Coetzee’s Susan and Foe Essay Example

novel closes with words from an unknown author – presumed to be Coetzee himself, modifying the Susan Barton memoir into the story as we know it which decomposes the narration into an act of authorial repudiation (Atwell). Among the prevailing themes in the novel is on the craft of storytelling. The novel studied the concept of the narrative voice, or the narrator – of who is telling the story. The author contorts the story, its characters and its points of subject in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe on their heads to disturb the perceptions of truth, trust and narration. Whose story should I believe in? ’ is the recurring question throughout the novel. Susan Barton is the primary narrator of the Coetzee novel, struggling with the indebted Foe to release the story of her life as Cruso’s living descendant, though, Cruso and Barton were never, in any way, related. And as her struggles are developing, Foe manipulates the entire situation to take the better of it – rather than a mere writer of Barton’s accounts, Foe focuses on the possibilities of Barton’s reunion with her lost daughter and on the details that were actually written on the Robinson Crusoe.

The story proceeds with the focus on Susan’s thoughts into Foe’s. Susan’s significance as a character becomes minimized as she becomes a mere subject driving Foe to create his book. Finally, the novel becomes a story of a story transformed in its end result and how the failed possibilities it made were no less alive than the one which succeeded. In other terms, Coetzee has delved into the damages of Defoe’s failed options, studying the concepts that Defoe’s

Robinson Crusoe did not emphasize. Foe is the travesty character of the English author Daniel Defoe, in this novel.

Foe is Daniel Defoe’s real name before he prefixed it with a synonym for enemy: De-. Present in Protestant religious literature, the word means the enemy – the devil; and historically has been used by British colonists to define colonized cultures as foes, a labeled attempt justifying their actions over the so-called uncivilized peoples. The novel is Coetzee’s analysis of the issues on social class, gender and race through the mechanisms of cultural assimilation and exclusion. From the viewpoint of a marginal South Africa, Coetzee has questioned the concept of marginality to voice the unheard cries of the post-colonies.

He positions his novel against the traditional classic British literature to study the critical conditions on which South African governance must act upon. As a modification of the novel Robinson Crusoe, among the foundations and archetypes of colonial narration, the novel transforms the notion of the plot, of the construction of the book by Foe, and of the popular Crusoe characters (Foe Cruso) and Friday with the aid of the new woman protagonist – Susan Barton. Friday’s silence is his character’s and the novel’s evocation of its rebellion against European domination – both culturally and historically.

This is counter domination – Friday’s story will not be told by the Europeans and he will not be immersed in them. John Maxwell Coetzee made a significant change in his novel Foe: the narrator is a lady. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe had an inadequate number of female characters, in which the only feminine character was the island – to be controlled and restrained

by men. Susan Barton’s accounts emphasized the self-affirmation of feminism, using the Robinson Crusoe’s island and accounts of Defoe’s Roxana – whose actual name was Susan.

Susan has asserted that her memoir be published by the author Foe yet wishes to protect her perception of the island, hence, opening an access to tradition and establishment of letters. Apart from the feminine protagonist, Defoe’s novel differentiates from Coetzee’s in Friday’s character: his detachment from the European realm has become a consequence of colonialism – racism and subjugation. His cut tongue has become a symbol of Black-African castration exploited by the Europeans (Answers). The novel, delving into the craft of storytelling has fixed Susan Barton in the narrative function.

In the novel’s beginning, Susan’s experiences on the island with Cruso has been told – at which, only in the end was discovered through the author Foe. The following section was Susan Barton’s assertion that she should be heard and her story be told. The third part is Susan Barton’s narration as she primarily faces with Foe. This relationship between Susan and Foe revolves around the obstacles of the original narrative’s renaissance. The final part of the novel has diverted into the narration – the essence of the stories and the problems of their creation.

A fixed character on narration, Susan Barton has portrayed an obsession on telling her tale – unique and interesting. Susan Barton’s intentions to get her story across stems from materialism and her memoir become her tool to acquire material wealth – only if it gains value through exchange and commodification. To this account, Susan has taken Foe to document her tale, commodify it, and increase its

value. Commodification made Susan’s narratives tainted – losing her tale’s innocence, a mere report on the event she saw.

Susan perceived her Cruso accounts as a gift – reinforcing her tale’s commodity: an object that can bring in material wealth and fame. Foe, on the other hand, reinforces his intolerance of commodification – delaying the exchange of Susan’s tale. The island and Foe’s home are dimensions of a spatial configuration blocking the exchange of narrative. Susan and Friday are two characters that were placed as non-members of the society. However, Susan has aimed at becoming part of that society where the exchange of narratives can be bought and sold – in the pursuit of material wealth.

Her failure to subject her tale for exchange becomes contained in the unopened letters to Foe. Foe’s house becomes an island – where letters cannot leave nor return. Susan’s tales were never read and never exchanged – the story has become a pure account of the novel Robinson Crusoe. J. M. Coetzee’s Foe is an intertextual criticism of Daniel Defoe’s aforementioned novel. He opened the pillars of narrative manipulations, revealing factors which narrate certain versions and which silence others. The power of writing has been dominated by the white male in the society – the metropolis, to which, the female protagonist does not belong.

Foe disables the concept of marginality especially of race and gender, yet it has presented this whole thing itself. The marginal positions in Foe are placed in particular spatial configurations. The novel Foe silences it colonial realm and marginalized subjects to prevent misrepresentation. The novel has established the inadequacy of Robinson Crusoe which opens avenues for critique on

the master literature of British colonialism (Wittenberg). The novel Foe revolves around the struggle to reveal the truth – through different voices: Susan, Friday and the final unnamed narrator in the end.

Susan’s efforts on telling the truth seems to be meaningless as Foe are unwilling to help her to. His own notions of an appealing read will compromise the truth in Susan’s narratives. In lieu, Susan’s memoirs become exaggerations. Daniel Foe is also an untruthful figure in this novel as his interests lie in the public’s interest to read lies rather than the truth. Foe knows the public savors fun rather the truth, the entertaining lie rather than the unappealing truth. Friday is the silenced ultimate truth in this novel, which according to Coetzee is a metaphor for the mankind’s search for truth that shall eternally remain a secret (Snoke).