Text: "Foe" by J.M.Coetzee 

Task: Finding out meaning of "foe"

OBJECTIVES

Cultural: learning about meaning

Intertextual: finding links between dictionary use and understanding novels

Linguistic: improving writing skills

I have found the following meanings for the word "Foe" in the monolingual dictionary [ LONGMAN, Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman, 2003, p.620]:

Foe  / [C] literary an enemy :" Britain's friends and foes".

Moreover  I have found 2 adjectives for this word:

Enemy: adversary, rival.  [Webliography www.wordreference.com]

Foe's etymology : O.E.  An Anglo-Saxon word meaning evil minded, adversary in deadly feud, treacherous and hostile.

A speech consists of a lot of words. In fact a word is a carrier of meaning.  Analyzing the word "foe", the reader can note that there are a lot of details about it.  First of all it is a literary noun therefore  it is suitable for Coetzee's book. Moreover the word is short and clear  and inevitably it attracts the reader's attention. An intelligent reader can make a lot of suppositions as for the meaning of "foe".  It may refer to the main character of the book, it  may refer to Daniel DeFoe who wrote Robinson Crusoe, it may be used to hint at a negative situation inside the book or it may hide a deeper meaning.
Surely this word is very interesting because it excites the reader's curiosity!

Questions:
Do you think that the novelist was successful to chose this title for his novel? What expectation does the title raise?

My answer :
I  think that the novelist was successful to chose this title because he has been able to convey a deep meaning for the book through one single word: "foe" .
Before reading the book I thought that the title might refer  to the possible main character of the novel, but  after the analysis of the story, I was able to provide a more exhaustive answer to the question.
In my opinion the word "foe" underlines a negative concept of the story and of the characters. In fact it seems to be a metaphor for the shipwreck, conceived of as a clash of man with nature.