Essay Sample on Neutralization of Race Supremacy in South Africa

Introduction

The South African political arena is subdivided into pre and post-apartheid regimes. In the pre-apartheid systems, the whites were displayed with superiority aspects over the blacks. Despite the blacks being the majority in the country, the perception they had towards the whites was one that thoroughly demeaned them. The whites had the freedom of committing all forms of inhuman acts without being submitted to the rule of law. They gained all manner of favors that classified them as being superiors over the blacks. The literary works that have existed during that period focused much on the reconciliation basis between the blacks and the whites.

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Consequently, recent literature work Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, David Lurie is used as a symbol that represents the Old, White Authorities of South Africa, While Lucy is used to describe the New White People of South Africa. In this case, the race is revealed in an entire perspective. As articulated by Viking," Race is not a "category," a "power," a "situation" but a "relationship." Most importantly, whites and black's ought to rise above the previously existing racial boundaries and work harmoniously to steer up the economic standards of the country (Mohapatra 3). Some literature work like the Boyhood and Waiting for the Barbarians raised the inclination of the whites above the blacks; Disgrace makes it evident of the existence of the dilemma that displays the Whites as the minority race in the post-apartheid regime. It is a counter-narrative of the cognizance of white South African culture faced with the trauma of being underestimated.

Disgrace recounts the tale of David Lurie, a twice-separated from a multi-year-old English Lecturer in Cape Town University who tumbles to disgrace as a result of an indiscreet issue with one of his students, Melanie Isaacs. Lurie is a piece of the white South African culture with its distorted, turned qualities, where affection is not loved "its cousin" and is perceived as a form of physical desire and pleasure transfer as in the case of his prostitute Soraya. Even though Lurie understands that she is "close to a kid," his heart staggers with intense desire, and he perseveres because, according to him, "a lady's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is a piece of the abundance that she brings into the world. She must share it," (Gobodo-Madikizela 252). His frame of mind talks about the extravagance of European exploitation in a victimized society.

The issue soon ends up outrageous, and Lurie ends up before a University inquiry commission dealing with indictments of inappropriate behavior. He promptly concedes his blame yet declines to apologize or embrace guiding that would have spared his activity. The little effort he could put in was admitting that he was "a worker of Eros" (Gobodo-Madikizela 252). That he isn't embarrassed as emphasized by his hubristic, arrogant demeanor towards the world. The preliminary trial of Lurie goes up against a more prominent social essentialness since it symbolically implies occasions in South African history when, in 1955, a Truth and Reconciliation advisory group was framed with the sole perspective of giving an opportunity of absolution to the charged as long as they avail the whole truth. Lurie's preliminary trial is comparable to white South Africans' mentality amid politically-sanctioned racial segregation when he declines to apologize for the misuse of power.

At the point when the board terminated his service delivery agreement, he is exposed to a lifetime disgrace. He looks for asylum in the real world - social, political, racial and topographical - as against the shielded, unique life he so far delighted in. The author presently takes Lurie to his little girl's little holding in Eastern Cape and demonstrates to the reader the unforgiving substances of the new South African predicament. At first, Lurie is content with his girl's basic and unhurried way of life: "Nothing could be increasingly basic" (Coetzee 61), he muses. After a short while, he understands that nothing could be in actuality more hazardous than the life of the Afrikaners in the new South Africa, where the whites live in constant dread of the blacks (Mohapatra 3).

In the little holding, Coetzee investigates the privileges of white possession in the frontier setting. For instance, following his entry on the ranch, Lurie is acquainted with the character Petrus, who depicts himself as a worker. "I care for the canines, and I work in the garden.... I am the plant specialist and the dog man" (Coetzee 64). But Lucy portrays her association with Petrus in terms that are stripped of intensity, that is, according to her "partner" and "co-owner." Later she says she cannot structure Petrus about because he is his very own lord. The connection among Lurie and Petrus appears superficially to be founded on the Master-servant bond, that of the European colonizer and African colonized. However, as the novel advances, it turns out to be progressively certain that the historical backdrop of African vicious racial clash is still in advancement and is being instituted on a microcosmic scale on the little holding. Afterward, we find that Lucy's inability to affirm her "capacity" ends as a form of assault.

The residence of Lucy turns into the target of a horrendous attack by three obscure dark aggressors. They lock Lurie in a restroom and mangle him. They assault Lucy and grab her garments, electronic merchandise, and Lurie's vehicle. Lurie, the self-absorbed teacher of English endeavors to philosophize and acknowledge the circumstance; "Count yourself lucky to have escaped with your life...." (Coetzee 98). There are various proposals that Petrus might be involved in the assault of Lucy at the same time; incidentally, toward the end of the novel, she is at the purpose of giving over her title deeds to him in return for his assurance.

Lurie battles to comprehend his little girl's lack of involvement and endeavors to induce her to abandon her stripped home, yet Lucy is resolved to carry on her reality of fear and frailty. She realizes that her continuation of South African soil is reliant on tolerating the new social request where the blacks play a predominant role in the economy. She even bargains on turning into a "decent mother" for the kid conceived as a result of the assault. Lurie submits himself wholly to work at the animal clinic. Gradually a change comes over him as he associates with the suffering animals. Egotistical and narrow-minded toward the start of the novel, he creates sympathy, comprehension, and lowliness towards the end (Mohapatra 3).

Indeed, Coetzee portrays South Africa with the disintegration of the white power and the takeover by the blacks. The author is by all accounts calling attention that political change can do nothing to relieve the disdain which has turned into an essential piece of the awareness of the blacks. Even though politically-sanctioned racial segregation has ended, its remnants wait as abhor. The only option for the whites is the reconciliatory attitude that should compromise with their initial state. The change in the demeanor of the hero is representative of the difference in many Afrikaners and is by all accounts the state of things to come later on of South Africa.

Works Cited

Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla. "Remembering the past: Nostalgia, traumatic memory, and the legacy of apartheid." Peace and conflict: Journal of peace psychology 18.3 (2012): 252.

Mohapatra, Nandita. "Politics of race in JM Coetzee's Disgrace." Notes on Contemporary Literature 41.3 (2011).

Coetzee, John M. Disgrace. Penguin, 2000.