Question: Discuss the theme of colonialism in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Or, Robinson Crusoe is an allegorical journey to imperialism. Discuss.
Or, Discuss the theme of colonialism described in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Or, What aspects/ elements of colonialism do you find in Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe? Discuss in brief.
Or, What picture of colonialism do you find from your reading of Robinson Crusoe? Elucidate.
Or, To what extent Robinson Crusoe is a colonizer in Defoe's book Robinson Crusoe?
Or, Is Defoe's hero Robinson Crusoe a colonizer? Give reasons for your answer.
Or, Explain how the theme of imperialism is developed in the novel.
Or, Discuss Robinson Crusoe as a prototype colonizer.
Or, Discuss Robinson Crusoe as colonial propaganda.
Or, In what sense is Robinson Crusoe a colonizer?
Answer: This book has been found to possess a profound allegorical significance. Delco himself declared that the book was an allegory of his life. In so far as this book contains the difficulties and hardships experienced by a man on a desolate island as also the victories won by him, it can be regarded as an allegorical account of Defoe's own life which was a life of toil, setbacks, humiliations, defeats, and also great atonements, victories, and triumphs. Defoe was fond of parading his personal misfortunes before other people, and it may have occurred to him after he had finished writing this book that his hero's misadventures have in some respects an allegorical resemblance to those of his own life. But to identify Crusoe's shipwreck with Defoe's bankruptcy, to look for a man Friday among his acquaintances, and to search everywhere for parallels between the career of the real Defoe and the imaginary Crusoe, can lead only to fantastic speculations. Besides, if the novel had been only an allegory of the author's own life and no more, it would not have been treated as a masterpiece of universal value.
As a critic points out, Robinson Crusoe is fat more than the account of a practical man's adjustment to life on a deserted island. Side by side with Crusoe's physical conquest of nature is his struggle to conquer himself and to find God. it is really a conversion story, like that of Augustine of Baxter, with the well-known symptoms of supernatural guidance, penitential tears, and Biblical text. The spiritual crisis in Crusoe's life on the island is the core of the novel from this point of view. Under the stress of the headships of life on the island, and more especially under the severe strain of his illness, Crusoe undergoes what may be called a transformation. during his illness, he sees a frightening dream in which a man, having descended from a cloud threatens to kill him with a spear. This dream may be regarded as a kind of supernatural warning or a supernatural piece of guidance to him. On waking up from this dream, Crusoe recalls the excellent advice that his father had given him but to which he had paid no heed. He now remembers that, during the past eight years since he left home, he had not looked upwards to God with any sincerity of feeling even once. During these eight years, he has been guilty of a certain "stupidity of soul”, without any desire for goodness and without any evil. Tears now begin to flow in his eyes, and he prays to God for help. Crusoe tells us, was the first prayer that he had ever addressed to God for many years. Here we have a turning point in Crusoe's spiritual life. From this time onwards, his mind is essentially at peace; and the rest of the book is in the nature of an account of the due rewards and powers of the man who has been spiritually saved. The description of Crusoe's conversion has peculiar force and intensity so we cannot avoid regarding this incident as central to the meaning of the whole book.
Some of the details of Crusoe's struggle with maturity seem also to symbolize his spiritual quest, perhaps not intentionally on the part of Defoe. Crusoe's going on a voyage at the very beginning of the story has in itself an allegorical meaning. Human life has generally been regarded as a voyage, and this conception of human life is as old as the history of mankind. By no means are all the details of the story in Robinson Crusoe allegorical. But the main outline of the story does lend itself to an allegorical interrelation. There is, for instance, the geography of the island on which Crusoe finds himself. one region of this island is found by Crusoe to be much more fertile than the other, where he has already built a habitation for himself. The turtle is a symbol of luxurious living; his exploration of this part of the island. Fundamentally, the temptation to shift from his original habitation is an appeal to a kind of pride. It would be wrong from the spiritual of view not to remain where Crusoe has been cast away by divine Providence and to go in quest of false gods.
Generally, the symbolism is clustered around Crusoe's religious conversion. The peculiar effect of the descriptions of the shoots of barley and the making of the earthen pots is probably due to their symbolic value in the religious context. Crusoe sheds tears of joy at the realization that the stalks are perfect green barley; and for the first time, he begins to reflect seriously on God's Providence. Clearly, they are the seeds of grace stirring in his heart and sending forth their first tender sprouts. in other words, these sprouts are symbolic of Crusoe's recognition of God's grace. Similarly Crusoe's success in, making an earthen pot after several unsuccessful efforts is similar to their ultimate success in attaining a spiritual goal. In a sense Crusoe is the pot himself, made by God the potter. Several times he has been brought to the fire, but nothing had come of it. Certain other symbolical elements may also be identified. The goat-skin garments, which Crusoe makes after his old clothes wear out, may be regarded symbolically as new armor of faith. And the elaborate system of defense which Crusoe establishes around his habitation on the island may be regarded symbolically as the invincibility of the man who truly believes in God and in God's supreme wisdom.'
The above views find support in the approach of another critic: who says that Robinson Crusoe's behavior on the island re-enacts a drama o religious conversion, and is not an experiment on the effects of solitary confinement. Crusoe loses twenty-eight years of sinful life, but he gains an eternity of bliss. At the moment of his conversion, he cries aloud in a Kind of joyous ecstasy: "Jesus, thou son of David, Jesus thou exalted Prince and Saviour, give me repentance." According to this view, Crusoe's captivity on the island was primarily theological and only incidentally geographical; it was captivity in sin, and he is liberated from sin and the consciousness of sinfulness through repentance and devotion to God. Thus the account of Crusoe's victory over nature on the desolate island is allegorically his victory over himself and also the establishment of a close relationship between him and God.
Another way of looking at this novel is to regard it as an allegorical expansion of the idea of man's isolation and loneliness. In the last analysis, every human being is alone and is condemned to solitariness. A man may live in the midst of crowds: he may dwell in congested cities and towns, but a man is essentially alone. No man can communicate with any other man. not even with his closest friend and relations, and not even with his own wife and children, in the true sense of the word. No man dares to reveal his innermost thoughts and feelings to anybody else. Each one of us has certain secret thoughts, certain secret longings, and cravings, which we cannot confide to anybody else. We do experience an urge to share feelings and desires with somebody else, but we simply dare not do so because of the fear that others would feel shocked by our disclosure. Thus each of us remains alone, with himself. It is this situation that is symbolized by Defoe's novel in which the character called Robinson Crusoe finds himself alone, with himself. Crusoe, of course, ultimately finds God and draws comfort from his relationship with God, perhaps we too also draw comfort by establishing a similar relationship with God. Defoe's novel is, in this sense, a dramatization of universal experience: "We are all Crusoes, for to be Crusoe is the human fate.” One critic has described this novel as an “epic of solitude”.
According to some critics, Robinson Crusoe is also an allegory. of the life of the "home economics" or the economic man under certain peculiar conditions. According to this view, Crusoe on the desolate island behaves as any man would behave in any society where the individual is free to improve and raise his economic position by his own unhindered effort and by his might have prospered in a social context by his own ingenuity and sagacity. From this point of view, the novel becomes a plea for economic individualism or for the theory of laissez-faire.
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