Foe

Susan is back in London. She knocks at a door, and Foe answers, welcoming Susan and Friday into his small apartment. He assures Susan that he is progressing with her story, though admits that he is writing “slowly” (114). Mrs. Thrush directed Susan and Friday to Foe’s new lodgings when they returned from Bristol. Foe has a number of questions about Susan’s time in Brazil, which Susan promises to answer as best as she can. Foe wonders whether Friday was ever sexually interested in Susan; she says no, as he has become like a shadow to her. Foe wants to know about Susan’s daughter, believing that a reunion between Susan and her daughter would be the perfect way to end the book. He wants to set this story in the context of “a larger story” (117). Susan does not share his opinion, as she has come to believe that the real story is the removal of Friday’s tongue. She wants to show Foe that this subject is suitable for a story. She frames the removal of the tongue as an analogy for a brutal castration; she has seen Friday naked, but she cannot imagine writing about such an “atrocious mutilation” in a book (119), so they must use