Wow! After reading the assigned chapters, I’ve come to realize that David Lurie is a completely different man.. or at least he has a very different side to him that I had not seen earlier. In the beginning of the novel, David seemed like such a horrible man, having sex with random people such as prostitutes and 20 year olds, but now we were able to see another side of him, as a father-figure.

Interestingly enough, David Lurie starts out as someone who can possibly be viewed upon as a rapist, while his daughter was just unfortunately raped by three men. It seemed as though David didn’t really have feelings emotionally, but now that his daughter is going through such trauma, he hasn’t left her side. It’s really nice to see David consoling her and just being there for her. She is a little cold to him, but because of the circumstance, I find it very reasonable.

A couple things struck me throughout the reading that I tried to relate to theory. On page 64 Lucy says “He and his wife have the old stable. I’ve put in electricity. It’s quite comfortable. He has another wife in Adelaide, and children, some of the grown up. He goes off and spends time there occasionally.” Here she is talking about Petrus and his double life. I related this to Rubin because a lot of Rubin’s theory is that men sometimes view women as gifts/prizes. The whole issue of sex/gender is brought up because it was obviously alright for men to have other wives and children, but definitely not okay vise-versa. Even though it is wrong regardless, it’s not fair because it is such a double standard.

I thought it was funny on page 72 where David thinks, “He does not like women who make no effort to be attractive.” Here he is talking about Bev Shaw who he later in the book has sex with?! That’s just weird.

On page 77 I found this quote to be interesting as well, “All right, I’ll do it. But only as long as I don’t have to become a better person. I am not prepared to be reformed. I want to go on being myself. I’ll do it on that basis.” I just think that’s not right how David is so narrow minded. It is obvious that he needs help and needs to change things in his life, yet he doesn’t want to; he has no interest in bettering himself.

Then on page 111, David says “Lucy, my dearest, why don’t you want to tell? It was a crime. There is no shame in being the object of a crime. You did not choose to be the object. You are an innocent party.” After reading that I thought of Melanie and David. I paralleled the two because Melanie was an object who didn’t want to be with David, yet she didn’t stop him either. He committed a crime as well, but he didn’t do anything to fix the situation.

On page 133 David says, “Lucy, Lucy, I plead with you! You want to make up for the wrongs of the past, but this is not the way to do it. If you fail to stand up for yourself at this moment, you will never be able to hold your head up again. You may as well pack your bags and leave.” Why didn’t he give this speech to himself? He packed up his bags and left town because he was ashamed. He didn’t speak up for himself and didn’t try to fix the situation. David just said he was guilty and left it at that. He didn’t try to keep his job or find another one, he just ran away. I find it very contradictory.

All in all, I just find it really interesting how he’s trying so hard to be a good father and be involved in his daughter’s life. It doesn’t seem like he was ever really there for her beforehand, so it’s nice to see the change.