Through the perspective of an unconventional university professor, The Shame of JM Coetzee addresses the transition to post-apartheid South Africa -apartheid, societal acceptance and rape through the father-daughter complex of David Lurie and Lucy Lurie. relationship. While living in his daughter's country home, David Lurie's experiences reveal that despite powerful political reform, crime continues to dominate the African people. Certain aspects of South African history are used to highlight racial tensions and the shift from a white-dominated South Africa to a black-dominated South Africa. Coetzee also suggests the instability of African society by constantly portraying his characters as emotionally incapable of adapting to adverse situations. Although David and Lucy were initially presented as polar opposites, their value of intimacy and refusal to endure public humiliation and shame establishes a parallel between the novel's predator and prey. David Lurie eventually evolves from his sexual encounters with Soraya, Melanie and Bev Shaw into realizing the traumatic implications of his actions after Lucy's rape. JM Coetzee, a white South African writer, was greatly influenced by his personal experiences while witnessing social barriers. during apartheid. At the beginning of the novel, Coetzee describes the sexual relationship between the protagonist David Lurie and Soraya, a prostitute to whom David regularly indulged every Thursday. “For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he had, in his opinion, solved the problem of sex rather well” (Coetzee 1). In his mind, however, he did not put Soraya's thoughts into perspective. He satisfied his desires at the expense of the emotional well-being of others. Despite Soraya's acceptance of prostitution, her reaction to the war... middle of paper ...... Originally, David uses his status as a white man in South Africa as leverage and source of power, however, this tactic quickly backfired and led him to seek a new lifestyle. Life on Lucy's farm introduces David not only to natural beauty, but also to the strength people have to provide the services they do, such as running a last resort animal rescue center. At the end of his experiences, he learns that he has no place in the environment he surrounded himself with in the city, but that he has fun in the company of the animals and his daughter. Its change in living standards and customs demonstrates the racial impacts of apartheid. The connection between Lucy's shame as a victim and David's shame as a rapist demonstrates the difficulties of both faults. Each aspect of these flaws represents the difficulties of apartheid in South Africa..