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, it is written by M. Van Wyk Smith. In this article he explores how the rape of Melanie and the rape of Lucy are related to our world. He also discusses how rape is almost common in our worlds history and that it is very daring for someone to talk about rape even in writing. He discusses how rape is inescapable in the founding of nations. I think this article was a very good read, it explored an idea that most people wouldn’t think to talk about because it is shameful, but I think that Van Wyk Smith is right that rape is inescapable in the founding of nations. The idea of rape is unacceptably common in our world no matter where you go, there is rape and I think exploring this idea is great for someone to do, as Coetzee did in his book, Disgrace. Van Wyk Smith starts in his article by talking about the image of Melanie and Lucy’s rape as expressed in the book. He talks of how we have a front row seat to Melanie’s rape, but we don’t in Lucy’s because David was locked in the bathroom. He even states, “But …show more content…
Van Wyk Smith talks about the Greek myth of the daughter of a Greek god who was raped and carried off to the underworld, only being allowed to visit a little part of the year. Van Wyk Smith says, “Rape and/ or abduction is repeatedly invoked as a metaphor for the violence, sacrifice and suffering that seem always to have been part of such seismic shifts in human affairs” (Smith, 19). Our world seems to have been built upon violence, we have a lot of violence within our nations forthcoming and I’m not sure that it is something we should be proud of. Rape is just another form of violence that can be portrayed on others, and other