J.M. Coetzee’s “Foe” parallels Herzog’s manipulation
of Timothy Treadwell’s documentary to portray Timothy’s life based on his
perspective to portray the life and story of Susan Barton. In “Grizzly Man,” Herzog stays true to Timothy
by showcasing Timothy’s true love for grizzly bears but he makes the decision
of showing how Timothy’s need to spend 13 summers in Alaska was Timothy’s own
needs and not the needs to save the grizzly bears. It is clearly mentioned in
the documentary that the Grizzly bears Timothy was trying to save were
conserved by the national park; his need to save them were unnecessary. Through
Treadwell’s documentary, Herzog chooses to show the parts of the documentary that
shows his perspective. Treadwell was
“different” and did not fit in the society and was able to live better with the
grizzly bears.
In “Foe,”
Daniel Foe the author in the book is able to pick and choose what letters he
wants to showcase the life of Susan Barton. Since Susan Barton is not a real
character, there are no other details about her life other than the letters in
“Foe.” Foe has the full power to manipulate the story the way he desires. There
are a lot of pieces that are missing within the stories. Susan Barton is a
castaway, who was in search of her kidnapped daughter but when she lands in the
island, there is no remorse in her face of her lost daughter. It is strange
that there are no seeds in the island and no other details of habitation other than
Cruso and Friday. Susan Borton is trying to escape her reality because when her
daughter finds her she does not want to believe or accept her daughter. She is
not actually running away to find her daughter but rather to escape her reality,
which is similar to what Timothy is doing.
Foe definitely mirrors "Grizzly Man" in this way and we see more of this in Part III when Susan and Mr. Foe are talking face to face about her story. He seems to think that her story is her full experience, starting with losing her daughter. She completely disagrees and says, "Now you propose to reduce the island to an episode in the history of a woman in search of a lost daughter. This too I reject," (121). I think this shows an interesting distinction between story and storyteller, and we have also seen this in The Things They Carried. However, in the The Things They Carried, the story comes from the storyteller, and here we have a story coming from Susan and Mr. Foe is the storyteller. The storyteller of "Grizzly Man" is Herzog, but the story comes from Treadwell. Stories can be changed and transformed when they are told by someone else.
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