Text: Foe

Task: Finding out dfferences between the first page of Robinson Crusoe and the first page of Foe.

Reading the first page of Robinson Crusoe and the first page of Foe, the reader immediately understands the stylistic differences between the two novels.

In fact, in Daniel Defoe's novel, narration seems to be a sort of diary: the diary of Robinson Crusoe, a man.

On the contrary in Coetzee's story there is a different point of view: the narrator, who is also the protagonist, is Susan Barton, a woman.

Moreover Coetzee's novel starts in medias res: the lady rows against the current to safe herself.

Defoe's story begins with the description of Crusoe's life before the shipwreck: he speaks about his family and his work. Thus narration seems to be slowlier  than De Foe's  narration of the other novel.

Also the organisation of the events in the story is different.

In "Foe" there is a restriction of time: Susan meets Friday right in the first page, Robinson Crusoe meets him longly after.