Theme

Pg

Quote

Explanation

Power

111

If the ghosts of Lucy’s violators still hover in her bedroom, then surely they ought to be chased out, not allowed to take it over as their sanctum.

The attackers still hold power over Lucy in the form of being the cause of Lucy’s fear.

142

(German always to hand with an appropriately blank abstraction)

The power of language or the lack of language to convey what may be too unsavoury to be expressed in a certain language, in another language.

197

Grey and featureless, it stands on an eminence east of the old farmhouse; in the mornings, he guesses, it must cast a long shadow

Symbolic of Petrus’ power in that he has greater influence now and also the effect of the imagery is that of intimidation.

198

I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decisions.

Lucy’s desire to control her own life coupled with the indignation and resentment felt by Lurie’s abrupt interference in her life results in the release of her dissatisfaction.

Loss of Power/Disempowerment

80

A low, gurgling snarl come from its throat; its powerful hindquarters strain. Awkwardly he joins in the tussle, pressing the dog’s hind legs together, forcing it to sit on its haunches… he passes a belt around its body and she buckles it.

The animal is forcefully put into submission for its treatment. It loses the power over its own body through the dominance of the concerted effort of Lurie and the others. The treatment of animals may be considered harsh here since there is a notable lack of anaesthetic which would have lessened its pain.

107

Ina while the organism will repair itself, and I, the ghost within it will be my old self again.

The connotation of the word ‘ghost’ is that of powerlessness and incompletion. Lurie has been made even more powerless from the attack, on a physical plane as well.

110

Contemptible, yet exhilarating, probably, in a country where dogs are bred to snarl at the mere smell of a black man.

Changing power roles are such that reminders of the old power roles are eliminated, as in revenge.

136

Can he borrow tools, and can David help him fit the regulators?

There exists a change in power roles that allows Petrus a black man, to make such ‘requests’ of Lurie, a white man, that is in opposition to the apartheid era.

138

I will protect her

Lurie does not have the power to protect Lucy which is why she has to turn to Petrus for protection.

140

You have to let go of your children, David. You can’t watch over Lucy forever.

As a parent, Lurie is also losing power over his daughter, Lucy. However, he has failed to realise that he has lost power over her a long time ago.

140

Without Petrus Lucy wouldn’t be where she is now… she owes him a lot.

There are changing power roles in the country with the whites having to increasingly depend on the blacks for their own survival.

200

But I can’t order him off the property, it’s not in my power.

Pollux having sought protection from Petrus is now impervious to Lucy or Lurie’s wishes as Petrus is the one holding the largest share of power currently.

202

This is not how we do things

Whites’ loss of power. The rise of the colonised is at the cost of the fall of the coloniser.

204

I will become a tenant on his land

Reverse colonialisation is in play with Petrus colonising Lucy’s land.

Gender and Power

81

He has never seen a tessitura from close by. The veins on her ears are visible as a filigree of red and purple. The veins of her nose tool. And the chin that comes straight out of her chest, like a pouter pigeon’s. As an ensemble, remarkably unattractive.

Lurie objectifies Bev Shaw. The tone that is adopted is almost like that of examining a product and passing judgement on it.

111

Of what women undergo at the hands of men.

Women are subjected to abuse and violations at the hands of men simply because they are a voiceless entity in the male dominated society.

141

Where rape is concerned, no man can be where the woman is

The oppressor can never understand the oppressed. The violator can never understand the violated.

198

But I am not having an abortion.

It is Lucy’s body, Lucy has the power to keep the babe or not.

198

This has nothing to do with belief. And I never said I took Ovral.

Lucy wants to control her situation, her body. There is a distinct sense of feminism in Lucy as she is steadfast in her desire to control

198

I am a woman… Do you think I hate children? Should I choose against the child because of who the father is?

202

He will marry her… I will marry.

The tone taken is one of assertion indicating the power that Petrus has and is used to as typical in a patriarchal society as in the context of the novel.

203

In any event, it is not me he is after, he is after the farm. The farm is my dowry.

Lucy has been reduced to a piece of land. In return for protection, Lucy must sell herself, although she has become the secondary good and is only desired for because of the land she owns. She is worth nothing more than her land and with the sale, loses her power.

203

He is offering an alliance, a deal. I contribute the land, in return for which I am allowed to creep under his wing.

Objectively, I am a woman alone. I have no brother. I have a father, but he is far away and anyhow powerless in the terms that matter here… practically speaking, there is only Petrus left. Petrus may not be a big man but he is big enough for someone small like me.

As a result of her gender, Lucy is powerless to defend herself against unwarranted intrusions into her property/life etc. hence; she seeks the protection of the one who does hold power in the terms that matter in the countryside – Petrus. His authority extends far enough for Lucy’s protection.

204

Say he can put out whatever story he likes about our relationship and I won’t contradict him

205

She cannot last: leave her alone and in due course she will fall like rotten fruit.

Honour and Dignity

139

But I can’t leave Lucy on the farm. She isn’t safe.

By making such insinuations of Lucy’s helplessness, Lurie is in effect stripping Lucy of her dignity to live independently in the countryside.

Lack of honour and dignity

85

No classes. No one too high and mighty to smell another’s backside.

With the dogs, the human concepts of honour and dignity fade away, leaving only the primal instinct of animals that would eventually act as a foundation as a fresh start for Lucy.

146

But the dogs are dead; and what do dogs know of honour and dignity anyway?

Lurie realises that perhaps honour and dignity are not so important anymore; that when one is at the bottom of the heap, honour and dignity are merely notions of another world and time.

Loss of honour and Dignity

85

Not just in trouble. In what I suppose one would call disgrace.

From observing the animals, Lurie perhaps find it easier to let go of his misplaced honour and dignity and admit the true sate he is in.

86

Practice for old age, he admonishes himself. Practice fitting in. Practice for the old folks’ home

Note: CR to ‘proper business of the old. Preparing to die’ or something like that… >.<

Lurie begins to accept his disgrace and thereby begins to let go of what he perceives to be his honour and dignity.

106

In the cramped little bathroom Bev Shaw unwinds the bandages… she does not speak while she works. He recalls the goat in the clinic, wonders whether, submitting to her hands. It felt the same peacefulness.

Through seeking Bev Shaw’s assistance in changing his dressings, Lurie has seemingly abandoned a large part of his former conceived honour and dignity, in that he allows her to see him in such a disgraced state. Also, his relation to the goat further emphasises Lurie’s relinquishing of his former dignity in that he should compare himself to such a creature. Lurie has undergone much change and transformation whilst in the countryside.

146

Well, now he has become a dog-man: a dog undertaker; a dog psychopomp; a harijan

Lurie no longer clings onto his notions of status and such, but it does not matter to him any more for he has fallen far below the levels of disgrace to even care about the importance of status, or even disgrace any more.

203

In any event, it is not me he is after, he is after the farm. The farm is my dowry

Lucy is stripped of her honour and dignity to become worth nothing more than a piece of land in return for protection. She has to reduce herself to become like an object; to be traded according to pleasure of those who hold power in order to sustain herself. However, perhaps what Lucy has chosen is what South Africa needs – to start on a clean slate, afresh, with the acceptance of their disgrace.

203

He is offering an alliance, a deal. I contribute the land, in return for which I am allowed to creep under his wing.

205

How humiliating… such high hopes, and to end like this

205

To start at ground level. With nothing. Not with nothing but. With nothing. No cards, no weapons, no property, no rights, no dignity.

Like a dog.

Preservation of honour and dignity

108

He stands back, leaves it to Lucy to take them through the story she has elected to tell.

Lucy chooses to leave out the details of her rape so as to preserve what remaining honour and dignity she has left.

109

In Lucy’s room the double bed is stripped bare

110

It will dawn on them that over the body of the woman silence is being drawn like a blanket. Too ashamed, they will say to each other, too ashamed to tell…

In leaving out the details of her rape, is Lucy truly preserving the remainders of her honour? Or is it actually striping even more of it from her?

144

He is not prepared to inflict such dishonour upon them… he himself loads them, one at a time, on to the feeder trolley…

Lurie, having undergone much change and transformation, sees it as his duty to ensure that the dogs at least have a proper sending off despite their undignified means of death.

196

But something in her tone nags at him

Lucy does not tell Lurie of her pregnancy and troubles for the sake of preserving her dignity in front of Lurie.

Violence

107

The events of yesterday have shocked him to the depths. The trembling, the weakness are only the first and most superficial signs of that shock.

Lurie having been from the city is unaccustomed to the physical manifestation of violence that was abruptly emptied on himself and more so, Lucy during the attack.

107

… he will be like a fly-casing in a spider-web

107

Just an after-effect, he tells himself, an after-effect of the invasion.

Lurie having referred to the attack as an invasion brings across the effect of the attack having been not merely a physical one, but a psychological one as well – it is a violation.

110

I don’t know whether insurance policies cover massacres.

The dogs were not simply killed; they were brutally murdered according to Lucy, as in a massacre.

138

She loves the Eastern Cape, she wants to make her life here, she wants to get along with everyone. But how can she do that when she is liable to be attacked by thugs who then escape scot-free?

Violence is not the answer to harmony within the country.

144

The dead leg caught in the bars of the trolley, and when the trolley came back… the dog would as often as not come riding back too, blackened and grinning, smelling of singed fur… the workmen began to beat the bags with the backs of their shovels before loading them to break the rigid limbs.

The corpses of animals are given little respect, they are treated inhumanely.

199

What kind of child can seed like that give life to, seed driven into the women not in love but in hatred, mixed chaotically, meant to soil her, to mark her, like in dog’s urine?

The child in Lucy’s womb is similar to new South Africa in that it too was created in violence. However, despite the violent process, there can be progress should this new entity not be created.

201

Petrus scrapes his knife clean

Connotations of violence. The violence could be due to the racial tensions between the whites and blacks as a result of the long accumulations of grievances during the apartheid era.

201

He takes the pipe from his mouth, stabs the air vehemently with the stem.

202

It is not finished. On the contrary, it is just beginning. It will go on long after I am dead and you are dead

The impacts of violence/ apartheid carries on as the mistakes of the past are revisited in the present.

202

But here… it is dangerous, too dangerous

A reminder of the violence strife in the context of the novel and the country as well.

204

It is just a matter of time before Ettinger is found with a bullet in his back.

The situation of the whites in South Africa is volatile and highly unfavourable.

Justice VS Injustice

107

As for the men who visited them, he wishes them harm, wherever they may be, but otherwise does not want to think about them

Lurie seems to be uncaring towards seeking justice for the attack at this juncture; however, it is evident that he does want justice from the harm he wishes upon them.

110

The dog with the hole in its throat still bares its bloody teeth. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

For their mistreatment and death, the dogs do not reap the rewards of justice. This is perhaps symbolic of the injustice done to the Blacks during the apartheid era that were simply glossed over or un-noted.

112

You want to know why I have not laid a particular charge with the police…

Lucy, being more cognizant of the situation and circumstances revolving herself and Lurie, understands informing the police of her disgrace would be redundant and that the concept of justice and injustice holds no power in darkest South Africa.

112

I don’t agree. Do you think that by meekly accepting what happened to you, you can set yourself apart… that is not how vengeance works, Lucy.

Lurie and Lucy’s opinions on what constitute justice and the need for justice is different as a result of the difference in their environment over the past years. Lurie wishes for the punishment to befall the attackers be it through the judicial system or what not and is clearly bitter when he finds to his dismay that it would not be so – at least not to his knowledge.

137

Tell me the boy’s name and whereabouts and I will pass on the information to the police. Then we can leave it to the police to investigate and bring him and his friends to justice.

138

But how can she do that when she is liable to be attacked at any moment by thugs who then escape scot-free?

200

And now young Pollux returns to the scene of the crime and we must behave as if nothing has happened

112

Do you hope you can expiate the crimes of the past by suffering in the present?

Lucy carries the white-man’s burden thereby it is fitting that she too suffers an injustice to make up for the injustices her ancestors heaped upon the blacks.

He is just a youth, he cannot go to jail, that is the law, you cannot put a youth in jail, you must let him go!

The young are not subjected to justice due to their age. How then, can justice be sought should a child be the offender?

167

So… how the mighty have fallen

The disgrace of Lurie being the justice served for his actions towards Melanie.

172

In my own terms, I am being punished for what happened between myself and your daughter. I am sunk into a state of disgrace from which it will not be easy to lift myself

173

Is that enough? ... Will that do? If not, what more?

Since justice is an intangible notion, there is no way for an amount of justice served to be determined, hence causing the uncertainty in the redemption seeking process.

199

… rapists cum tax gatherers roaming the area…

Lucy does not deem the lack of action regarding the attack to be an injustice as she feels that she owes those who have attacked her on account of her staying on the land. She unwittingly carries the white mans’ burden.