I wasn't having a great reading experience with Robinson Crusoe before Friday came along. I knew it as an important work, and I was happy to be reading it just for that, but I wasn't emotionally stimulated at all. Crusoe seemed to be a Crocodile Dundee but without the charm, and it was really hard to make myself care about his corn planting, pottery making, and home building. When Friday came on to the scene though, I began to invest myself emotionally. From that point, I literally read through to the end without putting the book down.
My favorite part of the book is when Friday realizes that the bound man in the canoe he and Crusoe had just saved from being eaten alive is his father. His physical display of joy is wonderful in contrast to the "Spockish" Crusoe I had been reading about up to now. Could that display of human emotion have rubbed off on Crusoe? "It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstacy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his father..."(Barnes & Noble Classics Ed. 231) Crusoe's attitude toward his own father is in sharp contrast to the respect Friday shows his. "I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste it, but carried it to his father."(232)
This made me question who the savage really is.
I was really upset that there was never a mention of Friday's father again after he left with the Spaniard to get the rest of the white men and bring them to the island. I was shocked that Crusoe didn't consider waiting for them even once. I was also really surprised that Friday made no mention of waiting for his father to come back before they leave. Even when Crusoe went back to the island many years later with his nephew, he never mentions Friday's father.
I truly enjoyed Friday's character, and as repulsive as it was the way Crusoe assumes authority over him, it was probably a big thing for the time that he was portrayed as human (capable of deep emotion) and intelligent (quickly learning English and religious concepts) as he was.
Was Defoe trying to say that his emotional depth was primitive, or was he trying to show that the exploring/conquering white man may be lacking in someway?
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I agree, for my own enjoyment sake i would have loved to read about some nice happy ending for Friday and his father.In fact any nice emotional anything in Robinson Crusoe would have been nice but that would have been a whole different novel.
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