Foe

Foe is a 1986 novel by J. M. Coetzee. Foe is a parallel novel, reimagining the story of Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe from the perspective of a shipwrecked woman named Susan Barton, who then tries to convince a fictionalized version of Defoe to write her story.

This guide refers to the 2015 Penguin edition.

Content Warning: The source material uses outdated, offensive terms for Black people throughout, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material. This guide also discusses racism and enslavement.

Plot Summary

Susan Barton is an Englishwoman who spent many years searching for her lost daughter. She believes that her daughter was kidnapped and taken to the Americas. After an unsuccessful trip to Brazil, she boards a ship to return to England. During the voyage, the crew of the ship mutiny against the captain. They set Susan in a boat and cast her adrift, alongside the corpse of the captain. Susan rows until she is exhausted and then dives into the ocean. She washes up on the beach of an unknown island, which she discovers is inhabited by a 60-year-old white man named Cruso and an enslaved, non-verbal African man named Friday.

After a strange introduction, Susan is tacitly permitted to stay in the men’s sparse camp. As she eats with the men and sleeps alone in a hut, she tries to discern the nature of their relationship. Cruso and Friday manage to gather sufficient food, though the island’s conditions are bleak. The constant winds disturb Susan, disrupting her mental health. She tries to talk to Cruso, who has no record of his time on the island and is content to stay there. His memory seems obliterated by his isolation. While he sleeps, Susan hears Cruso grinding his teeth. When she wanders too far from the camp, however, he becomes lucid enough to criticize her. Eventually, he agrees to manufacture a pair of makeshift shoes, allowing her to traverse the sharp rocks of the island.

Friday refuses to obey Susan. Cruso tells her that his tongue was removed by enslavers, though she suspects that Cruso himself is responsible. She comes to pity Friday. When Cruso falls sick with a fever, Susan helps him recover. She stays at his side during a storm, feeling his feverish hands reaching out to touch her body. She moves his hands away but then allows him to touch her. Cruso and Susan have sex. Susan begins to understand the hidden depths of Friday’s character when she sees him scattering petals on the sea from his canoe. Cruso shows her his large gardens. When he becomes sick again, Susan spots a passing ship. She manages to save herself, Cruso, and Friday. She poses as Cruso’s wife. Cruso dies on the voyage home to England.

Susan writes to Foe, the fictionalized version of Daniel Defoe, hoping that he will help her write and publish her story. He meets with her, though they disagree on how the story should be told. He pays for her to live with Friday. His financial troubles cause him to disappear regularly, however, and Susan moves into his house with Friday, growing food in his garden. A little girl watches the house, eventually revealing that she is also named Susan. The girl implies that she may be Susan’s daughter, but Susan refuses to believe this. The girl is Foe’s daughter and stays only one night. Susan and Friday walk to Bristol, where Susan tries to free Friday. Every time she talks to a ship’s captain, however, she becomes convinced that the man will enslave Friday again. Friday and Susan leave Bristol and return to London.

Friday and Susan find Foe in a new home. Susan argues with Foe again about how to frame her story. Foe brings a girl to the house. She is the girl who claimed to be Susan’s daughter, accompanied by an older nurse named Amy. Amy and the girl insist that they know Susan, who insists that she does not know them. Foe admits that he told them to come to the house and pose as Susan’s family so that her story would have a happy ending. Later that evening, the girl and Amy leave. Susan wants to leave with Friday, but Foes tells them to stay. He points to a corner of the room, where Friday can make his bed, while he invites Susan to sleep with him. Susan and Foe have sex and then lay in the bed and talk about whether they should instead focus on Friday’s story. The next day, Foe changes tacit. He wants Susan to teach Friday to write so that Friday can tell his own story. After a frustrating day of lessons, Susan takes a walk around the city. She returns to Foe’s house to find him teaching Friday to write the same letter, over and over again. She sits down beside Foe to talk.

The narrative changes. An unnamed person wanders around a dreamlike version of Foe’s home, watching the sleeping characters and reading Susan’s manuscript. The narrator is on a sunken ship, where Friday sits in a corner. When the narrator examines Friday’s mouth, a slow, unceasing stream begins to pour out.