Who's Narrating the Last Chapter of J. M. Coetzee's Foe?

J. M. Coetzee’s novel Foe starts out in a straightforward fashion like any other novel. It is the telling of Susan Barton, a woman shipwrecked on the same island with Robinson Crusoe.

Part II of the novel raises questions as to whether or not the rest of Susan’s story is real or imagined, particularly when Susan sees the mysterious young girl who claims to be her daughter (but, according to Susan looks nothing like her). Did Susan in fact escape the island? Or, desperate for escape, did she invent a rescue to cure her loneliness? Did she invent Foe as a way to satiate her desire to have her story told and her fear that she might die alone on the island in relative oblivion? And then, as she was inventing the story of her life back in civilization, did she bring her daughter into the picture, only to realize it had been so long since she had seen her that she could not remember what she looked like? And, was the fact that the daughter’s name was also Susan Barton an indication of Susan’s own deteriorating mental health after being stranded on the island so long.

These questions begin to come into play because her life back in England is so much like her life on the island. She is desperately lonely. She’s dirty and has no food. She has no one to talk to. (Perhaps Cruso did in fact die on the island, bringing about a further need for her to invent a life in civilization?) For example, she writes: “’Days pass. Nothing changes. We hear no word from you, and the townsfolk pay us no more heed than if we were ghosts" (87). The character of Foe, too, is curiously absent through much of the novel, and then when he does appear in Part III he is like Cruso, though with a slightly kinder persona (that she perhaps added because she wanted and needed Cruso to be that way?): “’The island is not a story in itself,’ said Foe gently, laying a hand on my knee.” Additionally, there is the scene in which the young girl Susan Barton and the nurse woman Amy come to visit Foe’s house and Susan refers to them as ghosts. “I say to myself that this child, who calls herself by my name, is a ghost, a substantial ghost, if such beings exist, who haunts me for reasons I cannot understand, and brings other ghosts in tow” (132). This, again, makes the story seem fictional and Susan herself to seem confused and bewildered. (One additional curiosity in Part III is the fact that this part, unlike parts I and II, does not start with a single quotation mark. Does this mean that someone other than Susan is writing it?)

All of these surreal, other-worldly issues point to a tone and style in the book that may help to explain the dream-like sequence in Part IV of the novel. It is similar in tone to the first three parts and yet it is distinctly different as well. Could it be that this is because it is Friday writing this part of the novel? There is an indication that this could be true: “… I begin to hear the faintest faraway roar: as she said, the roar of waves in a seashell …” (154). The words “as she said” indicate that Friday may be trying to imitate his teacher. Additionally, the narrator writes “With a sigh, making barely a splash, I slip overboard" (155). This is the same line that Susan herself writes on pages five and 11, again indicating mimicry. Also, there is a line about his appearance that seems slightly out of place. “About his neck – I had not observed this before – is a scar like a necklace, left by a rope or chain" (155). This seems to be something Friday is adding about himself and the words “I had not observed this before” may be referring to something Susan had failed to notice, rather than himself.

But, it is the references he makes to speech in the last few pages that further support the idea that Friday is writing this final chapter: “His teeth part. I press closer, and with an ear to his mouth lie waiting … I begin to hear the faintest faraway roar … Closer I press, listening for other sounds: the chirp of sparrows, the thud of a mattock, the call of a voice. From his mouth, without a breath, issue the sounds of the island (154). Perhaps this is his interpretation of his own voice or his way of showing that though he does not communicate with words, he communicates through other means.

Further on, there is an additional reference to speech: “’Friday, I say, I try to say, kneeling over him …” (157). The words “I try to say” could be an indication of Friday’s frustration over not being able to speak. Then, further down the page, he writes first “But this is not a place of words … It is the home of Friday" (157). This seems to be an indication of Friday’s world, his acceptance of his world without words and his interpretation of it. Finally, the passage which reads: “His mouth opens. From inside him comes a slow stream, without breath, without interruption … it passes through the cabin, throughout the wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the island …” (157) seems to be his final attempt at conveying his world to others.

An additional hint that Friday may be the narrator of the final chapter is the way the final chapter is split up into two separate parts, first in the house and then in the ship. Perhaps this could be a way of showing that Friday thinks and communicates in different ways than Susan and Cruso because he has not been able to express himself through speech. Perhaps it is two dreams Friday had. Or, perhaps they are hallucinations brought on by the death of the only other two people on the island.

One additional way of interpreting this chapter on a larger scale is that it represents the relationship between the natives and the colonialists in Africa. Perhaps Friday represents the natives who communicate differently than the colonialists and are therefore deemed unintelligent or inferior (the way Susan judges Friday). With this interpretation then, Susan acts like the colonialists, teaching Friday her way of communicating (writing and speech) with the belief that she is helping him to express himself in a better way. This is like the colonialists that came in and forced the natives to speak and write their language and to accept their religion. Perhaps the natives of Africa felt mute and therefore helpless like Friday, to resist the colonialists’ teachings.

Work Cited

Coetzee, J. M. Foe. United States of America: Penguin Books, 1987. Print.