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In Shame by J. M. Coetzee we are introduced to David Lurie, the protagonist and narrator of this novel.

David Lurie is a 52 year old divorced man, who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, as a respected romantic poems professor by a university or college. His a lot more full of intimate, noncommitted human relationships. After being accused of inappropriate habit with a scholar, Lurie manages to lose his job at the school and need to move in together with his daughter, Lucy, in the country. Through the entire novel we see many references to pets or animals, especially in relation to Lurie.

Because he is the narrator of the story, these creature references lead the reader to believe Lurie is describing him self through these animals. Lurie uses explanations of pets or animals as a way to identify how he feels about him self. We see Lurie go from a sexually charged predator, to a strange beast who have been seeker, to a dog-man, and then finally to a weak dog who will be ready to be placed out of his unhappiness. David Lurie is a ttacker at the beginning of the novel. He could be a man looking for sex, and then for the most portion he is good at that.

His 1st sexual fascination he features us to is Soraya, a prostitute who he has been going to see for years. Lurie describes them making love by comparing them to dogs engaged in love-making, “lengthy, soaked up, but rather subjective, rather dried out, even at its hottest” (Coetzee 5 ). Being the narrator, this shows the reader how David views himself, as well as Soraya, as cool, scary, practically evil, animals, like snakes. Snakes emit a very adverse emotion since they are dangerous pets, and this evaluation leads us to believe David too has to be a dangerous pet.

Soraya eventually tries to minimize ties with David, although David staying the ttacker he is cannot let his prey proceed. He is able to find Soraya’s home phone number so when he phone calls her she’s livid he’d cross that line. “But then, what should a predator anticipate when he intrudes into the vixen’s nest, in the home of her cubs? ” (Coetzee 10). Soraya is a mom, and feels like David dialling her residence is going to be a threat to her family, specifically her children. The next occasion where we come across David explaining himself being a predator can be during his first intimate encounter with his student, Melanie.

David is extremely persistent in sleeping with Melanie, and when he features finally hunted down her down he explains the experience since “like a rabbit when the jaws of the sibel close on its neck” (Coetzee 25). He is well aware by making this statement that Melanie would not want to be through this situation with him, although he does not care, he continues to be chasing this kind of prey intended for too to just let it go. This may not be the last time David engages Melanie no matter her good reluctance however , and Melanie eventually has enough and reports Lurie to the College or university where he teaches.

David Lurie goes via being the predator, to now being the one who may be being chased. He is getting chased by University panel who is looking into David’s indiscretions with Melanie. The panel is defined by Lurie as “hunters who have cornered a strange beast and do not know how to finish that off. inches (Coetzee 56). The desks have switched and Lurie is now this kind of strange beast that has been hunted down. David refuses to apologize however , and in turn loses his job.

Lurie could have basically sorry to get his actions and he would have had the opportunity to keep his position with the University, but also in his brain he did not do anything wrong. He compares himself a classic neighbor’s doggie, saying that whenever a “bitch can be in the garden the dog will become therefore excitable that he could not be controlled. The dog was not allowed to proceed through with his all-natural desires, which caused the dog to act unusual and just manage around the garden “with their ears toned and its tail between its legs, whining, trying to cover. (Coetzee 69 ). David sees him self in this dog, he is being punished and being told he’s not allowed to do something that seems so organic to him. He says that the dog may have preferred being shot more than being rejected its organic urges. David chose to always be shot (lose his job) when he refuses to express that he did anything wrong by sleeping with Melanie. After dropping his task David must go live with his daughter, Sharon, out in the country.

While living with Lucy, David goes through a lot, and through helping take care of her dogs we see a softer part of him through his descriptions of these dogs. “The dogs will be brought to the clinic as they are unwanted,  (Coetzee 146) Lurie says. He likes you the canines because he also feels unwanted. “Well, now he has become a dog-man.  (Coetzee 146) David can be one with these puppies, abandoned and miserable, struggling to live the lives they would like to be living. The dogs and David are caught out in the country on a farmville farm just waiting for the end.

David finally does give up and see this kind of through his decision that will put down the puppy that he had become close to, Driepoot, the small dog David “has arrive to experience a particular weakness for” (Coetzee 214-215). David had fused with Driepoot, even placing your signature to his Internet explorer to the dog at 1 point. This individual felt sorry for Driepoot, he sensed very much like your dog. In the end in the novel, employing Driepoot to get put down “a (his, the dog’s) period must arrive, it can not be evaded and carries your canine, “the person who likes music (Coetzee 219), to Bev where he will be killed.

Within the last sentence in the novel David states that he is “giving him up (Coetzee 220), which is essentially David stating the he is the one letting go of. Like Driepoot, David Lurie is being put out of his misery. David Lurie’s lifestyle goes through remarkable changes over the novel Bad. A once respected mentor, he becomes “a crazy old man whom sits among the dogs performing to himself.  (Coetzee 218). Lurie uses descriptions of pets as a way to explain how this individual feels about him self.

He should go from a predator in whose main focus in life is satisfying his sexual needs, to a person who seems like a ‘strange beast’ that has been hunted by University. David then converts to his daughter’s plantation where he begins working with canines and we see a softer David Lurie, a person who seems like the abandoned dogs who have are looking forward to their end to arrive. By the end of Disgrace we come across that David is ready to recognize his very own end, he wants to be placed out of his misery just like this individual does for the dog this individual has bonded so much with. Works Reported Coetzee, J. M. Shame. New York: Penguin, 1999. Printing.