Lucy's story

A portion of the book in Lucy’s perspective:


After being disgraced by society for having an affair with one of his college students my father, David Lurie, will be moved in with me I was not sure he would be able to live on a farm because he had been living in the city before. He decided to stay with me only because he wants to escape the media and take a break. Life on the farm went on as usual except now I was living with my father who I could tell believes I can do so much better than living on a farm when I had a college education. He could not realize that this was the way I truly wished to live my life. Working on this farm, planting in my garden, and taking care of the dogs are things I actually enjoy doing. Today, David is going to see me at my best. He is going experience the part of my life where I go into the market and sell what I grow. When we reach my stall in the market I can almost imagine what David is thinking. What is my daughter doing working in this place? She can do so much better. After things are ready, the customers start passing bye, some stopping to bye something other just to say hello. Every time a customer stops by I would introduce David to them so he does not feel award, but I know that he looks at them and judge them, especially Bev Shaw. So I tell David we are going to Bev Shaw house after we finish here in the market because I know he wonders why I am be friends with a person like her. As we visit the Shaw’s I can see from David’s expression that he is criticizing their way of living and underestimating Bev Shaw. He did not like women who make no effort to look attractive and believes they are not worth his time. After a while living on the farm and volunteering at the clinic with Bev I could see that David’s attitude towards animals where changing and he did not look down on Bev anymore. On one early evening a horrible thing happened to me and my father three men forced their way into my home almost burn my father up, shoot my beloved dogs, robed my house and also raped and stole my dignity. Now I am left alone with the aftermath of what happened, with the memory of that night that I cannot even sleep in my own room anymore and also with a child that was conceived on that night. Everything changed from that day on, I could not even tell the police about what happened to me because on that night while those men violated me I felt their hatred for me. I knew that these men did not go after me only because they wanted to rob my house and on the way decided to rape me, it was an act of revenge on me because I am white and represent the suffering black Africans went through during the apartheid; when white were given certain privileges that were not allowed to black Africans.


Analysis:
I wrote about this part of the book because I felt that these issues were something if given a chance in a book from her perspective Lucy would elaborate on. The problem being that David did not approve of her living in that part of South Africa and working on the farm by herself and of her not reporting the three men to the police because she was a victim of rape. Lucy would tell this type of story in this way because she can give the reader insight to how what lead to how she felt after the rape and her reasoning as to why she did not report the three men.
The first issue that Lucy and David argue about it her the type of friends she has and her living in the farm (74). Lucy also says “what happened to me is purely a private matter. In another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter. But now in this place, at this time, it is not. This place being South Africa.”(112) This is her justification of not telling the police what happen because in her mind in will not change anything. In the book we also see the drastic change that happens to Lucy after the incident she is does not behave how she did before. She stops doing the chores she usually does on the farm, even going to the market on Saturday. David is left to take her place and take care of the farm. She withdraws herself from everything and moves out of her bedroom. While David was gone she has decided that she will keep the baby and marry Petrus giving him her land but she gets the house.