The narrator suggests that his pursuit of Melanie is predatory in nature p. 10. David ignores every indication that Melanie repulses
him, all he cares is about his own desire. For instance when David forces himself on her at her cousin’s house even though she does not
want him to come in but ‘nothing will stop him’ p. 25. He continues his selfish sexual desire and even state ‘she does not resist. All she
does are averts herself: avert her lips, avert her eyes … not rape, not quite that but undesired to the core’ p. 25 when he seduce her.
2. Lucy Lurie
a. Lucy is stubborn At the time of David’s arrival at her farm everything is still fine.
However one day they are visited by three men who raped her, set fire to her father, rob their car and valuables things. Lucy is adamant to keeping
the rape as secret and not to report the rape to the police or press charge against the man who raped her. Her father could not understand why she
does not want to report the rape, Lucy tries to explain the reason to her father as follow:
‘The reason is that, as far as I am concerned, what happened to me is purely private matter. In another time, in another place it might
be held to be a public matter. But in this place, at this time, it is not. It is my business, mine alone.’p. 112
During conversation with her father, Lucy insists that it is her own business to report or not the crime with says:
‘This is my life. I am the one who has to live here. What happened to me is my business, mine alone, not yours, and if there is one
right I have it is the right not to be put on trial’ . 133.
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b. Lucy is imprudent The incident at the farm actually made Lucy worry and scared. She
thinks that the strangers may have marked her and she is in their territory and probably they will come back for her. But Lucy will not leave the farm
and go on living like she used to even if everything around her changed. Lucy is imprudent in facing her problem. She makes a decision
which is without careful thought to stay at her farm and continue her life as before. She also refuses her father’s offer to take a break and go to Holland
for six months or a year until things have improved. Actually Lucy would be much safer and better living somewhere else for a while after the
terrible attack, to get away from dangerous situation that is developing in Eastern Cape. She believes that the incident is probably ‘the price to pay
her for staying on. “She broods a long while before she answers. ‘But isn’t there
another way of looking at it, David? What if… what if that is the price one has to pay for staying on? Perhaps that is how they look
at it; perhaps that is how I should look at it too. They see me as owing something. They see themselves as debt collectors, tax
collectors. Why should I be allowed to live here without paying’ p. 158.
The imprudence of Lucy commits a blunder when she is pregnant as result of the rape and one of the rapists is a relative to Petrus, his
neighbor. She decides to accept Petrus’s proposal and know the risk of being third wives. Even though the marriage proposal is just a deal, Petrus
marry to protect her in exchange for the farm.
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3. Petrus
