A Man’s Maladies

A Man’s Maladies:

The Mental and Emotional Maladies in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Disgrace

            The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Disgrace both showcase the lives of men at very different places in their lives. David is a twice-divorced English professor whose students couldn’t be less interested in what he is teaching them. David is plagued with a hunger for women, a hunger for sex, this appetite is destructive to his ability to have positive relationships with women, like his daughter and himself.  Changez, on the other hand, is in his prime, a young man with a prestigious job, doing very well for himself, though he is burdened with a conflicted sense of self and an unrequited love for someone who herself is plagued with her own internal demons. Changez and David are two very different people, but they are hindered by the same inability to hold relationships with others because they lack a sense of self.

In Disgrace when we first meet David, he is in the throes of passion with a hooker, whom he is a bit obsessed with because of his attraction to exotic women. After going against all the codes of conduct he works for, being intimate with a student, he is discharged from his job and moves away from his life in Cape Town, South Africa to visit his daughter Lucy in the country. David’s relationship with Lucy is very strained and put to the test during his time there. David has always been one to criticize the way that Lucy lives her life – how she prefers women to men, that she would rather be on her farm caring for animals than living in the city or with her mother in Europe. The way that she lives her life has never been satisfactory to him, “You think, because I am your daughter, I ought to be doing something better with my life.” (74) Lucy is perfectly content with living her life the way that she does, she is at home on her land, and although that sense of home comfort is violated she still stands her ground – that’s her home. David has seemingly always had to find some type of solace in the company of a woman, whether she is his wife, a hooker or his student, he is unable to find a place for himself anywhere. David loses himself in his actions; he makes it impossible to develop an understanding of his own self. Throughout his whole stay with Lucy he goes through many different mentality changes – from not caring about the dogs, to saving one for as long as possible, thinking that Bev is an altogether unappealing character and then working closely with her along with getting involved with her romantically. Finally, David gives up, gives up the dog that he had been saving for weeks, as he states at the very end of the book, “Yes, I am giving him up” (220) metaphorically giving up on himself. David comes to terms with the many things that have gone wrong — the loss of his job, his failing relationship with Lucy, his lack of interest or drive to finish his opera, he gives into his failures.