How Does David Lurie Change

The Change of David Lurie In J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, the main character is David Lurie, a middle aged man who works at a university in South Africa. He has been divorced twice, and has one daughter. He lives his day to day life going to work, then coming home. But he has strong sexual desires that he expresses by going to a brothel once a week, as this quote shows, “For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well. On Thursday afternoons he drives to Green Point. Punctually at two p.m. he presses the buzzer at the entrance to Windsor Mansions, speaks his name, and enters.” He continues to go and meet the same girl for a about a year. After this girl, Soraya, leaves without a reason,
He claims he cannot change himself which this quote suggests, “That is his temperament. His temperament is not going to change, he is too old for that. His temperament is fixed, set. The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body.” But he shows that he can slightly change his ways by his actions as the book progresses. He begins the book by just being the average man, getting through the work day. His weekly sex encounters is what motivated him throughout the week. He begins to get comfortable with his escort, and gains a halfway stalker mentality. Once she stops working at the brothel, he calls her repeatedly and finds out her real name and where she lives. He continues to follow her until she tells him to
The boys assault the father and daughter. The boys killed many of Lucys dogs and beat up David. David begins to realize what he has in his daughter and reveals it with a thought, “Count yourself lucky to have escaped with your life. Count yourself lucky not to be a prisoner in the car at this moment, speeding away, or at the bottom of a donga with a bullet in your head. Count Lucy lucky too. Above all Lucy.” It shows how he is changing to genially care for the ones close to him. It is later revealed that Lucy was raped by one of the boys. David and Lucys relationship begins to start falling apart as he does not agree with all the choices she has made. David decides to give Lucy some space and begins to start helping a lady named Bev at the local animal clinic. This leads to David and Bev having sexual relations at the clinic. Which suggests that David as regressed to his old ways. Towards the end of the book, David makes things right with Melanie and her family by talking to the father and going to eat dinner. After the dinner, David receives a call from Bev saying he needs to come back Cape Town. He is then informed that Lucy is pregnant. This was a huge blow to David, who eventually sees the boy in public and speaks his mind to him. As the book ends David had become close to a crippled dog. He states that he is “giving him up” and puts the dog