Foe is a 1986 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. Woven around the existing plot of Robinson Crusoe, Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and Friday as their adventures were already underway. Click Here
*How would you differentiate the character of Cruso and Crusoe?
Robinson Crusoe is much less passive and senile in regards to his own development on the island. Crusoe kept a painfully detailed account of every action he does on the island in a journal he updates daily. In this journal, Crusoe meticulously records every step for all of the tools he crafts, and he writes about his own progress with his newly acquitted relationship with religion. This Robinson Crusoe is much more in tune with his own reality and interested in his own accomplishments than Foe’s Cruso. This is also evident in the number of tools and objects that Robinson Crusoe makes in comparison to Cruso. Robinson Crusoe fills his multiple homes with various types of pots, tables, chairs, fences, and even a canoe. All of these items Crusoe builds are to improve and aide in his growth on the island, and he must be mentally sharp in order to build these items. Cruso in Foe has not put any effort towards building tools, as he only has a bed when Susan arrives at the island, and from the quote, it seems like he may not have the mental capacity to build these tools. Although Cruso does builds many terraces, he exclaims that they are for the future generations and not himself.
*Friday’s characteristics and persona in Foe and in Robinson Crusoe?
Friday has a huge literary and cultural importance. If Crusoe represents the first colonial mind in fiction, then Friday represents not just a Caribbean tribesman, but all the natives of America, Asia, and Africa who would later be oppressed in the age of European imperialism. At the moment when Crusoe teaches Friday to call him “Master” Friday becomes an enduring political symbol of racial injustice in a modern world critical of imperialist expansion. Recent rewritings of the Crusoe story, like J. M. Coetzee’s Foe and Michel Tournier’s Friday, emphasize the sad consequences of Crusoe’s failure to understand Friday and suggest how the tale might be told very differently from the native’s perspective.
* Is Susan reflecting the white mentality of Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)?
J.M. Coetzee presents Barton as a submissive supporting actress to the extremely dominant character of Robinson Crusoe. Barton’s role as a submissive supporting character to Cruso displays Coetzee’s formulation of Susan as a man’s woman. Susan is a sensual woman, and as the only female character in both Defoe’s novel as well as Coetzee’s novel, she is represented through her sexuality. Susan’s sexuality is first displayed in the beginning of the novel, when she is on the island and Cruso is alive. As she falls asleep one night, Cruso begins to make advances toward her.
* Which novel is convincing and has poetic justice? (or is there poetic justice? – Has the writer achieved what it wished for? – Has Friday got the justice? )
Poetic justice, in literature, an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate. The term was coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer in the 17th century, when it was believed that a work of literature should uphold moral principles and instruct the reader in correct moral behaviour.
* Who is the Protagonist? (Foe – Susan – Friday – Unnamed narrator)
Cruso is adapted from Robinson Crusoe, the protagonist of Daniel Defoe's famous novel. He has long moved past any semblance to Defoe's character by the time he is introduced to the narrative. Susan tries to extract information from Cruso but notes that his memories are scattered and unreliable. Any version of Defoe's Crusoe that once existed has been replaced by Cruso and his empty terraces and empty mind. Whereas Defoe's Crusoe was a younger and more sympathetic figure, Coetzee's character is older and more stubborn. He is the lonely king of his pitiful domain. Coetzee's Cruso is a beguiling character. He wages war against apes that pose no apparent threat. He is struck down by mysterious fevers. He builds terraces but can not plant any gardens. He bullies and cajoles Friday but welcomes Susan into the camp without hesitation. He shouts at Susan but agrees to make her shoes. In a fevered state, he sexually assaults Susan and never mentions it again. Susan nevertheless finds Cruso's story compelling. Even after he dies she wants to tell the story because she recognizes the lingering traces of goodness in Cruso's character. The realization that Cruso is more antagonist than protagonist makes sense of Cruso's story. Susan begins to think about Cruso not as the central character in the story but as the master of Friday; Friday is the real protagonist. Cruso may be a slave owner, a torturer, and an abuser but his scattered mind and empty deeds neuter his past villainy.
Thanks😊
No comments:
Post a Comment