“We don’t know. We don’t know and will never know,
with certainty, what is really going on in this story: whether it is about a man speaking to men or an ape spea-
king to apes or an ape speaking to men or a man speaking to apes. There used to be a time when we knew”
[6].
The plot which he brought from Kafka do not seem interesting for the participants gathered to take part at
the ceremony of the presentation of the award, the character of a person’s dilemma suffering between the
truth and lie seems “unnecessary”. Moreover Costello, during the break for dinner, having risen for the
diffence of the animals goes “too far” and those, present in the hall “loose their temper”. They accept the
lecture of the writer on vegetarians, defending the living existences with all his heart, seemed as an
Вестник КазНПУ им. Абая, серия «Филологические науки», №4(62) 2017 г.
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unnecessary “talk”. All his attempts to “revoke” the people and mankind ends with no result, the abyss
between him and the people becomes still deeper. In the American college, at the meeting devoted to
Holocaust, his answer to the telephone call ends with the metaphoric expression “fascist bitch”.
As O.Pavlov, investigating the categories of “history” and “memory in the novels of J.M. Coetzee,
rightfully stressed the fact that the African novel in the English language created by the personal and
collective memories cardinally differed from the European novels [8, 28]. Just in such a novel the problems
of notional identity are highlighted, there appear the writers who keep away from the problems of mode of
life, their desires and wishes of the modern man. From this viewpoint, the African writer Emmanuel Egad
the personage of which was he himself, said that simple Africans have neither time, nor desire to read a
novel, is understandable. We read in the novel:
“In the great, beneficent global system under which we live
today, it has been allotted to Africa to be the home of poverty. Africans have no money for luxuries. In
Africa, a book must offer you a return for the money you spend on it. What do I stand to learn by reading this
story, the African will ask? How will it advance me? We may deplore the attitude of the African, ladies and
gentlemen, but we cannot dismiss it. We must take it seriously and try to understand it”
[6]
.
Simple explanation of the writer from Nigeria is understandable. The simple African fighting with all his
force for life, cannot understand rich people having tasted all the foods of the world. The European who have
no problems for living, working, living human lives, cannot understand simple Africans who do not read
novels. By the person of the Nigerian writer, Coetzee summons the Europeans to understand the people in
his native land South Africa, who reside in different way from those who have different mode of life, who
live in wealth and luxury. He shows the “reverse side” of humanity and calls the people for being more
sensitive, more understanding beings of the fates of others. The spirit of this part of the novel is the same as
he said in one of his interview:
“we may think that we love a certain writer for the reason that he has opened
our eyes, but in fact we love him for the reason that he supports our initial fights”
[9, 36]. “For Coetzee,
South African materials were the background to show his attitude towards the processes, going on in the
world” [10, 29]. M.S. Kurbak who said all this, truthfully appreciated the human values in Coetzee’s creative
activity. M.S. Kurbak’s attitude to the creative activity of Coetzee, taking place in his book “Africa: history
and historians is analyzed in the context of mankind, human beings and their places in life, problems of man
and society. The investigator notes that Coetzee in all his works shows all the pains and sufferings of the
people in the context of the problems of the whole world and comes to the conclusion that any man of the
world, irrespective of his language, race, the color of his skin has the same right as any generation of the
world, living under the sun.
Though the comparison may sound too rough, the writer from Africa who is making a report before the
science population is accepted as a Red Peter – a monkey. It is true that it is a very rough comparison, but the
attitude of a European to the “black continent” is not valued as rudeness? [11]. The investigator
A.Bezzubsev-Kondakov justfully expressing his attitudes to the problems raised by the writer notes the
African in the creation of Coetzee as a person of the “second sort”.
In the center of danger stands the life story of the writer who looks back to analyze the way of life he has
lived, but suffers from total loneliness. Elizabeth Costello is involved by endless numerous hesitations and
feelings of loneliness. All the parts of the novel, without a plot consist of mutual existential problems,
covering men and society. In spite of all his efforts the chief hero, not always wins sympathy, his emotional
searches, and his indifference to everything, linked with loneliness, makes the novel complete from the view
of the idea of the novel.
Despite the fact that there exists some tension in the parts of the novel, the development dynamics of the
arisen problems are not observed. Novel consists of mainly of the meanings of the thoughts for life, the
writer’s search for answers to the questions which are hard to deal with.
The parts named “Lives of Animals” are separated into the parts, called “philosophers and animals”,
“poets and animals”. Though Coetzee raises the theme based on the defense of animals, and surrounding
them the environment, he though indirectly tries to solve the problems of man and his place in the society.
Elizabeth Costello, who is the alter egos for the writer repeatedly mentions of the fact that she loves all the
living beings on the Earth and the environment. Just linked with this approach, the hero of the writer tries to
unite with the initial start of nature but as in an ordinary life, she always is met with misunderstandings.
Costello acts as fierce supporter of animals; she says that like all living beings, they also have the right to
live in life. She likens bird factories, animal firms to death camps. This time she approaches the problems
from a different angle and says with what rights, man being the supreme existence of the world, kills other
living beings. “His humanism is grounded on the facts that all the living beings possess the same values,
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