Women’s Influence on the Development of David Lurie’s Character (Coetzee, 1999) Essay Example for Free

Women’s Influence on the Development of David Lurie’s Character (Coetzee, 1999) Essay Lurie’s own conclusion motivated this examination of the influence of women on his character: â€Å"The truth is, he had never had much of an eye for rural life, despite all his reading of Wordsworth.   Not much of an eye for anything except pretty girls, and where has that got him?† (p. 218). Of course, the question of â€Å"where† is rhetorical, but the question of why the persona of the scholar no longer allowed him to indulge his â€Å"eye forpretty girls† was the central question in a novel focusing   on changes in South Africa since 1994, when Apartheid ended. The â€Å"scholar† with an Eye for Pretty Girls As the only boy in a house of loving women, whom he, in turn, loved, Lurie recognized that becoming a handsome young man made it easy for him to find responsive women (p. 7).   Based on his age in 1999, 52 years, his age for choosing a career was in the late 1960s, when South African white society was similar to societies in the United States and Western European democracies at an earlier time. Consider the kind of career which would not only permit an obviously well-educated and intelligent young man to pursue his main interest in pretty girls,† but also would enhance his ability to do so.   Lurie probably would not have been consciously aware of such a goal.   However, there are decisions that are influenced by unconscious motives (Hunt Ellis, 2004). In South Africa, when Lurie chose a career, the persona of a â€Å"scholar† at universities and colleges was esteemed and brought a life of privilege.   In a satire on academia that unintentionally mirrored Lurie’s approach, anthropologist Ashley Montagu (1959) advised young academics in the United States to â€Å"remember that your progress in Academe will depend not so much on your intellectual abilities than upon your skill as a personality that is, in the skill of displaying few assets in a convincing manner† (p. 10), where â€Å"a want of original ideas constitutes not the least impediment to productive publication† (p. 23). Lurie, after â€Å"a career stretching back a quarter of a centurypublished three books† (Coetzee, 1999, p. 4) he knew were uninspired and recognized he had â€Å"never been much of a teacher† (p. 4).   However, until Apartheid ended in 1994, the persona of a â€Å"scholar† was perfect for one who actually had only an interest in â€Å"pretty girls† (p. 218).   As an attractive man in an esteemed profession, â€Å"for decades the backbone of his life† was a result of a â€Å"magnetism [where looking] at a woman in a certain way, with a certain intent, she would return his look† (p. 7). The Women in Lurie’s Life The little we know of Lurie’s first wife was revealed only in response to a question about her, a brief response that she was Dutch and returned to Holland after her divorce.   We don’t know how he felt when he married her, but what seemed a genuine indifference and lack of interest suggested she was not an important influence on the development of his character. We know that he and his second wife, Rosalind, experienced passion: â€Å"His best memories [were of] Rosalind’s long, pale body thrashing this way and that in the throes of a pleasure that was hard to tell from pain† (p. 187).   He believed that â€Å"what held them together [was only that they were] two sensualists† (p. 187). However, regardless of her sensuality and of how old she might have been, she clearly would not have been described as a â€Å"pretty girl† but as a confident and independent woman who both had a mind and did not hesitate to express her thoughts.   Her influence on David’s character might have been in his developing the ability to have non-sexual relationships with adult women, as evidenced by his post-divorce relationship with her. Regarding Lurie’s own belief about the influence of women on his character, he concluded that he was â€Å"enriched† by each of the hundreds of women in a life consisting of sex with â€Å"women he has known on two continents, some from far away in time that he barely recognizes them† (p. 192).   Readers cannot know how each or any of the women â€Å"enriched† his life, but his choices were varied.   Before Apartheid, â€Å"pretty girls† who were his students were easily seduced because â€Å"scholars† still were held in awe. When black African students gained access to college educations, their experiences had not led them to idolize any white males, an attitude that spread to other students. When the demand for courses that could be applied in jobs after college was met, Lurie’s institution, Cape Town University College, became â€Å"Cape Technical University,† and instead of being â€Å"a professor of modern languages,† he became â€Å"a professor of communications† (p. 7).   With less access to young students, his â€Å"women† ranged from prostitutes to the unattractive, middle-aged country woman Bev, he described as â€Å"almost waistless, like a squat little tub† (p. 149). If one uses imagery in reading this novel, such scenes take on a comic tone.   Another example of visualization resulting in a scene turning comic occurred while Lurie actually was demonstrating a passion in creating a work of art as he wrote an opera about Teresa, the beautiful young countess who had been in love with Lord Byron. In the opera, he depicted Teresa years after Byron’s death when she had become unattractive, looking â€Å"more like a peasant . . . than an aristocrat† (p. 181), relentlessly singing â€Å"mio Byron† (p. 183), resulting in comic imagery.   The comic element was enhanced because While Lurie did know that Byron did not feel about Teresa as she thought he did, Coetzee did not write what he must have known Byron wrote to a friend about his embarrassment when Teresa called â€Å"out to me ‘mio Byron’ in an audible key† (1819/2009).   Sadly, Lurie himself came to realize that the opera was â€Å"going nowhere. There is no action, no development [and he] has not the musical resources, the resources of energy to raise [the opera] off the monotonous track on which it has been running since the start† (p. 214). Despite the comic imagery elicited when Lurie had sex with Bev, his relationship with her did influence his character.   In working with Bev (at first to satisfy his daughter) at the clinic where there was no choice but to kill pathetic, unwanted animals, he became able to form unselfish relationships with the animals. Earlier in his life, one event clearly did influence the development of Lurie’s character, the event of becoming a father.   The first interactions in the novel between Lurie and his daughter, Lucy, made one conclude that the one unselfish relationship he had as a young man was the father/daughter one that began with Lucy’s birth.   (It was not possible to find a reason for Coetzee’s obviously non-coincidental decision to have Lurie choose the name used in a series of rustic, romantic poems by the poet of Lurie’s academic specialty, Wordsworth, 1798-1801/2009.) Her brutal rape by black men (representing not racism, but Coetzee’s depiction of the after-effects of ending Apartheid) most certainly shook him out of his lassitude, but did not influence his character in the sense that his obviously unselfish concern for her well-being and his efforts to protect her after the rape were not unexpected. In general, however, Lurie’s character did not seem to change very much since the time he was a young man.   Toward the end of the novel, after he was not permitted to watch Melanie in a performance, his behavior demonstrated the character he had from the beginning.   After having sex with a young prostitute, he feels â€Å"contented†:   â€Å"So this is all it takes, he thinks.   How could I ever have forgotten it?† (p. 194).   Perhaps the most interesting question about the novel was how Coetzee was able to make an essentially superficial man into a complex, absorbing, and sympathetic anti-hero. References Byron, G. G. (1819).   Lord Byron’s letters and journals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jeffrey D. Hoeper (Ed.).   Retrieved March 17, 2009,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from www.engphil.astate.edu/gallery/byron.html. Coetzee, J. M. (1999).   Disgrace.   New York: Penguin. Hunt, R. R., Reed, H. C. (2004).   Fundamentals of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   cognitive psychology.   New York: McGraw-Hill. Montagu, A. (1959).   Up the ivy.   New York: Hawthorn. Wordsworth, W. (1798-1801).   Lucy.   Retrieved March 17,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2009, from www.poetry.archive.com/w/lucy/html.

Theres No Defense for Affluenza Essay -- The Affluenza Defense

"The Affluenza Defense: Judge Rules Rich Kid’s Rich Kid-ness Makes Him Not Liable for Deadly Drunk Driving Accident" -- Madison Gray, Time.com The relationship between motive and consequence is a complex one, and is made even more debatable when context becomes involved. Throughout our judicial history, the line between responsibility and exemption remains razor-thin in its subjectivity. If a woman murders her husband, but was abused by him for years, why is this considered different from a murder where the perpetrator wasn’t abused? We take these mitigating factors into account in court, but they present a unique problem. How much and which extenuating circumstances are enough to change the conviction? Precedents are continually being set as new mental conditions are discovered or gain new validity, so we must be able to discern the difference between defenses that are legitimate, and the Twinkie defenses. Twinkie defenses are those, which carry no reasonable justification for diminishing the mental capacity of the defendant. The ambiguity of what we know of the mind creates this conflict, so it is important t hat we consider the context with care. A new defense known as ‘Affluenza’ was very recently introduced into this family of mitigating factors. Affluenza claims that when an individual grows up in or is subjected to an affluent environment where the real world is shielded from them, they are unable to make the connection between their actions and their consequences. Affluenza says that the access to an excess of all the things money can buy comes at the expense of all the things money cannot buy. With the absence of even the most basic role modeling of the relationship between cause and... ...l Of Behavioral & Applied Management 11.3 (2010): 232-248. Academic Search Premier. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. Hobson, Jeremy. "The ‘Affluenza’ Defense." Here Now RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. . "Weekday Schedule." Newport Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. . Lunther, Suniya, and Shawn Latendresse. "Children of the Affluent: Challenges to Well Being." Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. . de Graaf, J., Wann, D., Naylor, T. H., & Horsey, D. (2001). Affluenza: The all-consuming epidemic. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Whitely, Jason. "Sentence given to Teen in Deadly Drunk Driving Crash Spurs Backlash." WFAA Wfaa.com. ABC, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.

Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Wollstonecraft

Looking to the science of the day, Hobbes determined that there was no soul and attempted to describe human nature as pure mechanics. Human nature was therefore driven by the need to satisfy the physical demands of the body and based on basic passions in life. These are to satisfy physical appetites, to seek power to maintain their wealth and to be superior to others by seeking glory. Hobbes saw the state nature as â€Å"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. † The state of nature is anarchy, with constant violence (or potential violence) by amoral leaders terrorizing the population.Reason is the answer that will lead to a social contract and government. Individuals will give up their individual rights and freedoms to secure peace. Morality and property can then be dictated by the state, since human nature is not equipped to handle those concepts without conflict. This will allow each person to then pursue their own self-interests without fear of violence. The sovereign au thority is the office or institution of government that is contracted by the people. It is the artificial construct onto which the powers are conveyed by the social contract.The only limits to the sovereign’s powers are self-imposed, since it must exist outside of the population; although it should always strive for the good of the people to remain legitimate. Civil law is dictated by the sovereign. Civil law should be designed to promote well-being and progress for society with appropriate punishments for law breakers. Hobbes believed in an absolute monarchy. By making one man in charge, it would make it easy for the people to understand their roles and obey laws.With no confusing dissension or contrary views, people do not have to waste time and effort making political decisions; after all, that’s why they entered the social contract in the first place. He did not, however, believe in the ‘divine right’ or hereditary kings; the contract was conveyed upon an ancestor, which has no bearing on the legitimacy of the heir to rule. Although Locke’s views are similar to Hobbes’, they are not quite as grim and fearful. Similar to Hobbes, he believes that people are naturally free and equal. Locke believes that man is social by nature and is naturally moral, rational and egoistic.In a state of nature, man will generally act with a mutual trust and respect and honor their commitments and obligations to other. Although he emphasizes these positive traits of humanity, he recognizes that since that is not always the case, people will need to form a type of social contract to preserve their rights and liberties. For Hobbes, natural law is a selfish state where people do not recognize the rights of others’ property and liberty. Locke believes that, although they don’t always act in accordance with it, man inherently knows right from wrong and are capable of acting in a lawful manner.The goal of government is to preserv e the rights to life, liberty, health and property of its society and to pursue the public good even where this may conflict with the rights of individuals. It is also to punish wrongdoers and transgressors of the laws it sets for the common good. Since ones path to salvation and religious preferences fall outside those boundaries, government should not enforce or espouse any one form of religion over another. Class and hierarchy is a natural outgrowth of Locke’s views on property.Credited as the founder of the â€Å"Protestant work ethic†, Locke believed that those who worked hard will possess more. By agreeing to have money be an equalizing factor for trade, this will naturally contribute to some having more wealth than others. This is fine and natural, as long as the producers are working without injustice or injury to others. In retrospect, Locke may be considered the father of feminism. Although he still believed women should be subordinate to men, he also noted t hat women were capable of rationality and equally shared in the paternal power of raising children.Most notably, he claimed that marriage was a contract entered into by both parties and that both should be able to dissolve the contract at will; it took almost 300 years for society to catch up and instigate no fault divorces. Locke believed government should be formed with both an executive and legislative branches. The legislative determines the laws and may assign judicial, or magistrates, to exercise it. The executive is responsible for enforcing the laws and conducting foreign affairs. There should be a system of checks and balances between the two branches, to avoid despotism and illegitimate governments.Since a monarchy puts the power of both branches into one person, Locke believed all monarchies to be illegitimate forms of government. By advocating some form of representative or democratic government, society can insure that there representatives are working in their best int erests. Despotism occurs when either of the two branches of government exceed their authority and begin acting against the benefit of the people. Civil society can then remove the offenders from office through their electoral process or agree to set up a new form of government.When the people are denied these means to choose their government, violent revolution may be the answer. Rousseau believes that the state of nature is solitary existence guided by two principles – self-preservation and compassion. Social interactions were driven by the necessity to satisfy their own needs; war and aggression would be unlikely, since primitive man’s compassion drove him to avoid suffering of others. Civilization and establishment of nuclear families led to the beginnings of society, which corrupted the state of nature and led to human nature.Human nature is based on oppression and inequality, the haves dominating over the have nots. Society and governments were established to prot ect the rights and properties of the few landowners without regard to the rights of the laborers. His path to liberation is paved with a just, moral civil society that works for the benefit of all of its members. People must draw on their compassion and work towards the good of society, rather than selfish goals. In this manner, a social contract can be formed that will benefit all of society.Rousseau’s social contract involves an overhaul of civilization and a community that is willing to that is willing to forfeit all of their rights. Although not necessarily a violent revolution, he suggests that liberated people form a new community and create a government. This moral body of citizens would only consider the greater good and not selfish, private interests. He does not envision this to be without economic inequality, however, as long as it does not interfere with political equality; there should not be a situation where one man is able to buy or sell a vote.The basis of le gislative power is the general will of the people. Although entrance into the community must be unanimous, voting is done by majority. All citizens must participate in open discussion before voting. Votes should only be counted from those expressing the general will; those voting based on selfish interests should be discounted, although no practical way of knowing or enforcing this is described. Since authority and freedoms all reside within the general will, transgressors against the general will can be coerced or forced to liberate themselves.There are underlying conditions necessary for the formation of the social contract. There must be a legislator, a divinely enlightened man who will lead the community into an understanding of its true public interest. He initiates the contract and then retires before he can be corrupted. A civil religion is necessary, one that does not divide the community’s loyalties. The civil religion is founded on the way of life of the citizens, i ncluding customs and traditions. It must include belief in God, immortality of the soul and the social contract.The society must be small, modeled after the polis, and agricultural in nature, rather than founded on commerce or industry. The executive institutions are the bureaucracy of the sovereign. The magistrate lays down the laws and is supported by policeman and jailors. The censor is in charge of compliance with the civil religion, using education to guide people. The censor monitors the arts and sciences to insure people are not whiling away their time and distraction themselves from the common good.Two other offices may be used in exigent circumstances to allow for checks on the government. A tribunate can be used to limit the magistrate or a dictator can be used as supreme commander in war or natural disasters. Government should take the form of a republic, with full participation in the legislature and delegation of authority for the executive. Depending on the wealth and size of the state, monarchy, non-hereditary aristocracy or democracy could be acceptable forms of executive. Rousseau was adamant that men and women were vastly different and should be educated appropriately.Men should learn a trade and how to become an enlightened citizen. Women should learn how to raise children, tend house and be a good wife. He did not consider women rational enough to be citizens. Education is not to be done by rote memorization, but is instead to take the form of exploration and learning through experience. In direct response to Rousseau, Wollstonecraft argues that educating women in the same fashion as men makes them better able to function in the roles of wife, mother and daughter.She argues that virtues are not gender specific, but without equal education, women cannot achieve virtues founded on knowledge. Since education begins in the home and mothers were to raise the children, women must be educated to be better mothers and provide their children with ne cessary education. Wollstonecraft sees human nature as truly equal, including equality between the sexes. The basic capacities of all humans are the same for reason and knowledge and the difference between the sexes has arisen out of the societal constructs that separate them.She supported the concept of a social contract, albeit with the inclusion of women as fully realized citizens. She did not believe that either a monarchy or aristocracy could be a legitimate form of government since it perpetuates the subordination of women. She considers property to be as one of the ills of society because it gives rise to the societal problems, which contribute to keeping women ignorant and subordinate. Civil society must be founded on reason, which women are as capable of as men given the proper opportunities and education.

Literary Analysis Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Thus, an elusive nature of this character can be seen in Connie’s inability to consider him as an integrated male character and his intention â€Å"speaking to someone behind Connie† (Commentary on Oates, 2010). Thus, he is not a real lover; he is an allusion and a ghost of seduction. The second conceptual framework â€Å"Arnold Friend is a forbidden fruit† can be traced in Connie’s attempts to reveal a bizarre nature of this man. She wants to find out what is his real intention, why does he pretend to be a teenager, because he is a man of thirty; why does he try to look taller and many other questions occur as well. The more she tries to reveal his puzzle, the more she becomes confused and intrigued by an elusive nature of this character. A suggestion that this character is a forbidden fruit can be explained by a blurred nature of the character, which comprises common features of pop idols and the Devil: â€Å"Hes the Matthew McConaughey character from  Dazed and Confused, the guy who still hangs out at high school waaaay after hes graduated. We will write a custom essay sample on Literary Analysis: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page A terrifying and a seductive nature of Arnold Friend’s character is a riddle that cannot be read by the girl; it is a fruit that is so close but is cannot be torn. A third interpretation of â€Å"Arnold Friend as a fleshly sin† or a conceptual interpretation of Adam friend as the Devil can be proven by the way Connie constantly thinks about this character: â€Å"She cried out, she cried out for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend  were stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness. A noisy sorrowful wailing rose all about her and she was locked inside it the way she was locked inside this house† (Oates). This sentence implies that there is a ghostly spiritual and intimate contact between inner worlds of Connie, or it would be better to say between her inner intimate depths and invisible absorbing darkness of Arnold Friend’s seduction (Arnold Frien d, Web).