Written Assignment Paper - 3

 Department of English,M. K. Bhavnagar University     

Name :-  Niyati Vyas

Roll No :- 14

Department :-M. A.English department

Semester :-  3

Paper No :-  203 The Postcolonial Studies 

UNIT - 2 J.M.Coetzee's Foe

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC - Character Sketch of Friday                   

                                         This blog is a part of my academic written assignments.                             

                                    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.

                                    Friday is first introduced when he discovers Susan on the shore of the island. He is a black African man, though it is never said where in Africa he is from, and he is introduced as Cruso's slave. According to Cruso, Friday has no tongue, and knows only a few relevant words that Cruso taught him so that Friday can follow orders. Indeed, he never speaks and Cruso has several different stories relating to how he found or "saved" Friday, resulting in Friday's loyalty to him. When Susan, Cruso, and Friday are rescued from the island and Cruso dies, Friday follows Susan to and around England, with Susan assuming the role of master despite her verbal declarations that he is "free." 

                                      As Friday is a predominately silent charter, many of the other characters in the book try to impose a meaning onto his silences or speak for him. Susan becomes obsessed with Friday's lack of a tongue, convinced his perspective is the missing piece to her castaway story. Despite Friday not speaking, he is shown to express himself in different ways multiple times in the novel, such as by dancing in robes at Defoe's house and drawing on the chalk board. Yet in general his mind is left closed to Susan and Foe and therefore also to the reader.

                                 Friday slowly emerges as the heart of the novel. He is a slave who lives on the island with the man who is ostensibly his master. Cruso says that a slaver cut out Friday's tongue many years ago and Cruso never taught Friday any language beyond the most rudimentary instruction. This inability to communicate leaves Friday trapped in a silent world. Friday leaves the island and travels to England but it is only at the novel's end that he comes close to being able to express himself. 

                                     The journey toward this act of self-expression emerges as the narrative of the novel. Friday attempts to express himself in a number of different ways. He ritually scatters petals on the sea, he plays music on his homemade flute, and he performs frenzied dances. Friday imbues these actions with a private meaning that is unknown to the rest of the world. Susan is the only person who attempts to glean meaning from these actions but she fails to understand their significance. Friday is shut inside his silent world even when he is trying to communicate. Friday eventually learns to write.

                               Though he can only write a single letter over and over, it is the first step toward a shared understanding of Friday's pain. Foe and Susan provide Friday with a voice by teaching him to write. Meaning no longer has to be projected onto Friday's actions. He finally possesses the tools to make the world understand his pain.