English 12 - Mr. Rinka Lesson #33 Robinson Crusoe (cont.) By Daniel Defoe

Analysis – Colonialism Robinson Crusoe can be seen as a reflection of British colonialism. Novelist James Joyce noted that the true symbol of the British conquest is Robinson Crusoe: "He is the true prototype of the British colonist. … The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit is in Crusoe: the manly

independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity.“ In a sense Crusoe attempts to replicate his society on the island. This is achieved through the use of European technology, agriculture and even a rudimentary political hierarchy. Several times in the novel

Crusoe refers to himself as the 'king' of the island, whilst the captain describes him as the 'governor' to the mutineers. At the very end of the novel the island is explicitly referred to as a 'colony'. The idealised master-servant relationship Defoe depicts between Crusoe and Friday can also be seen in terms of cultural imperialism. Crusoe represents the 'enlightened' European whilst Friday

is the 'savage' who can only be redeemed from his barbarous way of life through assimilation into Crusoe's culture. Nonetheless, Defoe also takes the opportunity to criticize the historic Spanish conquest of South America.

Analysis – Religious According to J.P. Hunter, Robinson is not a hero but an everyman. He begins as a wanderer, aimless on a sea he does not understand and ends as a pilgrim, crossing a final mountain to enter the promised land. The book tells the story of how Robinson becomes closer to God,

not through listening to sermons in a church but through spending time alone amongst nature with only a Bible to read. Robinson Crusoe is filled with religious aspects. Defoe was a Puritan moralist and normally worked in the guide tradition, writing books on how to be a good Puritan Christian, such as The New

Family Instructor (1727) and Religious Courtship (1722). While Robinson Crusoe is far more than a guide, it shares many of the themes and theological and moral points of view. "Crusoe" may have been taken from Timothy Cruso, a classmate of Defoe's who had written guide books, including God the Guide of Youth (1695), before

dying at an early age – just eight years before Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe. Cruso would have been remembered by contemporaries and the association with guide books is clear. It has even been speculated that God the Guide of Youth inspired Robinson Crusoe because of a number of passages in that work that are closely tied to

the novel. A leitmotif of the novel is the Christian notion of providence, penitence and redemption. Crusoe comes to repent of the follies of his youth. He learns to pray to God, first by randomly opening his Bible. He reads the words of Psalm 50 where he reads, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you

shall glorify me.” Crusoe often feels guided by a divinely ordained fate, thus explaining his robust optimism in the face of apparent hopelessness. His various fortunate intuitions are taken as evidence of a benign spirit world. Defoe also foregrounds this theme by arranging highly significant events in the novel to occur on Crusoe's birthday. The

denouement culminates not only in Crusoe's deliverance from the island, but his spiritual deliverance, his acceptance of Christian doctrine, and in his intuition of his own salvation.

Analysis – Moral When confronted with the cannibals, Crusoe wrestles with the problem of cultural relativism. Despite his disgust, he feels unjustified in holding the natives morally responsible for a practice so deeply ingrained in their culture. Nevertheless, he retains his belief in

an absolute standard of morality; he regards cannibalism as a 'national crime' and forbids Friday from practising it.

Analysis – Economic In classical, neoclassical and Austrian economics, Crusoe is regularly used to illustrate the theory of production and choice in the absence of trade, money and prices. Crusoe must allocate effort between production and leisure and must choose between

alternative production possibilities to meet his needs. The arrival of Friday is then used to illustrate the possibility of gains from trade. The classical treatment of the Crusoe economy has been discussed and criticized from a variety of perspectives. Karl Marx analyzed Crusoe in his classic work Das Kapital, mocking the heavy use

in classical economics of the fictional story. In Marxist terms, Crusoe's experiences on the island represents the inherent economic value of labor over capital. Crusoe frequently observes that the money he salvaged from the ship is worthless on the island when compared to his tools. For the literary critic Angus Ross,

Defoe's point is that money has no intrinsic value and is only valuable insofar as it can be used in trade. There is also a notable correlation between Crusoe's spiritual and financial development, possibly signifying Defoe's belief in the Protestant work ethic.

Analysis – Literature Robinson Crusoe marked the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. Its success led to many imitators, and castaway novels became quite popular in Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Most of these have fallen into obscurity, but some became

established, including The Swiss Family Robinson. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, published seven years after Robinson Crusoe, may be read as a systematic rebuttal of Defoe's optimistic account of human capability. In The Unthinkable Swift: The Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of England Man, Warren

Montag argues that Swift was concerned about refuting the notion that the individual precedes society, as Defoe's novel seems to suggest. Swift regarded such thought as a dangerous endorsement of Thomas Hobbes' radical political philosophy, and for this reason Gulliver repeatedly encounters established societies

rather than desolate islands. Robinson is the captain who invites Gulliver to serve as a surgeon aboard his ship. Other castaway stories include: Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole Lord of the Flies by William Golding Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Life of Pi by Yann Marel

Robinson Crusoe & Castaway

Assignment Continue reading your novel.

Robinson Crusoe h/521-h.htm LA 12 Robinson Crusoe.doc daniel-defoe/

Gulliver’s Travels h/829-h.htm LA 12 Gulliver's Travels.doc jonathan-swift/

Pride and Prejudice 42-h/1342-h.htm LA 12 Pride and Prejudice.doc by-jane-austen/

English 12 - Mr. Rinka Lesson #33 Robinson Crusoe By Daniel Defoe cont.