(clip: trailer of movie adaptation of Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee)
I think one of the strongest themes in the book that stuck with me is the white dilemma. Before reading the book my perception of race relations between white and black South Africans was based on what I read about the country’s history. Black and Coloured people were oppressed under the system of apartheid and the notion of separate development. Years after the historic struggle that eventually overthrew the National Party and their ideology, prosperity has still not reached all levels of society. Wherever we went around Cape Town, we would see townships like Khayelitsha that are striving to survive and then we would visit white rich areas like Stellenbosch, a completely opposite situation there. At that point of time I felt that justice had not been served and that white South Africans had not completely integrated themselves with the majority population.
After reading that book however, I became a little sympathetic towards white South Africans and their conflicting mindset. This situation could be influenced by certain factors; there may still be some resentment towards whites who live on land previously owned by black families for centuries. Those families that do try to integrate may experience hostility that stems from the frustration of poor economic situations. Also, the criminal courts and police during apartheid were hardly beacons of justice, especially for blacks. Hundreds upon thousands of them were thrown in jail indefinitely and for wrong reasons. Many were tortured to death, an issue the Truth and Reconciliation committee tried to address. But now in post-apartheid South Africa shown in Disgrace, white people like Lucy are torn between getting justice for themselves and not using their white privileges as the generations before did. It is indeed a dilemma. I think from this book I somehow understood this better but now the situation in South Africa just seems even more complicated to me.
It also made me think in general about race in literature. When reading novels of lighter genre like romance, sometimes the race of a character becomes unclear and we usually paint a picture in our mind depending on our own definitions. In more serious genres that have political backdrops, we figure out the race based on the roles played by the character. As I mentioned in the earlier entry, race in Disgrace is confusing. There are no initial indicators of the racial backgrounds of the characters in the books. Even though the setting of the book is in a place with complex history, race first an unimportant element in the first few chapters eventually becomes a subtle factor.
Also, during my internship at Bush Radio I had once talked with a guest on the show about the difference between Cape Town and the rest of the country. He said that sometimes people viewed Cape Town as elitist and a completely different and developed scenario from parts like the Eastern Cape. Everything in Cape Town he said is seen as better. David’s journey from his comfort zone in Cape Town to the rural Grahamstown would mean, from the guest’s description, as such an enormous step. I never had the chance to go to the Eastern Cape but from the details provided in the book, I think I would feel completely lost just like David.
