Conquest

Is it post-colonial or colonizing?
Colonizing: I see a comparison in the concept of colonization and David want for Melanie. It doesn’t appear that Melanie is more than just an object, merely the concentration of an inert, uncontrollable “need” for conquest (which may also have been a product of his loneliness and/or boredom). He seems to have a desire for some new student every semester. David realizes that Melanie is young, that he shouldn’t be pursuant of her, but this does not stop him. In fact, it even excites him. He is drawn to her physical attributes, her skin-tone, cheek-bones. This may be similar to the resources that draw a particular country to colonizing another area. But, more important I think is the idea of conquest, with which comes an idea of superiority. David, consciously or not, believes he is superior to Melanie, or (maybe) more specifically, that he is a superior sex. This, again, parallels another concept inherent in colonization – one group of people feeling superior to another. “Why? Because a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it.” It may also be that Melanie feels she is inferior to David. She lies down to David’s will: “Not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core. As though she had decided to go slack, die within herself for the duration, like a rabbit when the jaws of the fox close on its neck. So that everything done to her might be done.”
Thus far I see more of a comparison to the colonizing process itself more than post-colonialism, but obviously the story has yet to end. What entices me is the fact that David has been married twice, and has a daughter. He seems to have a knack for moving on, or at least isn’t afraid to cut ties.
So, there may be more to come.