Robinson Crusoe's Heroic but Colonial Adventures

Robinson Crusoe's Heroic but colonial adventures

Robinson Crusoe is a general heroic and adventure story?

Like any other Prince-featuring story in general, the Robinson Crusoe movie is adapted from the novel written by Daniel Defoe The life and the adventure of Robinson Crusoe features no surprising, intricate plot. As a rule, the hero-featuring story starts with a conflict-ridden situation in which the hero is forced to flee the conflict. In his escape journey, the hero shows his heroic figure and manhood, which is why readers or movie-watchers favor him. So does The life and the adventures of Robinson Crusoe go. Starting with the romantic conflict in which his lover Marry had to marry his best friend Patrick in favor of her family's wish, the story unfolds in a very conventional and easy-to-predict fashion. Crusoe was involved in a duel with Patrick, leading to the unexpected death of Patrick at the hands of Crusoe. Fearing retaliation from Patrick's family, Crusoe escaped Scotland and embarked on his heartbreaking sea adventure, promising to come back again for Mary. The journey unexpectedly brought him to an uncharted island due to the shipwreck. On this island, he savored an outcast who then became his close friend. (The island where Crusoe got stranded was the island where the outcasts were put to death). 

Robinson Crusoe: a story of Colonialism versus Anti-colonialism?

In my opinion, what happened between these two estranged men was the most interesting part of the story. I based this claim on Tiffin's remark on postcolonial literature, saying that the oppressed produced literary works that usually lash back at the colonizers (Ashcroft, et al. 1995, 95-98). Whether Defoe was aware or not of the story he created, one thing was clear from the story is that Crusoe, despite being friendly to the outcast, Friday, represented the arrogance and hegemony of the white colonizers over the "color people'. On the other hand, Friday represented the power of the oppressed, who fought back against oppression.

After savoring Friday, Crusoe and the man became good friends, and Crusoe did not feel lonely anymore. Before Friday came, he had been expecting a human companion, a human need. They spend most of their time on the island, where Friday's skills in harvesting the crops impressed Crusoe. It was in this daily togetherness that Crusoe showed the arrogance of being "white'. Starting with his initiative to teach Friday his language and peaking in his insisting that Friday call him Master. In the article Robinson Crusoe's Relationship with Colonialism, Ouchan made a similar observation in saying that Crusoe "owns" the island and instructs those living there just as if he were its "governor," just as any British colony would be governed.

It is interesting to find out why Crusoe insisted that Friday learn English. Why, instead, did he not learn Friday's language? Since they are more in Friday's element, where he has superior knowledge and skill, Or, to be fair, why did he not ask Friday to teach him Friday's language, and he taught Friday his language? These questions can be settled if we read Tiffin's article. If we read Tiffin's article, we will soon be aware that Crusoe's insistence on Friday's learning English derived from his arrogance of being white, the colonizer. That everything from white culture or man is good. However, Tiffin remarked, such oppression usually met resistance, which is what Friday showed in the movie. He resisted, even leaving Crusoe when he realized that he regarded him as a slave. This is in line with what

In summary, the movie Robinson Crusoe is rich in its representation of meaning. Apart from its main theme of a heroic, adventurous story that features a gallant hero, it also portrays colonial literature and the resistance to it, counter-discourse literature in the era of post-colonial. This is more of a tale of how the natives retaliated against the intruder. However, to be able to interpret this, we should have a framework of thinking from reading theories, such as those of Tiffin cited above.

References

Bill Ashcroft, Garreth Griffits & Hellen Tiffin (eds). 1995. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London & NY: Routledge. Ch. 14. (H Tiffin), p. 95-98.

Ouchan, Souad. Robinson Crusoe's relationship with Colonialism. https://www.academia.edu/9389415/Robinson_crusoe_relationship_with_colonailism