Evolution of characters

When beginning to read Foe, Susan Barton created an entirely new perspective for me from the novel Robinson Crusoe. Barton is a character who is being introduced in this adaptation of the novel to help change the perspective of the story. This character changed the attitude and role of every main character from Robinson Crusoe. Foe portrayed Friday and Crusoe differently, as well as introduce a whole new character to the same plot line. Each aspect of the characters evolves from the original story of Robinson Crusoe to the phase of Robinson Crusoe on Mars and finally to the book titled Foe. Each story told creates a sense of modernization, which means relating more to the present.

In the novel Robinson Crusoe, Friday becomes a companion to Crusoe. Friday is his best friend that he goes everything with. This character is depicted completely different in the movie Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Friday is described as someone who follows Crusoe around like a puppet. This aspect is an evolution of the original book. In the novel Foe, Friday is portrayed as a slave, who was originally a native on the island.  Each of the characterizations of Friday is different in each of the three stories of Robinson Crusoe. The evolution of this specific character is apparent throughout the different versions and portrays how each text changes over time.

The character of Robinson Crusoe is unique in each of the adaptations. The nature of Crusoe in the first text and the adaptation Robinson Crusoe on Mars are relatively the same. Although Crusoe is not the actual main character in Foe, Crusoe is portrayed as not really caring about things and not wanting to keep the record of his time on the island. This aspect is just very different from the original text because he was always so detailed and caring about everything he created or crafted. I feel like in showing these differences there is an apparent effort to show a modernization of Crusoe in a sense.

The character Susan Barton is introduced only in the novel Foe. This character is the most crucial character throughout the book. If she would have been introduced in the movie or the original text, I feel like there would have been a very different plot to the overall story. Barton is said to be the wife of Crusoe. She continuously keeps Crusoe in order. Once Crusoe dies, she takes Friday under her wing and tries to teach him new words and new things to do. This is most certainly an example of the novel being modernized. It was assumed that women were not of the same importance as men but in this specific novel, there is a push for women doing more than expected of them. This was an example of modernization from one text to the other.

Characterization is one of the most important parts of novels, movies, etc. Seeing the modernization through different texts makes it easier to make a connection throughout the text. Each character made some change from the original text to one of the adaptations.