Life And Times Of Michael K Analysis

. . . a nest of parasites hanging from the neat sunlit town, eating its substance, giving no nourishment back. Yet to K lying idle in his bed, thinking without passion (What is it to me, after all? he thought), it was no longer obvious which was host and which parasite, camp or town. If the worm devoured the sheep, why did the sheep swallow the worm? What if there were millions, more millions than anyone knew, living in camps, living on alms, living off the land, living by guile, creeping away in corners to escape the times, too canny to put out flags and draw attention to themselves and be counted? What if the hosts were far outnumbered by the parasites, the parasites of idleness and the other secret parasites in the army and the police force
The protagonist of the novel is a simple man aged thirty-one with distorted facial features, including a harelip and uneven nostrils. In Life and Times of Michael K, time of the event and the name of the country are not mentioned directly, rather they create a rather slippery ground for the reader. Freeing his novels from a determined historical and political doctrines and surroundings, Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K. is mostly situated in a vague geographical setting. Throughout the novel, Michael prefers consciously or unconsciously living outside politics and history to living in nature and in his alleys, farms, mountains, etc. freeing himself from the limits and bondage of the corrupted and confused society. Michael created himself an inner world where he feels freedom, release and exhilaration. While people in his country are trying to prevent their land against the destructive forces of guerillas, Michael K goes on watering and protecting his pumpkins and melons against the attacks of donkeys and
The doctor wants to flesh him out to become Michaels; they attempt to make him adopt the identity of a criminal siding with the insurgents, but he refuses to be categorised. Michael appears to the doctor to have transcended the condition of war in the country. He recognises the irony of Michael’s being detained as an insurgent when he barely knows that there is a war on. When Michael declares, “I am what I am” , he is taking his stand for freedom against these well-meaning bureaucrats who are still attempting to categorise him. He is as unaffected by what has happened to him as a stone, “a pebble th at, having lain around quietly minding its own business since the dawn of time, is now suddenly picked up and tossed randomly from hand to hand” (185). His reply to