Disgrace

Power Struggles in Disgrace Where David Lurie in Disgrace living at what is considered the top of the pyramid in Cape Town, South Africa. South Africa at the time was at an apartheid. David loses his job at the university which means he loses everything that is important to him at the time, including his status, and his dignity. After losing his status he choses to live with his daughter, Lucy, who lives in a small house helping her a dog kennel, which is a huge change for David. Ever since he moves in with Lucy he struggles to regain the status he once had. It is difficult for him to cope with the social change David in the beginning of the book is considered to be naive and does not really see many real problems in life do to who he is. In Cape Town at the time there were not many people who had a higher levels of education and white males are at the top of the social ladder. He thinks he has everything figured out and believes he is at the top and nothing can bring him down. The first sentence is bold and describes how David looks at life, “for a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well” (1). He does not see any true issues blinded by his ego. The book is not a based off of sex but really just something that causes issues since David is constantly looking at the wrong problems. From David’s ego he becomes obsessive in his relationship with a student, Melanie. When he is stripped from his top status because Melanie tells the university of this obsessive relationship. This forces him to open his eyes and think about the real issues in life and choses to go live with his daughter, Lucy where his struggle to get back to the top starts. In Cape Town blacks where considered to be at the lowest status so when Lucy’s house was invaded by three black men and David was set on fire and unable to help Lucy and the dogs. From this attack it was yet another blow to his social status. Someone who was supposed to be