“You can’t teach an old dog new trick” but he adapt to new atmospheres.
In the novel, “Disgrace,” written by J.M. Coetzee the main character Professor David Lurie is a man who has still abides to the rules of apartheids. Apartheid was a system established in South Africa to segregate the Africans from the “white” which basically made the Africans the “majority minority.” David Lurie is a white man who has been divorced twice and is now relying on a prostitute to make him happy at least once a week. He is a man with no ambition, who does not enjoy his profession, and he is basing his life by the “adventures” that Byron had because he cannot have any of his own.
David Lurie’s life gets complicated when he decides to get involved with a student in his class. The relationship with this student, Melanie, would not have been a great impact on David’s life if he would just have controlled his lust love. David Lurie was not in love with the student or the prostitute, rather he felt comfortable and at ease when he was with them. When his involvement with the student became public David admit he was guilty but he did not admit he was wrong.
Being guilty of something does not always been that it is seem as wrong. David Lurie did not consider his affair with the student to be wrong because they are after all mature adults. David also tried to justify himself by saying that he was under the influence of Euros. For the professor this was his ways of saying he cared about Melanie more than he wished he did. That is why he did not wish to hear the charges that were causing him his career as an educator. He preferred to not get hurt and believe that she maybe liked him in some sort of way.
Coetzee creates a character that at first is just seen as someone who wants to have fun and does as he pleases because he believes he is still at his peak in life.
David’s life changes when he moves to his daughter’s house in the country and has his ear set on fire. Any author would have set this traumatizing experience as a climactic moment when the main character realizes he needs to change because he himself wants justice but he does not let justice be done in his own life. Coetzee on the other hand does not make this experience change his main character extremely and the reader can see that no real change has been made in David’s attitude toward his life because he still does not have an internal conflict with himself.
“You cannot teach old dog new tricks” this saying can relate to Coetzee’s main character, David Lurie, because he has not changed. He is still holding on to his traditional believes and does not except the new life that South Africa has adopted. David Lurie has not changed in the novel even though he has been accused of sexual violence with a student, his daughter has been raped, he has been tortured and set on fire because he still holds on to his believes. He cannot change until he has an inter conflict with himself.
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Your points are a bit unclear, but your overall argument is very interesting. Although I don't agree that David Lurie, has not changed, I do feel that the events do not cause a change as extreme, as it normally would in a novel. I like your agrument that he needs to have an inner conflict with himself, to become a new person.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting how you believe only an inner conflict can truly change a person, but isn't it possible that David is having this inner conflict. If the conflict is how to deal with his daughter in her state of depression then maybe David is struggling through an inner conflict in which he is changing. Your points are good, but I just feel that there is more information in the novel that points to David changing.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that I agree with what you are saying. You said that David's character did not change because he did not have an internal conflict with himself, but I think he was conflicted constantly, after he moved into the country and especialy after the attack. He didn't like the way he looked after he got burnt and he even said his face would scare little children. This seems like a conflict because early in life, he was used to getting what he wanted, especially women. He was also conflicted because he could not successfully communicate with his daughter after the attack and he desperately wanted to. I think the attack was the climax of the story, and it was more than David getting physically injured. I feel like you jumped to your conclusion without giving any evidence to support it.
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