Male Stubborn The General Qualities of David Lurie
the best solution for him. He just keeps on his former understandings about the good path for himself.
Soraya, his former friend to share his bed, finds that David is stubborn. She already tells him that they cannot meet again because of some reasons but
David cannot accept it. He then does something that Soraya hates most. He rents a detective to look for Soraya. It becomes a serious problem when Soraya wants to
quit from this business, and both Soraya and David cannot meet a good resolution Coetzee, 1999: 8-10. In this case, Soraya sees how stubborn David is.
The committee from the University also finds him as a stubborn lecturer. They wants him to admit the sexual harassment as his fault and to take a
counselling service as a step to remedy, so he does not have to resign from his job. However, he does not want to do it. It is clearly seen in the following
conversation. ‘Now we are truly splitting hairs. You charged me, I pleaded guilty to
the charges. That is all you need from me’. ‘ No. we want more. Not a great deal more, but more. I hope you can see your way clear to giving
us that’. ‘Sorry, I can’t’ Coetzee, 1999: 58.
From the eyes of the committee, it is a hard job to make David understand
because he is a stubborn person. In this way, David seems to hold his views tight so that none can come in.
The dialogue between Petrus and David Lurie which talks about Lucy’s case somehow emphasises that David is a stubborn man. It can be seen in the
following quotation. ‘The insurance will not give me a new car,’ he explains, trying to be
patient. ‘Assuming it isn’t bankrupt by now because of all the car-theft in this country, the insurance will give me a percentage of its own idea of
36 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
what the old car was worth. That won’t be enough to buy a new car. Anyhow, there is a principle involved. We can’t leave it to insurance
companies to deliver justice. That is not their business’ Coetzee, 1999: 137.
Here, it seems that David Lurie believes in the principle he holds. He never wants to accept others’ opinion if it is far from his understandings. Petrus tries hard to
convince him that it does not like what he thinks but David still stands in his point. It is a hard job to make him agrees with others.
Furthermore, these are the general qualities that can be found in the character of David Lurie as human being. Among these general qualities, there are
dominant qualities that can be considered as the qualities of the coloniser. The ways his dominant qualities can be seen as the representation of the coloniser’s
qualities are found in the next discussion.