British Imperialism and Ethnocentrism in Robinson Crusoe

The first part of the support describes this process. Still, Crusoe's taming of this "foreign" land is similar to his eventual taming of Friday. As Marzec argues, "Crusoe tames the dedifferentiated acres of the island by endowing the land with the positive and moral microbe of Providence. In order to cope with an entirely Other mould of land than that to which he is accustomed, he introduced an ideological apparatus to over-code the earth" (p. 131). Periodically, Crusoe is endangered by the visits of cannibalistic savages. He rescues and tames one of these savages to obtain the ideal servant. Man Friday is characterized as an attractive fellow with a good face that seems to reflect even the sweet and bonkers European appearance, especially compared to the other natives. He appears in wrinkle to the "Negroes." In his dealings with Friday, there is a strong pass on of favorable position and condescension on behalf of Crusoe, one that is fueled by imperialism and ethnocentrism. Crusoe retains the innate sense of racial and genetic superiority normal of an Englishman of his era, place, and class. This superiority is evident, even though Crusoe informs us of his possess undistinguished station in European society, "mine was the middle State, or what might be called the upper Station of Low vitality" (Defoe, p. 4).

Crusoe encounters his savage at a moment of crisis for Man Friday. Friday was think as dinner for his fellow. His desire to live and to escape his fat

Marzec, Robert P. "Enclosures, Colonization, and the Robinson Crusoe Syndrome: A Genealogy of Land in a Global Context." Boundary, 2(29), Feb 2002, pp. 129-134.

We see that despite Crusoe's and Friday's relationship, Crusoe still views Friday and his customs as savage, while Friday appears to understand that the customs and practices of his native hatful put up long been considered the norm on the island. It is only because of Friday's superiority and willingness to forsake his own culture in favor of European culture that Crusoe considers him exceptional. On the one hand, we have the heathen, pagan, cannibals; on the other, we have mutinous sailors who for simple greed, rebel against authority and kill their own officers.

Friday is an exception to the inherent cruelty of the cannibals, but we must recommend that the cannibals considered their own way of life to be perfectly pleasurable and normal. Crusoe is repulsed by their behaviors, but we must consider that this repulsion is the fruit of his Christian, European, and, therefore, "civilized," in his mind, background. Yet, when Friday tells Crusoe of the Priestcraft of his people, Crusoe maintains, with some appreciation, "the Policy of making a sneaking(a) Religion, in order to preserve the Veneration of the People to the Clergy, is non only to be found in Roman, but maybe among all Religions in the World, even among the most brutish and fell Savages" (Defoe, p. 217). In contrast, Friday understands the impetus toward cannibalism. While he has forsworn the practice, he cannot do but recognize that it is a cultural phenomenon which his and other peoples of the locality have long accepted as natural.

Mcinelly, Brett C. "Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, The Novel, and Robinson Crusoe." Studies in the Novel, 35(1), inauguration 2003, pp. 1-20.

e led him to flee from them. Crusoe, then, becomes Friday's savior, the role many Europeans viewed themselves as occupying compared to those of for
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