The link

The link between post-colonialism and “Disgrace” becomes much more apparent once I reached chapter seven. Lurie leaves his sophisticated city life and heads to the country to live with his daughter. During his stay. During his stay, both he and his daughter, Lucy, get attacked by a group of men. His daughter is raped by the men and he is lit on fire. This type of reckless violence is an excellent example of how desperate those in Africa have become. While waiting in the hospital, it takes Lurie two hours to see the doctor, this is after he was lit on fire and his eye was burnt shut. This is an example of how low staffed the hospitals are in Africa. One of Lucy’s friends comments on the incident and states “It’s bad enough when you read about it in the paper, but when it happens to someone you know….That really brings it home to you”(102) This quote tells us that this these things aren’t once in awhile occurrences.

Lurie is told that the police won’t save him by a man named Ettinger. “Yes, I never go anywhere without my Beretta…The best is, you save yourself, because the police are not going to save you, not any more, you can be sure”(100) The notion of anarchy comes up, African is so far gone that there is no sense of law. Coetzee wants, nay, needs the reader to understand this, African is in dire need of help. It still needs help. Unlike colonialism, which was ownership, we need to help Africa. Even today, African needs our help. AIDS, poverty, crime, these are all things that still exist today, most people just ignore it, unless you live there and experience it, it seems almost like fantasy. We can all relate to Lurie in some way, we have our bad days and we think it’s the worst, but we really have no idea how bad things can get.