1234: lily 5 pages

Anderson Fan

Cultural Foundation III

Professor Chapin

12/13/2018

Oppression and Being Oppressed

—Discussing the racial issues within Disgrace and Do The Right Thing

Opening

David Lurie, a white professor in a technical college who teaches one of the most inconsequential subjects—romantic literature, undergoes multiple transformations throughout the story in Disgrace, and the author, John Coetzee, utilizes the figure Lurie as the principal part of the notions of the marginalization towards white, the ethnicity that used to be dominant. Lurie initially comes into the sights of the readers with a sense of indifference and rebuff. However, as the ruthless society compels him to acknowledge that he is no longer capable of retaining his prestige, the societal dominance as well as the ability to protect his daughter—Lucy, he ultimately becomes conscious of the fact that the society has profoundly changed. It continuously impacts his inner vulnerability, gradually diminishing his firmly established patriarchal thinking as well as the thoughts of white supremacy. In the colonial society that is progressively declining, the transition of Lurie’s identity conveys a bigger picture—the tumble of white social status during the post-colonial period, which could be seen in his sexual affairs. He exploits his reputation as a white college professor to establish a sense of superiority, which Lurie uses it to entice females. As a twice-divorced middle-aged man, Lurie solves his physiological needs by hiring a prostitute named Soraya, whom he finds “entirely satisfactorily”(2). He later seduces one of his student, Melanie Isaacs, and his impetuous passion for her is inexplicable regarding his age. This forbidden love has begotten a series of troubles, which eventually leads to dismissal due to his stubbornness. Although Lurie firmly insists that the Western democracy asserts “sex is the backbone of life”(7), and the freedom of fulfilling one’s sexual desire cannot be interfered or impeded, indicates that “these are puritanical times. Private life is public business. Prurience is respectable, prurience and sentiment. They wanted a spectacle: breast-beating, remorse, tears if possible. A TV show, in fact. I wouldn't oblige.”(66) However, he essentially overlooked the fact that he is no longer in the midst of a society dominated by a white regime. The superior ideology of “we Westerner”(202) in Lurie’s subconsciousness has already been outdated. Therefore, it is inevitable for him to lose everything that he used to cherish and become a marginalized other.

On the other hand, the tribulation of Lucy Lurie further reveals how does the “Westerner” in Lurie’s ideals has been subverted, marginalized and otherized. As Beauvoir mentioned in The Second Sex, the reason for women constantly perceiving a formidable sense of inferiority is because their choices in life virtually make them underappreciated; every female has the opportunity of being a self-reliant and strong figure. Lucy possesses all the traits of an independent woman: she emerges as “a member of the commune”(60) and decides to reside on a small farm in Eastern Cape with her partner Helen. Regarding the fact that the policies of favoring whites have been abolished, the social structure that was built around the subjects of the rights commences prioritizing the rights of the black population in South Africa. Thus, as a white woman, she is essentially considered to be in the minority group. When Lurie determines to embrace a new life with Lucy, they both become the victims of the long-lasting colonial violence. Rape, an intolerable sin in modern society, is often utilized as a tool to proclaim the sovereignty of the dominant race in the colonial repression. From the white ancestors of Luries slaughtering and sexually abusing the black women in South Africa, to the robbery and gang-raping of the three black men today, the nefarious behavior of the "superior" race has not yet changed. The establishment of the new democratic system empowers the once oppressed ethnicity while overthrowing the supremacy of the whites. However, as the black population is obtaining more and more power, the black-and-white binary opposition has not been alleviated in South Africa. In the interlocution between Lurie and Lucy, Coetzee illustrates Lucy’s obfuscation; she asks Lurie: “why do they hate me so much,” saying that she “has never seen them before.”(156) Nevertheless, they have utterly distinct approaches to this tragedy. The rational principle deeply immersed in the white ideology has been internalized into a collective unconscious, consciously and unconsciously expressed in different ways. Thus, for Lurie, who has just lost his position as a college professor, he instinctively shows his way of resorting to the law and punishing the criminals by clarifying the truth, because he knows how much this scourge could jeopardize his lesbian daughter. Lucy, however, deliberately conceals the full picture of the story as the local newspaper interviews her, and asks Lurie not to tell the truth. To this end, Lurie is filled with utter grief and indignation, realizing the fact that he is incapable of protecting his baby girl, yet he does not understand the motives of his daughter’s behavior. For Lurie, he is essentially seeking for justice. However, in the public opinion, his behavior is merely a marginalized person endeavoring to fight for their social status, and this attempt has ultimately failed due to the newly-formed societal structure. For Lucy, who has lived in a black-dominated environment way longer than Lurie, is undoubtedly algetic and sorrowful about her own misfortune. Though she decisively makes her decision in a relatively short period time—not to peach on the three rapists, since Lucy is able to accept the fact that being “in their territory,” she is “nothing significant in their eyes.”(157) The dominance of whites in the South Africa has been subverted, and Lurie is not able to thoroughly embrace this idea. Whether it is plausible to reprimand the blacks under the prepotency of the newly formed regime, or whether it is possible for the black policemen to readily uphold her mandate for justice regardless of the public exasperation from the black population is utterly iffy. Lucy stops Lurie from seeking for vengeance, and she ultimately resigns herself to adversity, adopting the forbearance that belonged to the black population; with perseverance and open-mindedness, she is able to accept the protection of the former black hireling, Pollux, under solely one condition: “the house still belongs to [her].”(204) Her choice, although seems subservient, is the manifestation of the ineluctable compromise for white people after their ascendancy has been overturned.

Coetzee illustrates a brutal picture to admonish people that antagonism and violence between ethnicities could not resolve the inherent racial hatred, and only advocating pluralistic tolerance could achieve the ultimate racial integration. However, he does not adopt the preaching tone to emphasize that forgiveness is necessary for this long-standing animosity to reach the point of mutual understanding; as a matter of fact, he alludes his ideas by drawing the connection between human beings and the animals. When Lurie goes to the animal clinic for the first time, he blatantly shows his apathy as Bev Shaw asks about his attitude. Later in the story, as Lurie encounters the black-faced Persian sheep that are ready to be slaughtered, Lurie is initially indifferent and scornful. “Sheep do not own themselves, do not own their lives. They exist to be used… Nothing escapes.”(123-124) Coetzee indicates that human beings disdain the existence of animals, subconsciously deeming them as the inferior ones. However, after all the excruciations, Lurie commences showing solicitude for the oppressed and worshiping the dignity of life, because he and his daughter are essentially the downtrodden ones in a society that the whites no longer retain supremacy. Therefore, he “brings the bags to the farm on Sunday evenings” and “loads them, one at a time, on to the feeder trolley, cranks the mechanism that hauls the trolley through the steel gate into the flames, pulls the lever to empty it of its contents, and cranks it back, while the workmen whose job this normally is stand by and watch.”(145) Coetzee does not explicitly point out the reasons for him to fulfill this fatiguing errand; in fact, Lurie suggests that he does these “for himself, for his idea of the world, a world in which men do not use shovels to beat corpses into a more convenient shape for processing.”(146) He acknowledges his behaviors are “stupid, daft [and] wrongheaded,”(146) yet this “foolishness” is an endeavor for Lurie to reach a mutual understanding between him and the black population, the newly established regime, the countryside, and the recognition of the diminishing white supremacy. He determines to do the right things. In history, the blind worship for status has led to people enslaving and massacring the inferior ones. The lingering effect of this catastrophe should be halted. Coetzee deliberately juxtaposes human beings with other animals such as sheep and dogs in order to indicate there is no distinction between species or races; they jointly have the same rights to live properly. In the post-apartheid era, it is utterly indispensable for the people to re-examine the racial issues.

Coetzee’s insight towards the fiercely racial issues in South Africa reminds me of Do The Right Thing, a movie produced in 1989. The direct of this movie, the prominent Spike Lee, emphasizes a philosophy proposition in this film: “what is ‘doing the right thing’?” The story demonstrates the trivial things amongst black people's lives. Lee subtly reveals his radical political approach in the daily life. The black figures in this movie are utterly idiosyncratic, such as the fool named Smiley who is always peddling the photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Larne is the one who always plays the theme song "Fight The Power" with an enormous portable record player. The devoted and amiable vagrant named "Da Mayor," ML who wears Jordan shoes constantly holds extreme hostility towards the whites, and of course, the pizza deliverer Mookie starred by Spike Lee himself add up to form a small group talking about racial irony on the street corner. Therefore, even though there are many characters in the movie, all of these fragments are crucially essentially to support the theme and cause the final conflict. The details of each character are undoubtedly profound, making Do The Right Thing complicated and not chaotic. The entire plot occurs on the same day: from dawn to night, from intimacy to brutality; it not only makes the rhythm of the film more vivid but also represents the epitome of an era.

However, different from Coetzee, Lee merely plays the role as a moral prosecutor, illustrating the cruelty of race, violence, authorities in front of the audience, allowing them to make their judgments. There is a unanimous cognition of "inner value" in black culture. That being said, African Americans have a strong sense of cultural identity. Their cultural values are diffusely accepted, which gradually ascends to cultural superiority. The primary adversary of their cultural superiority is the predominant culture of the United States—the culture of whites. Lee does not depoliticize the relationship between race and status through the special treatment of the environment and the characters, like most of the contemporary Hollywood movies. Instead, he demonstrates ethnic rivalry by utilizing comparison such as contrasting the scene of a black neighborhood with another portrait of a store owned by white people. The blacks, whites, and Asians in this movie are portrayed as the integration for the bottom of the society. Whites and blacks are interpreted in a relatively equal position, yet this equality counters the deep-rooted racism, which ultimately draws a contradiction between fantasy and reality. Equality in the real world has been distorted, transforming into inequality and oppression. When black people urge for the elimination of racial discrimination, they are the most stubborn guardians of it—things that are essentially fair and just somehow are seen as exploitation and oppression in their view.

Conclusion: