Analysis Of J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace

Register to read the introduction… “He has not taken to Bev Shaw, a dumpy, bustling little woman with black freckles, close-cropped wiry hair, and no neck. He does not like women who make no effort to be attractive” (Coetzee ). David, uninterested in ugly women, uses Bev as a body in order for him to have sex. Stade and Karbiener explain how David misses the intimacy he had with Melanie and Soraya, and so he tries to kindle a flame with Bev Shaw. Since Bev is a white woman in South Africa, raping her was irrelevant to citizens because of apartheid. During apartheid, rape, sex, and other activities were forbidden between opposite races, creating a disturbance in the government that resulted in many casualties. Raping …show more content…
Rape and abuse, the two central conflicts in the novel, create the dynamics of Lucy and David. Coetzee mixes the historical events of South Africa with a fictional story line by creating a setting in South Africa. The main conflicts in Disgrace creates a parallel that cannot be distinguishable among other authors during this time era.

Works Cited

Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Viking, 1999. Print.

Graham , Lucy. "Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace." Journal of
. Southern African Studies . 29.2 (2012): 434-444. Web. 10 Jan. 2014

Pölling-Vocke, Bernt. "The Stylistic Purpose of Animals and the Disgrace of a Nation in J.M.” (2004): n. page. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. <http://www.hockeyarenas.com/disgrace.htm>.

Poyner , Jane . J.M. Coetzee and the Idea of Public Intellectual. Ohio : Ohio University Press , 2006. eBook.

Stade , George , and Karen Karbiener . "Blooms Literature ." Facts On File . N.p., 08 January
2014. Web. 10 Jan