Disgrace

Content Warning: The novel and this guide discuss sexism, sexual assault, stalking, sexual grooming, violence, and racism.

Disgrace is an unflinching portrayal of David Lurie’s deepening disgrace and his subsequent attempts at atonement. At the beginning of the novel, David is cynical and self-involved, and he is completely unaware of his moral failings. He is an aging man who sexually exploits women, though he sees himself as a misunderstood romantic. He has delusions of intellectual grandeur and resents the world around him for having the temerity to change.

To protest against the changes in his personal life as well as in the world around him, David has sex with a young student: His affair with Melanie is a counterpoint to his aging, to the changing world, and to the rules that society imposes on him. Initially, David revels in this behavior; he enjoys thwarting bureaucracy and social rules, believing he is superior to both. He cannot see that his sexual relationship with Melanie is exploitative and coercive. Even when Melanie files a complaint against him, David is convinced that she is being forced into this action by her father and friends, refusing to see that he has hurt her. At the subsequent hearing, David shows no remorse for his actions and is cast out from his position.

David’s loses his job, his reputation, and his status in one fell swoop, but he doesn’t accept his own responsibility for his downfall—this only deepens his disgrace. Instead, he frames the situation as the price a man of integrity and intellect pays for existing in a shallow, rule-bound society, and this highlights his moral decay. For much of the novel, he assures himself that his relationship with Melanie was completely consensual and that he was fired by bitter people who refuse to recognize his genius. He tells himself that women and racial minorities have targeted him because he is an aging white man who represents the past. Soon after, he extricates himself from Cape Town, physically leaving the society that has judged him, and he casts himself into a self-imposed exile. The time that David spends with Lucy is a bitter rejection of societal demands.

When the novel’s setting shifts to Lucy’s farm, it draws attention to the fact that David’s personal failings mirror those of the nation. South Africa, with its history of apartheid, is also in disgrace, just like David, and it is in denial of its violent past and injustices, just like he is. While Lucy tries to coexist and live fairly in post-apartheid South Africa, David resists change. When they are attacked, Lucy is raped, and David is physically hurt. Other than blaming the attackers, David feels powerless. He did not defend his daughter, and he realizes that she does not respect his opinions and suggestions. Eventually, David comes to see how his own actions toward Melanie are similar to the actions of the attackers, forcing him to acknowledge his own state of disgrace.

David begins his process of atonement by working with Bev and helping her euthanize unwanted dogs. He confronts mortality and the fragility of life, and he is moved by the suffering of these animals. Though this doesn’t lead to quick and complete redemption, David becomes slowly attuned to the suffering and needs of creatures other than himself. While he was completely self-involved at the beginning of the novel, he gradually learns to feel empathy and compassion. However, his new awareness doesn’t absolve him of his disgrace and he remains largely unchanged even at the novel’s conclusion.