Best of Week: Perspective

During the week, in class, we talked about the importance of part 2, and the perspective of the doctor. He observed Micheal K and took note of things that made Micheal a more rounded character. We got to see Micheal better when looking through the eyes of someone else than when following him around in 3rd person. On page 151, the doctor imagines what he would say to Micheal. I am the only one who can save you. I am the only one who sees you for the original soul you are. I am the only one who cares for you. I alone see you as neither a soft case for a hard camp but a human soul above and beneath classification, a soul blessedly untouched by doctrine, untouched by history, a soul stirring its wings within that stiff sarcophagus, murmuring behind that clownish mask. You are precious. Coetzee shows his mastery of irony for in the end, Micheal (or Micheals) is the savor, the doctor's messiah. The doctor cares for Micheal is body, but he cannot heal him in spirit, because to Micheal, there was never anything to heal. His body may shrink to just fragile brittle bones and sinewy muscles but his soul stays constant. Only through the doctors eyes can you see this, he is the only one who sees Micheal's originality. In the end the doctor is left begging for an clue, an idea, from Micheal. He wants to know the answer, although he really had no question, just an obsession. He needs it be acknowledged, for him seeing Micheal as he truly was, was meaningful, to himself (and unbeknownst to him, to us). He felt that, but he had become so dependent on Micheal that he could not know for sure. Micheal had hardly said a word to him, but through his actions, his purity, he changed this one life. One can live with that.