Monday, September 10, 2007
Cultural Relativism
Robinson Crusoe’s disgust for the behavior of the savages reveals him to be quite the hypocritical character. This characteristic is most prominent with his reaction of being repulsed and outraged by the savages cannibal ways. While Crusoe admits to not being in a position to judge the savages his treatment of Friday proves otherwise, for he makes him his servant and insists he conforms to his beliefs. According to Crusoe only fellow white Christians are deserving of his respect and can possibly be considered an equal; therefore Friday is not treated much differently than Crusoe’s animals, they are tolerated and even treated well when Crusoe serves to benefit from them, they are to be used. Servitude is likened to death in this sense, for servants like Friday is are not free with their actions or thoughts. What makes this death any less than that of one the savages physically afflict upon its enemies or those deserving punishment? The savage’s behavior is a result of their culture, as is that of the Crusoe’s and his opinions leaving him in no place to believe he is superior and correct.
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One way to view Friday is as a fantasy or projection of what a European would like to believe of a native or colonial subject. They are loyal, grateful, simple, trusting, good in a fight etc. The reason Defoe/Crusoe might create such a flattering fantasy seems quite plausible to me--that Friday could be a realistic representation was rejected even in its own time (although Friday figures abound in "Western" films and fiction--most recently in Star Wars' Jar Jar Binks.)
Defoe is able to go some distance in his attempts to understand another culture--further than many 19c novelists in fact: he questions his right to condemn their ways and reflects that Europeans are guilty of equally brutal, "inhuman" practices. What he does not seem capable of questioning might be called his capitalist assumptions/motivation: Crusoe's right to exploit animals, land, ship-wrecks, escaped prisoners, and people who cannot defend themselves for the sake of his own economic advantage.
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