Hello friends!
I am Bhavna Sosa, student of department of English MK Bhavnagar University. This task Foe by J.M.Coetzee. This blog assigned by Prof. Yesha Bhatt maam.
About Foe :-
1)How would you differentiate the
character of Cruso and Crusoe?
"I would gladly now recount to you the history of the singular Cruso, as I heard it from his own lips. But the stories he told me were so various, and so hard to reconcile one with another… age and isolation had taken their toll on his memory, and he no longer knew for sure what was truth".
This quote from Coetzee’s Foe is the readers first introduction to any aspect of Cruso’s character in the book. The beginning of Foe is told from the first-person point of view of Susan Barton, and because of this, the reader is aware of Susan’s inner thoughts as she arrives on the island. When Susan first lands on the island she has her first encounter with Friday. Susan first refers to Friday as “the Negro”, but then just one page later she references, to the reader, that his name is Friday. Since Friday is mute, Susan cannot know of his name unless she had previous knowledge of who he is, or the author assumes the reader knows who Friday is. This is when I first begin viewing Foe as an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe.
While Friday retains the same name in Foe as in Robinson Crusoe, Robinson Crusoe’s name is changed to “Cruso” which marks the first in a series of differences between the character of Cruso(e) in Foe and Robinson Crusoe. The Cruso that Susan describes in the quote is one who is completely disconnected from reality and confused about his own past. When Susan questions Cruso about his history on the island the details in his stories vary wildly each time they are told. When asked if Friday was a child when he came to the island Cruso would sometimes exclaim, "Aye, a child, a mere child", but other times Cruso would say, “Friday was a cannibal whom he had saved from being roasted". This uncertainty about events could stem from the fact that in Foe, Cruso is very against keeping written documentation of his days on the island; proclaiming, "Nothing I have forgotten is worth remembering".
Cruso’s lack of journaling is a stark contrast to Defoe’s Robinson 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.
One explanation for the difference in mindset and mental stability in the two Robinson Crusoe’s may be that in Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe felt that his island life had more value than Cruso did. Before becoming stranded on the island, religion wasn’t a focus in Robinson Crusoe’s life, and he frequently sinned; such as when he disobeyed his father. After becoming stranded on the island, Crusoe began to read the bible and incorporate God into his daily thoughts and actions. Crusoe expressed deep regret for his sinful past, and often attributed hardships to a lesson from God. This newfound life style gave significant meaning to Crusoe’s daily actions as they represented growth in his faith, and a positive change in character. For Cruso, the island did not lead him to make any significant changes in his character or ideals. Therefore, his daily actions had less significance to him, and when his reality and sense of self began to slip away from him he was not concerned.
2)Friday’s characteristics and persona in
Foe and in Robinson Crusoe.
Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe names the man Friday, with whom he cannot at first communicate, because they first meet on that day. The character is the source of the expression "Man Friday", used to describe a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who is particularly competent or loyal. Current usage also includes "Girl Friday".
3) Is Susan reflecting the white
mentality of Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)?
Susan Barton, the narrator in Foe, finds herself shipwrecked on a desolate island with a man named Robinson Cruso. It does not take long for Barton to recognize her status on the island after she tells Cruso her story of being washed ashore. She says, “I presented myself to Cruso, in the days when he still ruled over the island, and became his second subject, the first being his manservant Friday” (Coetzee 11). Throughout the novel, even long after Cruso’s death, she describes the island as “Cruso’s island.” She finds herself as the mere female companion to the king and his manservant, Friday. Barton rationalizes Cruso’s role of king as she sees him “on the Bluff, with the sun behind him all red and purple, staring out to see…I thought: He is a truly kingly figure; he is the true king of the island” (37). Coetzee makes Barton the woman behind the man, defining her as a “free and autonomous being like all human creatures that finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of the Other” (Dragunoiu 15). Barton is quick to assume the submissive role on the island as the assertive character of Robinson Cruso takes the lead on the island and in her story.
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. She describes the event by saying, “I pushed his hand away and made to rise, but he held me. No doubt I might have freed myself, for I was stronger than he” (30). Although she realizes she is stronger than him, she decides not to leave but to “let him do as he wished” (30). Barton’s reaction to Cruso’s unwarranted actions towards her identifies her as a character of meek subservience—she is easily overpowered by the male character of Cruso. She even rationalizes his unprovoked advances towards her by saying, “he has not known a woman for fifteen years, why should he not have his desires?” (30). The fact that she excuses his actions of degradation to an impulse of desire solidifies her role as an accessory in the novel; she not only lets Cruso use her, but excuses it as a right of his male desires.
Susan Barton also views her sexuality as therapy for Cruso at the end of his life when he suffers from a raging fever. She spends many nights with him while they are on board the ship that rescued them, holding him and using her body to cure him. She describes:
I lie against Cruso; with the tip of my tongue I follow the hairy whorl of his ear. I rub my cheeks against his harsh whiskers, I spread myself over him, I stoke his body with my thighs. “I am swimming in you, my Cruso.”
She uses every part of her body that defines her as a woman—tongue, cheeks, and thighs—in an attempt to alleviate Cruso of his sickness. She is not sexually or emotionally interested in Cruso, but still offers herself up to him. It is as if she is begging for him to survive by seducing him through senses. Her efforts fail because shortly thereafter, Cruso dies.
Susan Barton’s voice is projected through the words of the male author who created her. Using the text as evidence, it seems as though Coetzee purposefully creates a female character of weakness. She goes through a myriad of roles throughout the novel—each of which clearly point to her as a minor character in a book that is supposed to be about “the female castaway” (67). On “Cruso’s island” she is merely the “woman washed ashore,” and in England she is haunted with the question, “What life do I live but that of Cruso’s widow?” (99). In England, she searches to define her role, but ends up defining it through her gender; as Dana Dragunoiu notes, “she thinks of herself as Friday’s mistress, Foe’s housekeeper and muse, and after the journey to Bristol, even as a gypsy and stroller” (Dragunoiu 17). Barton’s inability to define her feminine nature leads her to broad conclusions about herself. She is unable to define herself as a singular unit and seems to most commonly view herself as a part to someone else—Cruso’s widow, Foe’s muse, and Friday’s companion.
Susan Barton is a man’s woman whose story is told through the words of a male author both from outside the text and inside the text. She is created by one man, J.M. Coetzee, as a woman of confusion and subtlety. Foe is not a story about her life, but seems to be a device to describe her male counterparts instead. The novel is a reflection of a man’s adaptation of a woman’s life, as Susan Barton implores Foe to write her story for her. She says to him, “Do you think of me, Mr. Foe, as Mrs. Cruso or as a bold adventuress? Think what you may, it was I who shared Cruso’s bed, closed Cruso’s eyes” (45). Ultimately, she believes that it is her responsibility to tell the “story of his island” (45). Susan has answered the question for herself, presenting herself as Cruso’s widow by describing her life through her interaction with Cruso. The subject matter of the book describes more of the adventures of Robinson Cruso than of the adventures of Susan Barton. The only questions Foe asks of her while she tells him her story are directed towards the mysterious Robinson Cruso. She notes that Foe “asked how it was that Cruso did not save a single musket from the wreck” and “asked also about Cruso’s apeskin clothes” (55). Similar to the concerns of J.M. Coetzee, Foe seems to be more interested in Robinson Cruso. Susan Barton serves as a tool to achieve a better insight on the deceased adventurer, Robinson Cruso.
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