Reading in the dark & Disgrace: the Representation of Oppression

Larissa Gonçalves Forster*

“Great hatred, little room

Maimed us at the start.
I carry from my mother’s womb
A fanatic heart”

W.B. Yeats

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the representations of
oppression presented in the Irish novel Reading in the dark (1996) by Seamus Deane
and in the South-African one Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee. In both novels, one finds
a reasonable variety of kinds of oppression, from the individual to the social.
Keywords: literature, minorities, oppression.

The objective of this analysis is to draw a comparison between Reading

in the dark (1996) by Seamus Deane and Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee, focusing on
the oppression aspect, well presented in both novels.
This analysis will concentrate on four characters: the boy narrator and his
mother (Reading in the dark), and David and Lucy (Disgrace). There are also other
important elements closely related to the theme of oppression: the relation between
public and private life and the one between History and (personal) story. Such elements
will be also analyzed according to the oppression approach.
When we consider the relation between these characters and oppression,
the first thing that catches our attention is the socio-historical element. Although the
characters face individual and personal problems, the oppression suffered is intimately
connected to socio-historical issues. This is essential to these novels, since in Post-
Colonial literature characters are inseparable from their socio-historical background and
identity.
Therefore, issues apparently related only with personal problems lead the
reader to a much broader perspective of History and society – in the cases analyzed:
Ireland’s and South Africa’s. Personal stories represent, in fact, the History of such
countries. In Reading in the dark, the boy narrator’s disappointment in relation to the
impossibility of grasping his family’s story has to do with the impossibility of
understanding Irish History itself.
*
Undegraduate student at the University of São Paulo.
 Reading in the dark takes place in Derry, a city on the border of the
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Discrimination, police harassment, religious
prejudice, shame, guilt – all issues related to the Colonial past which interfered with the
boy’s family past. His uncle is believed to have been an informer, which affected the
whole family’s story.
The city of Derry is quite close to the border between Northern Ireland
and County Donegal, which is part of the Republic of Ireland. Such spatial and political
issue influences on the way the boy narrator and his Catholic community is treated.
Being part of a Catholic minority, since Northern Ireland is
predominantly Protestant, is important to the plot as well, since Ireland’s history of
political and religious violence is the cause of the boy’s family shame, guilt and sorrow.
History is portrayed in a very soft way, since a very young boy tells it. However, it
changes as the boy starts puzzling his working-class family’s story out. Politics and
Religion are not explicit pointed out by the narrator, but they are between the lines, in
the novel’s previous conflicts and the family’s past. Eddie’s story is about a young man
who was associated with the IRA and ended up being killed as an informer by his own
community. Oppression comes from everywhere: Politics, politicians, religion and even
one’s own people. Eddie seems to be part of an ‘oppression chain’, in which oppressed
people will oppress the weaker ones.
Both in Reading in the dark and Disgrace, one is introduced to the decay
of people and families. The boy narrator, his mother, David and Lucy seem to be under
a curse: all of them are haunted by their stories and History as well. In Reading in the
dark, this idea of curse is explicitly pointed out by the boy narrator and the other
characters.
All these haunted characters have their lives and present destroyed when
past comes up. Oppression has its origins in Historical past whose consequences are
brought to their lives and none of them can run away from the relation between cause
and consequence.
In Disgrace, Coetzee deals with characters oppressed by Colonial past. In
South Africa, during the Apartheid, segregation was evident and black people were
treated as a minority, whereas, in fact, they were the majority. Oppression is still alive in
the Post-Apartheid period, however, now white people are the real minority, victims of
prejudice.
Firstly, the polemic relationship between David and Melanie presents us
an approach closely linked to the Apartheid: white people oppress the black ones.
Besides, it is important to remember that she is a woman and she is from a lower
hierarchical position, since she is David’s student. By saying so, we want to make clear
that Melanie is oppressed because of different things: her race, her gender and her
hierarchical position.
In relation to Deane’s novel, there is a clear hierarchy related to school as
well: the Math teacher, for instance, overuses his power, exhibiting even a dictatorial
and oppressive behavior towards his students. His classes could have been conducted in
a different way, but we learn about a very frightening schoolteacher. Such oppression
could be believed to be part of Irish education in the 40s and 50s, since the narration has
began in these decades; however, we get in touch with teachers who do not behave like
this, which could lead us to consider an ‘oppression chain’ again, in which the
oppressed teacher could only react by oppressing his students.
The oppression suffered by Lucy reflects the Post-Apartheid situation in
which white people became less powerful or even powerless. In this period, the roles
were exchanged and Lucy is not only a white woman, but she is homosexual as well,
that is, she takes part in, at least, three minority groups. One very interesting thing about
Lucy is her lucidness: she is aware of this change in social/racial roles and says this to
her father.
On one hand, Lucy belongs to many minority groups, which could lead
her to be considered a fragile character; on the other hand, she may be considered one of
the strongest characters, since her power is provided by her indomitable and iron will.
History invades their stories and Lucy suffers a shock by the hatred felt during her rape:
it was personal and secular at the same time. The History of racial oppression becomes
the story of Lucy’s life. In David’s case, there are two roles played almost
simultaneously: the white man (oppressor) abuses the black girl and the black men
abuse the white man’s daughter (oppressed).
The professor plays both roles: colonizer/ oppressor, and colonized/
oppressed person. However, he is only aware of the second one, and his oppression is
portrayed as impotency in relation to his daughter’s choices, strength, rape and
willpower. Moreover, Petrus and the three black men, which raped Lucy, are a
permanent threat to them. David is unable to deal with this new reality of living with his
daughter in the countryside – and its consequences -, which oppresses him even more.
At first, he is oppressed by society because of Melanie’s affair, when private life turns
into public. Then, when Lucy is raped, oppression is even worse, since she refuses to
talk to the Police and the rapists are still around. David feels oppressed by the latter
ones and by his own daughter. Society does not take any attitude this time and what is
private is kept private, not being exposed to the public eyes.
Violence and oppression end up reaching the weakest link, that is,
women, in Disgrace’s case. They suffer much more than men, as one can see. In the
‘oppression chain’, we cannot see who comes after them, that is, who they oppress, the
same way we cannot see who the boy narrator of Reading in the dark’s oppresses.
Despite her weakness, Melanie had people to turn to. This is what can be
seen on the surface. According to my reading, Melanie is weaker than Lucy, that is, the
former has much less power than the latter. At the end of the day, both of them went
through a traumatic and tough situation and they will never be the same again.
However, men’s behavior towards Melanie suggests that David was only another man
who manipulated/controlled her. Boyfriend, father and professor are social roles played
by men who decide and judge what is better for Melanie.
It is very interesting to consider the idea of oppression within the
families. In the beginning of Reading in the dark, the boy narrator and his mother have
a very close relationship. In Disgrace, the same does not happen: David and Lucy have
a very distant relationship in the beginning. As time went by, the Irish mother and son
get more and more distant from each other. In the father’s and daughter’s case, the
opposite situation can be observed: they become closer during the development of the
plot. Nevertheless, in the end, parents and children are neither too close nor too far from
one another, remaining at a certain distance. Such movement is shown below:

Beginning Middle End

The boy narrator- his mother B  M B ---------- M B --- M

David - Lucy D ---------- L D  L D --- L

In the end, the process of their separation is complete, though they are
not as far away as they have already been. In Reading in the dark, the family’s secret
and silence set people apart, while in Disgrace, communication, conversations, sincerity
and a non-secret attitude are not enough to keep David and Lucy together.
We could say that knowledge is lethal in both novels: the shared
knowledge between parents (the boy’s mother and David) and children (boy and Lucy)
drive them away from one another, though they are not completely apart in the end.
It is interesting to realize that communication or its lack are not enough
for people to stick together. It does not matter what they do: they will be set apart.
Despite what it may seem, it is not a fatalist approach to their problems, but a clear
cause-consequence relation: Colonial History (past) is interfering with their own stories
(present). However, Coetzee and Deane propose a brighter future by showing hope:
David’s changes and Lucy’s baby suggest a restart, and the conversation between the
father of the dead young English and the boy narrator’s father reveals how similar
English and Irish people can be, making them realize how close they were.
The decay mentioned in the beginning of this paper seems to lead
characters to a better future or, at least, to a different viewpoint in relation to life. By
doing so, oppression shapes these four characters in such a way that they start facing
life in a different way. However, there are things that never change, such as the silence
of the “boy narrator”‘s mother, David’s belief in his innocence concerning Melanie and
Lucy’s strength.
The boy narrator refuses to stick to his family’s silence the same way
Lucy refuses to stick to her father’s wishes. By doing so, both of the children refuse
their parent’s oppression: they do not want to be the same way and to live the same life
their progenitors did. The boy narrator and Lucy want to live their lives their own way,
which implies in keeping their parents away. The worlds of History and story seem to be
mingled since the beginning: the former oppresses the latter the same way society
oppresses the boy narrator, his mother, Lucy and David. The consequences of past
attitudes surround and oppress the four characters. They have two options: to hide
themselves or to deal with the situation. Both parents run away from it while children’s
attempt to cope with it is remarkable.

Bibliographical references
DEANE, S., 1996. Reading in the dark. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
COETZEE, J.M., 1999. Disgrace. New York: Penguin.