Superior David Lurie’s qualities as the representation of the coloniser’s qualities

seems that David wants to show his power as the white man in front of the others. He wants others to know and understand his position in the society. He does not want others think he is a powerless man that cannot defence his own rights. However, in this moment, his opinion is different from his daughter’s opinion. It can be seen when David talks to his daughter. ‘Lucy, Lucy, I plead with you You want to make up for the wrongs of the past, but this is not the way to do it. If you fail to stand up for yourself at this moment, you will never be able to hold your head up again. You may as well pack your bags and leave. As for the police, if you are too delicate to call them in now, then we should never have involved them in the first place. We should just have kept quiet and waited for the next attack. Or cut our own throats’ Coetzee, 1999: 133. It indicates that David Lurie asks his daughter to bring this case to the police in order to show their superiority as the white people. It is also the matter of dignity as the White. David always loves to think that the local people are unable to use modern tools to cultivate the land. He always associates the local people with something that are traditional so that when he finds that Petrus uses tractor to cultivate his land, he feels that it is unusual phenomenon. It is clear in the following quotation. Petrus has borrowed a tractor, from where he has no idea, to which he has coupled the old rotary plough that has lain rusting behind the stable since before Lucy’s time. In a matter of hours he has ploughed the whole of his land. All very swift and businesslike; all very unlike Africa…Petrus arrived as the dig-man, the carry-man, the water-man. Now he is too busy for that kind of thing Coetzee, 1999: 151. It means that David underestimates Petrus as the local person. David assumes that the local people do not match with all modern things. According to him, the local is just the second-class citizen so that it is unwise to let them deal with technology 39 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI and its products since technology always refers to the European who discovered modern technology and created the products. It is also seen when he finds that Petrus behaves like the European, he also thinks that Petrus does not fit it. ‘A girl is very expensive.’ He rubs thumb and forefinger together. ‘Always money, money, money.’ A long time since he last saw that gesture. Used of Jews, in the old days: money-money-money, with the same meaningful cock of the head. But presumably Petrus is innocent of that snippet of European tradition Coetzee, 1999: 130. These assumptions are the signs of his superiority that he eventually tends to blame the local people as the inferior one. David already has many experiences in making relationship with others. However, his experiences do not lead him to have better way of thinking towards others. He still underestimates others if there is a chance for it. The culture in which he grows up may gives big contributions in establishing his manner and behaviour. It seems that the feeling of superiority stays in his mindset and none can take it away from him. Once he underestimates Petrus who is the local person. Later, he underestimates the other people. He dares to try many ways to make other people believed that he is the superior one. The depiction of the local people who most of the time deals with trifles just like when looking after the dogs, and working in the garden also points out that the local is the inferior. The presence of the local people in this novel helps to define the main character as the superior one with his contrasting image, idea, and duty. His ambition to show his superiority can approximately be represented when David Lurie decides to come to Petrus’ party, which is held to celebrate the land transfer. His ambition is clearly seen in the quotation taken from the novel. 40 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ‘He is lying. He knows perfectly well. Lucy will confirm.’ But of course Lucy will not confirm. How can he expect Lucy to come out before these strangers, face the boy, point a finger, say, Yes, he is one of them. He was one of those who did the deed?. ‘I am going to telephone the police,’ he says. There is a disapproving murmur from the onlookers. ‘I am going to telephone the police,’ he repeats to Petrus. Petrus is stony-faced. In a cloud of silence he returns indoors, where Lucy stands waiting. ‘Let’s go,’ he says Coetzee, 1999: 132. David sees the chance to show his identity, as the superior one when he finds there is one of the robbers who rapes his daughter at that time. Although he knows that his daughter does not want to bring this case before the law, he threatens the robber and Petrus that he will call the police in order to strengthen his position in front of the local people. He wants to point out that the local people cannot treat Lucy and him badly. He will never scarify his pride and dignity as white people, also as a man. It can be seen in the quotation as follows. As for him, he does not mind the attention. Let them know I am still here, he thinks, let them know I am not skulking in the big house. And if that spoils their get-together, so be it. He lifts a hand to his white skullcap. For the first time he is glad to have it, to wear it as his own Coetzee, 1999: 135. At this point, it is seen that he holds his strong belief in his own ability to survive and defend his rights. He knows that he will break the rules, which already become a consensus among the local people but he does not care about it. He believes that the local people must follow the social rules which is established by the white people since the white people has higher status than the local. It is also clearly seen that he is proud of being White because he knows that it means a lot in the society. 41 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

2. Educated

It is known that one of the purposes of colonialism is to teach the ‘right’ value of life to the local people. In order to do so, it needs the one who is educated to promote the value itself. Having the ability to think, understand, and make decisions based on reason is the basic need since it is one of the ways to make the local people believe in this system. Indeed, it is in the way of European language of reason and knowledge. In Disgrace, Coetzee seems to successfully depict the main character as the coloniser by assigning some qualities to the readers. The employment of the main character as a lecturer, for example, is more or less employed as impression he creates to assure the readers that it has a relation with the labelled qualities of the coloniser. Coetzee opens his novel with the depiction of the main character as an educated person. Here, the main character is positioned as a Professor of Communications. It can be seen in the following quotation. He earns his living at the Cape Technical University, formerly Cape Town University College…adjunct professor of communications. This year he is offering a course in the Romantic Poets. For the rest he teaches Communications 101, ’Communication Skills’, and Communications 201, ‘Advanced Communication Skills’ Coetzee, 1999:3. It is clear that David Lurie as the main character in this novel has better skill and knowledge than other people around him. Talking about his duty as the lecturer of Communication, it is clearly seen that David Lurie has good comprehension in dealing with the subject. He is the one who teaches the local people to communicate well, indicating that he has a chance to promote his own belief to 42 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI the local people and to make sure that he has higher status in the society than the local does. In contrast, the locals in the novel are associated with less educated people since their activity, besides take care of their farm, is only selling their own crops. This situation can be seen in the following quotation. On their left are three African women with milk, masa, butter to sell; also, from a bucket with a wet cloth over it, soup-bones. On their right are an old Afrikaner couple whom Lucy greets as Tante Miems and Oom Koos, and a little assistant in a balaclava cap who cannot be more than ten…they have potatoes and onions to sell, but also bottled jams, preserves, dried fruits, packets of buchu tea, honeybush tea, herbs Coetzee, 1999: 71. The quotation above somehow shows that there is a sharp difference between the locals and David Lurie as the main character. The locals spend their time to work in a farm. Whereas, David Lurie deals with his interest in literature and all the stuffs. It is clear in the following quotation. There is still the Byron project. Of the books he brought from Cape Town, only two volumes of the letters are left- the rest were in the trunk of the stolen car. The public library in Grahamstown can offer nothing but selections from the poems. But does he need to go on reading? What more does he need to know of how Byron and his acquaintance passed their time in old Ravenna? Can he not, by now, invent a Byron who is true to Byron, and a Teresa too? Coetzee, 1999: 121. This condition seems to highlight the quality of David Lurie as an educated person and to emphasise that the local people are weak in education. As a result, David Lurie has enough power to manipulate the locals’ ways of thinking since some of the locals do not really understand about the things outside their daily life as farmers, traders, and so on. Of course, there are some efforts coming from the rest 43 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI