Comparison of Foe and Robinson Crusoe thinking activity

 Comparison of Foe and Robinson Crusoe

If we want to compare any literary text, we must know the connection between the two literary works. And to know that connection we have to know about literary texts. So let's see the brief introduction about "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe first. Then we will see the brief introduction about "Foe novel" by J. M. Coetzee. 

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. Robinson Crusoe, in full the life and strange surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner. Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an Uninhabited Island on the Coast of America. It was near the mouth of the great river of Oroonoko. 

Now have a look at "Foe" by J. M. Coetzee. 

John Maxwell Coetzee :-

J. M. Coetzee (born 9 February 1940) is a South African-born novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.

'Foe' Novel by J. M. Coetzee :

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. Like Robinson Crusoe, it is a frame story, unfolded as Barton's narrative while in England attempting to convince the writer Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into popular fiction. Focused primarily on themes of language and power, the novel was the subject of criticism in South Africa, where it was regarded as politically irrelevant on its release. Coetzee revisited the composition of Robinson Crusoe in 2003 in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Who is the Protagonist? (Foe – Susan – Friday – Unnamed narrator)

As we see in the novel, we have different protagonists throughout the novel. First we see Denial Defoe is the first narrator. Because it's a prequel to that novel. So it is very important to study them first. Second narrator is Susan Barton. She tells us the story through the use of letters. Third narrator is Mr Foe, because he tells the story. Also he wrote a story on the voyages of Susan, Cruso and Friday. So he is the third narrator of the novel Fourth narrator is an unnamed person. Who observes everything and tells us what is happening. So the name is not given here of that narrator. The final and fifth narrator of the novel is J. M. Coetzee. Because he wrote everything. He described all the situations. So these are several points that we can see in both novels. And we can also see the similarities and differences in them. 

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”

 (Coetzee, 11-12)

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. 

Crusoe kept a painfully detailed account of every action he does on the island in a journal he updates daily. In this journal, Crusoe records every step for all of the tools he crafts, and he writes about his own progress with his newly acquitted relationship with religion.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.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.

Friday’s characteristics and persona in Foe and in Robinson Crusoe.

Defoe used Friday to explore themes of religion, slavery and subjugation, all of which were supposed to a natural state of being at that time in history, and Coetzee uses him to explore more strongly themes of slavery, black identity, and the voice of the oppressed. In neither book is Friday left simply to be a character, he is instead always used as a device through which the reader can explore other topics..

‘Your master says the slavers cut [your tongue] out; but I have never heard of such a practice… Is it the truth that your master cut it out himself and blamed the slavers?’ 

(Coetzee, J.M, ‘Foe’.)

The fact that this question is never answered, and that all attempts to force Friday to communicate fail drastically leave the reader wondering whether the slavers that captured Friday removed his tongue, or whether that was done by the colonialist Cruso, who felt there was ‘no need of a great stock of words’, (Coetzee, J.M, ‘Foe’). ‘In a little time I began to speak to him; and teach him to speak to me… I likewise taught him to say Master; and then let him know that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No and to know the meaning of them’. Coetzee was asserting that it was not his right to give voice to an oppressed black character, and let Friday stand for the victims of apartheid and slavery, where Defoe (due to the beliefs of society at his time) believed that it was right and natural for Crusoe to claim the position of Master to Friday, and to speak for him. Friday in Foe’s work, in standing for the victims of apartheid and slavery, is a black African character ‘he was black, negro, with a head of fuzzy wool’ (Coetzee’s Foe), whereas Crusoe’s Friday, not standing for those causes, is portrayed as being an anglicised version of a Caribbean man, who ‘had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance’. The representation of Friday in these two texts is vastly different, and one could hardly believe that the two were in fact the same character. With different histories, and different personalities, in fact all both have in common is playing the role of the non-white slave in the text, to serve a literary purpose, in both reflecting the views of wider society towards non-white people, and in showing the development of other characters.

Thank you.😊