page 69

"Who was to say there do not exist entire tribes in Africa among whom the men are mute and speech is reserved to women?"

Friday in Coetzee's, Friday in Dafoe's...

In Robinson Crusoe, Friday can communicate and he even learn some Portugues and English from Crusoe. In Foe, Friday has his tongue cut and don't allow Barton to be part of his life and has a overwhelming silence.
Coetzee choose Friday to be quiet (wether phisically or because he just decided no to do it), while Defoe made Friday more communicative.
Would it be a way of criticizing society? I mean, both Dafoe and Coetzee were doing it a way or the other, but how come "Friday", such a very important charcater on the original novel became so different on Coetzee's version?

Do you have any response to Foe saying on p.142: "We must make Friday's silence speak, as well as the silence surrounding Friday" ?

Friday's Silence

Susan controls her narrative and identity by keeping "silent" about her experience in Bahia. Although Friday's silence is involuntry, do you think this is Friday's way of maintaining his identity?

From discussion thread/add to it before the section is locked

by Betzaida:

Friday- At the beginning of the story I thought Friday was just a victim
of the society, colonization ,slavery, mutilation. But as the story went
on, I realized that he had more power than it was given to him. Even
though he could not communicate verbally, he did so non verbally. He did
not respond to Susan's teaching either because he was not interested or
because of her teaching methods. You cannot teach a student that doesn't
want to learn, can you? Which reminds me of the concepts of acquisition
and responsibility. But to be honest at one point I thought that he was
autistic with the spinning, the fixating with the wigs and robes and the
humming. I did reflect on the kind of life Friday would have had if he
was white, English perhaps and not a mutilated African slave. How could
his life been different? Full of opportunities and a chance to be free
and not oppressed. But then again , as Foe asks,what is freedom if there
is not a desire to be free.(p.143) At the end I think that of all of
that was taken or given to Friday, he only took what he needed and most
of all what he  wanted.

I've figured it out!

I can post!

Let's start thinking about the message Friday communicates to teachers. Mentioned so far:

1. you can lead the horse to the water, but you can't make him drink
2. silence as defiance/protest against repression
   
3. silence as a way to preserve one's identity

What else?

Race and Language

Do you think Susan treatment of Friday is similar to people's prejudices against language learners? As in they must be stupid, or people condescend to ELLs when they come from non-European backgrounds?

Finished Reading? Let's TALK!

I think everyone is finished reading, so let's talk about Friday and his symbolism. What symbols do we see in him or his actions?

The loss of his tongue, which means he can't communicate in his mother language or anything else. What else?

Halfway

Okay, I am halfway through the book.

When we look at Friday as a language learner, I think, what makes us think he doesn't have a whole lot of other issues going on? How do we know that he's not autistic? ID? He's not deaf. That's all I know.

We are supposed to look at Friday in terms of communicating, and in what ways he does so. Do you think Friday every knew his first language in this version of the tale? Could his inability to communicate be the result of the Critical Period Hypothesis? What is his choice in his silence?
I just don't know...

Friday

Well, I certainly am struggling through analyzing this book. I am not very good at this post modernist, who has the right to tell a story type of thing. I'm half way through, and of course, I'm thinking, maybe Friday wasn't all right in the head....