Educated David Lurie’s qualities as the representation of the coloniser’s qualities
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
of the locals to maintain and to lift up their lives but here David Lurie tries to stop it with his wit.
The next prestigious description showing his ability as an educated person is the one when a thought of bringing Lucy’s case before the law comes up in the
middle of harsh situation that he experiences. She does not stir a finger to soothe him. ‘Your head looks terrible,’ she
remarks. ‘There’s baby-oil in the bathroom cabinet. Put some on. Is your car gone?.’ ‘Yes. I think they went off in the Port Elizabeth direction. I
must telephone the police.’ ‘You can’t. The telephone is smashed’ Coetzee, 1999: 98-99.
At that time, David receives serious injury on his face but he spontaneously wants to call the police to fix the problem in his daughter’s house, he does not really
think about his wound. The incident may bring very unpleasant situation that upsets the one’s mind and feeling but it does not work with David. He still tries to
find solution for the problem that he and his daughter face. Here, it can be said that his logical mind works properly even it is in a terrible mess.