Robinson Crusoe By Danial Defoe
The novel of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, is an autobiography of an individual man who spends many years on an isolated island. Defoe reveals the idea of individualism through the life of his hero, Robinson.
After he is saved, he refuses to turn home. He has no longing for his Defoe’s novel celebrates the idea of individuality. This means that the character lives according to his own-way. He serves his own way. Thus, the novel focuses on the life of individual character. Robinson, the main character of this novel, seeks self-realization, so he yearns to go his own way through life. He acts independently and as he chooses, against the advice of others. This idea goes with the concepts of age of reason. Defoe’s novel is emotionless because it was written in the Age of Reason. Thus, it appeals to the reader’s mind and focuses on the importance of the individual. Defoe’s novel is mainly concerned with the idea of individuality which is shown through Crusoe’s life.
Robinson Crusoe deals with the life of an individual character who yarns to work his way up from the common middle position of life to a high one. Robinson decides his way through life according to his own thoughts and inclination. He is overambitious. He wants to get rich quicker. He is not satisfied with the quiet middle station of life. He seeks self-realization, so he refuses to lead a stable life or to remain inactive for any length of time, and as a result, he rejects his father’s advice to accept the middle position of life. His desire to go to the sea pushes him to leave home and go on voyages. He is seized by an overwhelming desire to travel abroad. He goes on a voyage bound for London against his father’s will. During the voyage, a storm overtakes the ship; he feels regretful and decides veer again to think of going on a voyage if God saves his life. mily. He proves to be hard-hearted and disobedient. He follows his own inclination and design. In spite of his former oath, he goes on a voyage bound to Africa as a trader. He succeeds in making some money and thereafter decides to become a merchant. He wants to create a life by his own way. He yarns to succeed as an individual. He does not want to depend on his father or inheritance. This time, his ship is attacked by pirates and he is held as a slave. He finds himself alone and miserable. He makes plan to set himself free. When his master asks him to take a boat into the sea to catch fish, he prepares to furnish himself, not for a fishing business but for a voyage. He takes the necessary equipment and food for a long voyage. This shows that he follows his individual thoughts.
Daniel Defoe born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. Defoe is noted for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson, and is among the founders of the English novel. He was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works books, pamphlets, and journals – on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.
The novel of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, is an autobiography of an individual man who spends many years on an isolated island. Defoe reveals the idea of individualism through the life of his hero, Robinson.
After he is saved, he refuses to turn home. He has no longing for his Defoe’s novel celebrates the idea of individuality. This means that the character lives according to his own-way. He serves his own way. Thus, the novel focuses on the life of individual character. Robinson, the main character of this novel, seeks self-realization, so he yearns to go his own way through life. He acts independently and as he chooses, against the advice of others. This idea goes with the concepts of age of reason. Defoe’s novel is emotionless because it was written in the Age of Reason. Thus, it appeals to the reader’s mind and focuses on the importance of the individual. Defoe’s novel is mainly concerned with the idea of individuality which is shown through Crusoe’s life.
After he succeeds to escape from slavery, he settles in Brazil. He becomes a planter. He starts a new life alone. He plants tobacco and other crops and gets prosperous. This shows that he is self-made man. This is related to the idea of individual economy. Yet, he feels dissatisfied with this life. He feels that he gained nothing from all his adventures. He finds that he leads the same life which his father has recommended to him. He feels lonely because he has no relatives or friends in this place. This is not what he has looked forward to achieve. His pride makes him think that he deserves better life. The life of a planter is inferior to his abilities. He is not content with this life. He proves to be ungrateful to God’s blessings. He does not appreciate Gods’ favor after he is saved twice. He does not learn from the previous lessons. This shows his obstinacy. He decides that he must get rich quicker. To that end, he joins a voyage to buy slaves. This reckless abandonment of a settled life for an illicit venture at last provokes God’s anger. His ship is wrecked and he finds himself marooned on an isolated island. He is the only survivor. Yet, he does not actually give way to despair. He does not keep lamenting his fate. He takes action. He adapts himself to these circumstances. He starts to discover the place whether it is inhabited or not. He organizes his life on this island
- Write about colonial discourse in Robinson Crusoe
Robinson’s interactions with one character in particular, however, provide a great deal of insight into the colonial process. Robinson Crusoe’s relationship with his servant Friday serves as an allegory for British imperialists disrupting other cultures and civilizing them.This relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is illustrated when Robinson Crusoe first saves Friday from being killed. In the text, Friday “laid his Head upon the Ground, and taking me by the foot, set my Foot upon his head” (Defoe 147). This serves as a fitting illustration of the situation. Here, the white man keeps the minority group down, quite literally. Robinson, the colonizer, is clearly in charge.
It is hugely important that Robinson Crusoe chooses to name his servant “Friday.” Robinson ostensibly names him for “the Day I sav’d his Life” (Defoe 149). Interestingly, he chooses a name from Western culture. People indigenous to the island do not plan their lives according to the same seven-day week schedule used in England. So, even the assigned name reflects Robinson’s eagerness to rub English habits and norms off on his servant. In a sense, Robinson has created a new identity for the servant. After being labeled, Friday must live life answering to a name that has roots in English-speaking culture. It is noteworthy that Friday is named for a thing rather than an actual person. This further contributes to the overall dehumanization of the servant. Brett McInelly comments on this in the article “Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, the Novel, and Robinson Crusoe,” stating that “Crusoe’s tendency to imagine and create through language his own reality reveals something of the nature of colonialism in general, namely, that it involves an assembly of images and cultural constructs, as well as material practices and circumstances”
A scene follows in which Robinson tries to rid Friday of his cannibalistic tendencies. Friday wants to dig up corpses and eat them, and Robinson “appear’d very angry, express’d my Abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at the Thought of it” (Defoe 149). Robinson’s fixed mindset regarding the customs of others is a classic example of colonial ethnocentrism. Rather than gradually weaning Friday of his lifelong habits, Robinson is extremely quick to change his servant’s cultural values. The strong words in this passage such as “Abhorrence” and “vomit” definitely display his immense hatred for the customs of the indigenous people (Defoe 149). The force at work here is peer pressure. The colonizer is discouraging Friday by making him feel self-conscious. This passage also demonstrates just how thorough and all-encompassing colonial rule can be. Even the diet of the colonized comes under scrutiny.
Soon after, Robinson Crusoe dresses Friday in new clothes. Robinson makes these clothes, fancying himself “a tolerable good Taylor” (Defoe 150). Robinson notes that Friday “was mighty well pleas’d to see himself almost as well cloath’d as his Master” (Defoe 150). To Friday, the clothes are “very awkward” and “they hurt him” at first, but soon “he took to them very well” (Defoe 150). This event serves as another example of Robinson stripping Friday of his individuality and his identity. It is an important component of expansion and colonialism that the native should be grateful for what they do. Of course Robinson would tell himself that Friday is happy to look this way. To Robinson, people should feel grateful to look like the typical idea of civilized, English people. It is important to note that Friday’s transition to comfort in western styles of clothing is painful at first. We never get to hear things from Friday’s perspective, but the implication is that the transition to western clothing is painful in a physical and an emotional way, since the awkwardness and pain is obvious to Robinson. This shows that Robinson perceives Friday’s pain, but has no regrets about causing it. The colonization techniques employed in Robinson Crusoe are borderline sociopathic.
Robinson flatters himself as the noble white person imparting favors on the savage people. For example, Robinson states that Friday’s “Affections were ty’d to me, like those of a Child to a Father”. Robinson is unable (or perhaps unwilling) to see this relationship for what it really is—a stifling relationship between a slave and a master. As McInelly points out in his article, “Crusoe’s tendency to imagine himself in grandiose terms replicates something of what was occurring in the culture at large in the early eighteenth century”
During Robinson’s discussion of his attempts to convert Friday to Christianity, his language is incredibly hateful. Robinson compares the natives of the area to “the most blinded ignorant Pagans in the World” and states that their religion is a “Fraud” (Defoe 157). The narrow-minded Robinson states that his religion consists of “Knowledge of the true God” (Defoe 156). The brand of colonialism at work is the product of a fixed mindset. Robinson has no desire to understand Friday and to appreciate his beliefs fully. Robinson’s colonialism is racist and stubborn, not gradual and welcoming. Not only is his word choice hateful, it is also condescending. During this scene, Robinson frequently refers to Friday as a “poor Savage” and a “poor ignorant Creature,” thereby contributing further to the constant dehumanization of Friday (Defoe 158). Robinson views Friday as less of a person because he does not fit into this idealized civil paradigm.
From Robinson’s harsh language to the thorough changes in Friday’s life, these characters and these scenarios serve as an allegory of the colonial process. Robinson represents the discriminatory colonist, and Friday represents enslaved natives without identity. These interactions show that the colonialist process is psychologically brutal and relentless.
Sourse
https://britlitsurvey2.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/crusoes-colonialism/
How colonialism works in our life ?
According to Wikipedia that
" Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule."
We can see the Colonialism in Our Film and the Movie, Drama, Play have a mirror of our Sociaty and our cultural. Movie and Film always refelax the Human Bring, them culture, them Society. I would Like to give some example of the film Which are describing the Colonialism in Society, its effect of human nature.
Write about some changes done in the movie....
When we see the Movie. The theme of the film like as Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.
Although this is far from a faithful adaption of Daniel Defoe's classic novel from the 18th century, this version of Robinson Crusoe holds up fairly well and captures what that polemic writer was trying to say about cultures and how they clash. A number of assumptions about what his character Crusoe had about the superiority of his civilization are shattered.Two men from totally different worlds manage to communicate and establish a friendship. To be sure it is one of necessity as Crusoe is cut off from his world and Friday, the cannibal he befriends is exiled from his tribe. Still they do get along until civilization intrudes.
Pierce Brosnan is in the title role and aborigine actor William Takaku plays Friday. Defoe himself is written into the film as he is given a purported journal written by Crusoe and as he reads it Brosnan narrates the story. Defoe is played by Ian Hart and Defoe as political polemicist as well as novelist had some advanced views considering the time he lived in.
According to Wikipedia that
" Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule."
We can see the Colonialism in Our Film and the Movie, Drama, Play have a mirror of our Sociaty and our cultural. Movie and Film always refelax the Human Bring, them culture, them Society. I would Like to give some example of the film Which are describing the Colonialism in Society, its effect of human nature.
- mangal pandey : the rising (2005)
- Shaheed (1965)
- Lagaan
- The legend of the Bhagat singh (2012)
- The Rang de Basanti (2006)
Write about some changes done in the movie....
When we see the Movie. The theme of the film like as Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.
Although this is far from a faithful adaption of Daniel Defoe's classic novel from the 18th century, this version of Robinson Crusoe holds up fairly well and captures what that polemic writer was trying to say about cultures and how they clash. A number of assumptions about what his character Crusoe had about the superiority of his civilization are shattered.Two men from totally different worlds manage to communicate and establish a friendship. To be sure it is one of necessity as Crusoe is cut off from his world and Friday, the cannibal he befriends is exiled from his tribe. Still they do get along until civilization intrudes.
Pierce Brosnan is in the title role and aborigine actor William Takaku plays Friday. Defoe himself is written into the film as he is given a purported journal written by Crusoe and as he reads it Brosnan narrates the story. Defoe is played by Ian Hart and Defoe as political polemicist as well as novelist had some advanced views considering the time he lived in.
very nice effort
ReplyDeleteI think this is the appropriate answer of the worksheet.