On Colonization In Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), an English writer, journalist, and political pamphleteer, gains enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719), a story of a man shipwrecked alone on a deserted island. Along with Samuel Richardson, Defoe is considered as the founder of English novels.Robinson Crusoe, written in the year 1719, is sometimes considered to be the first novel in English. Its author Daniel Defoe lives in the period of fast development of capitalism in England, therefore, his works, to some extent reflect the spiritual features of the then rising bourgeoisie. Ever since its publication it has become one of the most popular novels in the world literature. For years, people, especially literary critics, have paid extensive attention to heroism shown in the main character of the book. As a result, Robinson Crusoe has been regarded as a piece of adventure story and a mirror of realism. The character of Robinson Crusoe is considered as a representative of the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stage of its development. It especially gives praise to people from the middle class who are brave, courageous and full of spirit of exploration. If we read it from the post-colonial theory, we can find that Robinson Crusoe also displays various forms of colonization.There are four types of colonization, namely, territorial colonization, economic colonization, technological colonization and cultural colonization. This thesis will make an analysis of Robinson Crusoe from economic colonization, cultural colonization, and women in the colonial context from the perspective of post-colonial criticism.This thesis consists of five parts. A brief introduction first offers Defoe's life experiences, his status in the history of literature, and the literary studies and relevant criticism on Robinson Crusoe.Chapter One focuses on Robinson's economic colonization. First it talks about Robinson's motivations and conditions for colonization as well as Robinson's typical characteristics as a colonizer. Second, it discusses Robinson's activities in economic colonization through colonial trade and land occupation, and focuses on the colonial activities on the deserted island, thus revealing his purpose of establishing his dominant position and showing the process of colony construction of the empire in the colony.Chapter Two focuses on Robinson's cultural colonization, cultural reform to Friday and dilemma of Friday after the loss of his national identity, so as to show the colonizer's cultural means to colonize. Robinson's cultural colonization can be seen mainly from his relation with Friday, the savage he saved. If Robinson tries to establish a colony on the island, his position as a Governor is established only after the slave Friday he rescues comes onto the island. It is a bridge enabling Robinson to become a colonizer from a laborer or an early pioneer. This chapter gives an analysis of the relation between Robinson and Friday, as well as Robinson's cultural reform to Friday. The relation between Robinson and Friday seems to be simple but complex; being simple, their relation could just be regarded as that between master and slave; while being complex, their relation might involve some other explanations.Robinson uses three years to cultivate Friday into a pious Christian, which reflects the capitalist's missionary zeal to "civilize" the people in the colonial regions. And it also shows that when the colonizers finish the economic and political colonization, they will begin to pay attention to the cultural colonization to the people in the colonial regions, to realize spiritual colonization.Under the elaborate cultural reform of Robinson, Friday gives up his former language and belief and becomes a faithful servant to the colonizer with all his heart and soul. The process that Robinson conquers the native Friday with gun and the Bible is an epitome of European capitalist colonizers'invasion to the colony with material and spiritual civilization.Chapter Three is mainly concerned with women in the colonial context. In the 18th century in Britain, the image of women always seems to be ordinary and small, and women appear as passers-by or accessories to men. The concept advocated by Christianity that women belong to men is deep-rooted in people's mind. Women are adjuncts of men physically and mentally. They act as "decorations" in family and society and take responsibility for continuing the family blood. The appearance of colonialism does not change this situation but further intensifies the marginalization of females. The sexual metaphor is very important in colonial discourse. It usually uses a male image to symbolize the dominant position of the colonizers and female image the inferior position of the subalterns. Post-colonial critics discover the sexual metaphor when they analyze literary works of both the colonizers and the colonized. They believe that when a colonialist or anti-colonialist writer creates characters in his or her novel, he or she will show racial discrimination consciously or unconsciously by employing sexual metaphors. And when he makes the female characters submissive to the male characters, he is justifying suzerain's conquering and invasion of land and culture of the colony. So this chapter first discusses the status of women in colonial context, showing that the purpose of educating women is to make them better serve men and become their satisfying partners. Second, it analyzes women image in Robinson Crusoe in details, to show that the social status of women is as inferior as the colonized people and in fact the former is a good metaphor for the latter.This thesis analyzes Robinson's economic colonization, cultural colonization and women in colonial context. Colonization exercises great influences on the colonized people. In the novel, the self-identity of Friday is denied and at the same time marginalized. His value of life is to serve his master. The purpose of teaching him English is to indoctrinate him with loyalty to the British Empire, and to prove his inferior position. Meanwhile, colonization is also a product of colonizers' superiority over the colonized. It also means that Defoe might think that the white people are in an advantageous position. Therefore, he gives Robinson right to educate Friday, to change him into a good servant. It just further proves Said's view on Orientalism, that is, the west is associated with civilization, rationality, progress and enlightenment, while the east is associated with savage, irrationality, lagging behind and barbarism. By interpreting the various kinds of colonization in Robinson Crusoe, this thesis, to some extent, endeavors to make clearer this issue in the novel, and helps the readers to better understand the influences of colonization.