Your Body Is Never Yours Essay example -- Literary Analysis, Disgrace

In Disgrace, sex is repeatedly used a source of power. Lurie takes advantage of his young student and also pays prostitutes for sex. The most violent act of power and hatred towards sex and women is Lucy ´s rape, performed by two black men. However, I claim sex is in fact not used for power, but that the author believes that we never own our own bodies. Therefore, considering they are not ours, they cannot be violated. Furthermore, he shows us that the worth of our bodies is simply limited to the expectations of people around us. I state that in Disgrace, your body does not belong to you. It is merely a product of expectations and responsibilities. In the opening of the book, Lurie pays for the service of prostitutes to find relief. In his younger days, he could use his charm and good looks to seduce women now â€Å"if he wanted a woman he had to learn to pursue her, in one way or another to buy her† (7). He speaks of wanting something, suggesting that a woman is a thing that can be had, or in this case purchased. While reflecting of the prize he pays for his favorite-prostitute ´s body he realizes that â€Å"in a sense they own Soraya too, this part of her, this function† (2). They, being the escort company that she belongs too. Here it is implied that Soraya is just a product that can be sold and purchased, or even rented out by its owner. When, one day Lurie sees Soraya shopping with her sons, their relationship change. She becomes a person, a living being and their relation ends on her initiative. This shows of her desire to restrain herself to an object in the eyes of her customer. Subsequently, as David no longer can take pleasure from Soraya, he benefits from his position as a respected teacher to take advantage of the much younge... ...eople ´s eyes. Our bodies are not ours, as Lucy affirmed after she has decided to get married to Petrus. â€Å"With nothing. Not with nothing but. With nothing. No cards, no weapon, no property, no rights, no dignity† (205). This is how she sees herself, and perhaps how every person in the novel sees themselves. Everyone realizes that their value is bound to something other than them, David to his status as a professor, Melanie to her youth and beauty, Pertrus to his property and ownership, Lucy to being independent and Bev, who sadly knows that as a dumpy older woman she has no value at all. A sad idea, but nonetheless true in Disgrace. That we are not people but mere products, to be valued, evaluated and graded. The use of power to obtain sex or of sex to obtain power then becomes secondary. As readers we are left with the query of whom or what is deciding our value.