Who's Writing Who?

A true story is supposed to be a recording of life, but the traditional formats and rules of storytelling also dictate how we understand life. A story never told before seems impossible, even when one witnesses it with their own eyes. Therefore we alter stories of true events to fit traditional formats so that they are easy to understand and believe. In Foe, Captain Smith requests that in her recording of time on the island, Susan calls Cruso her husband. If they knew the true relationship of Susan and Cruso, he says, the public would not easily understand “what kind of woman” (42) Susan is. “Types” in stories, and types of stories, determine the ways in which we perceive life, and also what we are willing to believe. Even Susan thinks within the confines of the traditional story format, though her story is not traditional.
Susan tells the girl who claims to be her daughter that she cannot possibly be who she claims to be, a girl looking for her mother, because girls do not look for their mothers. Susan says, “there are no stories of such quests because they do not occur. They are not part of life” (78). Ironically, Susan herself has an unconventional story to tell, but she alters that story into a traditional format for the public. She should know better than anyone that things happen all the time, particularly to women and minorities, that are never written into stories. The framework for recognizing what "does" happen and what "does not," which "types" exist, and which ones do not, is so ingrained in Susan that uses it to assess truth anyway.