Language and Communication

Throughout the early stages of the novel, Coetzee shows that Friday is not able to speak and thus Susan dehumanizes him. Even though Coetzee never clarifies the true means by which Friday lost his tongue, it is obvious nonetheless that Friday is unable to speak. Susan’s first thought about Friday’s inability to speak was “that Friday was like a dog” (21). Susan is baffle

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Susan says, “All the while he dances he makes a humming noise in his throat, deeper than his usual voice; sometimes he seems to be singing” (92). Friday’s other subtle form of communication seems to be through his dancing. In other words, Friday must learn words before he can understand the concepts of speech and communication. However because Susan speaks to no one, there is no one to affect with her words, and they become nothing but empty words, emptiness not unlike the void into which she speaks. While Susan writes and writes, she is not communicating because nobody reads her story. In the end of the novel, Friday is also introduced to writing after Mr. Again, this is like Susan’s interactions with Friday in that she is communicating and gets nothing in response but talking to a “wall. The two also discuss that “speech is but a means through which words may be uttered” (143). This may not be words or language in the spoken sense, but Friday is producing sounds that may have some other meaning. In the end of the novel when discussing the concept of freedom, Foe says that “Freedom is a word like any word. Once off the island, Friday again plays one of Mr.

Though Friday is not able to communicate by words, he is slightly able to communicate through music, dance, and to some degree writing. Susan feels like Friday’s humanity was taken when his tongue was cut off. ” One time when Susan talks to Friday, she tries to explain to him the feeling of “what it is to speak into a void, day after day, without answer. Susan has lost hope of teaching Friday to communicate, however she continues to talk to Friday to educate him out of his so called “darkness and silence,” possibly because it gives her the satisfaction that she is making good on her less than ideal circumstances.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1253
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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