David Lurie's affair with Melanie was discovered and Lurie was faced with the option of admitting he was wrong and take on counseling; however, he chose to resign on his own and plead guilty. When Melanie was not in his class for the test, he gave her a 70%, neither good nor bad. When Melanie did not show up for the hearing, the first thing that he asked was whether or not she was attending. He shows he cares about Melanie because whenever she was not present in class, he would wonder what had happen to her, and he also allowed her to stay with him- which was a big shift from the beginning of the novel because he mentioned that he would love to spend a night with a lady but spend the morning after with her.
David leaves to the countryside to stay with his lesbian daughter. He does not approve of his daughter's relationship with another woman but looks past it as long as she's happy. He also come across Bev Shaw who is another woman he immediately dislikes and finds unappealing; however, he learns to look past it and helps her out with the dogs. His stay has made himself and Lucy kind of learn to accept one another. David develops even more after the incident of the rape, realizing that a woman should not be treated that way and does not understand why Lucy will not just tell the truth. This incident also made David realize what he had done to Melanie was wrong and felt the need to apologize.
David Lurie was once a womanizer, a man who did not care about what others say or think or feel, and tries to take the easy way out. Now, David Lurie, a man who had to live through life with shame and guilt- disgrace- to come to a realization of all that he has done, became a man who has a heart, who cared about others and who learns to do the right thing. He apologizes to Melanie's family and after putting his favorite dog to sleep, burst into tears.
Your analysis could use some more textual quotes to show your reader why David Lurie has changed from an uncaring man who follows desire, to a caring and apologetic character. I agree that Mr. Lurie becomes more apologetic and more open to change as time passes while living in the country, and this is a good topic for anaylsis.
ReplyDeleteYour character anaylsis mirrors somewhat summary format, so maybe refraining from showing your support in chronological order would help make it more of an analysis format. Your analysis, however, provides good observations from the book.
I also thought you could use more textual quotes. However, you have a good opening when discussing how Soroya and Melanie led to David's shift in personality. Even though it appears that David does not care for the women he sleeps with, you show that he does indeed have some caring feelings. Your explanantion of his change of character is satisfactory, although, again, it could use more information from the novel.
ReplyDeleteI believe you should have incorporated quotes from the book, but your blog as a whole gives us insite of how everything started and how it lead up to how David's attitude is now.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting how you said that the change started with Melanie. That he cared for her and let her stay at his house, even though he had not liked the idea of seeing a woman in the morning. While I agree that he began to change this early in the novel, I think the change was more significant after the attack. I would have cut out some of the summary of his and Melanie's relationship and devoted the attention more to how he changed later on.
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