Coetzee & Petrus-"Selfish and Narrow Interests"

When completing Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, the remnants of post-colonialism are clearly seen underlying the dramatic story of David Laurie and his daughter Lucy. Whether it’s the rape of Lucy by the three unknown-black assailants or the revelation of Lucy’s reaction to the attack, readers of the novel are given symbolic characters to comprehend what Coetzee is trying to get across, which is the effects of a once colonized peoples. As Said states in terms of colonialism, “Anyone with even a vague consciousness of this whole is alarmed at how such remorselessly selfish and narrow interests-patriotism, chauvinism, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds- can in fact lead to mass destructiveness. The world simply cannot afford this many more times” (Said 369).

Maybe Coetzee feels as Said does about the causes of what one would see as good, such as patriotism can be seen as a double-edged sword. For we have those who manipulate this feeling of total pride in ones home country to establish goals they want for themselves. This can be used to answer why David Laurie cannot see outside his own origin of racial standpoint, this being the west.

Whether this is in sync with Said’s idea of “selfish and narrow interests”, is not for one to decide. But in order to understand it one can use Laurie’s idea’s towards Petrus is an example. For David sees Petrus as a land monger who helped incite an attack against himself and his daughter, “Petrus in my opinion, is itching for Lucy to pull out. If you want proof, look no further than at what happened to Lucy and me. It may not have been Petrus’s brain child but he certainly turned a blind eye” (Coetzee 140). One can understand Laurie’s reaction towards Petrus as founded with later understanding of how he is in fact kin with one of the men who attacked them. But there is also a dubiousness that will be connected with Petrus even until the end of the novel. One in which is held solely by David.