As others
have noted, functions as a religious , but perhaps it functions more
interestingly from a modern perspective as an allegory for colonialism, with Crusoe as the
representative or allegorical European "master" and Friday as the representative
"good savage."
When Crusoe shipwrecks on an island, like a proper
European colonialist he immediately lays claim to it as his domain. He sees it, as European
colonialists saw the "New World," as a resource base to be exploited for his own
purposes. When he does encounter a native in the form of Friday, he understands Friday (the
colonialist assuming the right to impose a name on the "savage") as a lesser human, a
"primitive," there to serve his needs and to be guided by Crusoe's
"superior" white beliefs and ideology. Friday becomes Crusoe's servant, never his
equal, and Friday's imperfect command of English becomes a symbol of his inferiority. Friday
fulfills the white European fantasy of how a native should think and behave, adopting the
ideology of the master:
€˜You do great deal much good,
says he; €˜you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and
live new life. €˜Alas, Friday! says I, €˜thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant
man Robinson Crusoe myself. €˜Yes, yes, says he, €˜you teachee me good, you teachee them
good.
When native "cannibals" arrive on the
beach of "his" domain, Crusoe uses his superior technology to frighten and intimidate
them with his musket. Natives are given pejorative labels and driven off, with no thought that
they might have rights to what the white man has staked out as his domain. They are
"cannibals" and "savages" who deserve to die. In Robinson
Crusoe, we may be said to have colonialism in microcosm.
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