CRUSOE—THE SILENT COLONIZER

OED defines English verb ‘colonize’ as “to take control of an area or a country that is
not your own especially by using force and send people from your own country to live there”,
which is precisely what Crusoe did but the only distinction is that he does not declare his aims to
be colonial and Defoe tries his level best to make every occurrence appear natural. None the less,
all negative aspects of colonization are apparent in the novel though not highlighted.

In such a colony first feature which is most cruel is the fact that native people of a
particular land are ruled over by a foreign governing body. Similar is the case in Defoe’s novel.
Crusoe, a foreigner on the island, over powers native people by using his gun and skills of
developed world. It appears rather absurd that for years he longs for a companion but when he
happens to rescue a native man he gets happy at his servitude:
“To let me know how he would serve me as long as he lived; …and let him know I
was very pleased with him”--Chapter 17th
This shows that idea of forming a colony on the island was always in the subconscious of his
mind. In addition to this, Crusoe also gets furious and behaves arrogantly to him when he
wrongly feels that Friday wants to be free and wants to return to his people. The first fear Crusoe
encounters at that time was:
“I made no doubt…, he would not only forget all his religion but all his obligation to
me”.—Chapter 20
This reveals that he wants Friday to remain subservient to him and not to live as a free individual
a better life with his guidance.

Moreover, Crusoe also changes the identity of native people. He names the first savage
man he rescues; “Friday” and calls the other one “old savage” frequently and does not bother to
know their previous names. Furthermore, he suppresses Friday’s own language while the
‘Spaniards’ learned language of savage natives while living with them. Crusoe affirms Spaniards
fluency:
“…for the Spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well.”—Chapter 22
Name, language and freedom of owning oneself are very crucial ingredients of one’s identity
which are inaudibly suppressed by Crusoe.

In addition to that, he did not pay anyone for the land he calls “my arable land”—
Chapter 11 or “my side of the Island” –Chapter 13th but only cultivated it, which is his sole claim
to its property. It was an island which he discovered by accident not by effort but claims himself
unscrupulously its ‘king’—Chapter 21, though he is an outsider there. Since, native people are
not aware about their right to claim it neither their property nor enough means to establish it as
such. Therefore, Robinson finds his way clear to declare it all to his dominion.

The very problem of differentiating this novel from a travelogue is the cause that makes
reader unable to quickly understand that when Crusoe nails in his shelves into the caves; he is
nailing in his colonist intentions into the island. This also leads to the blindness of not being able
to observe all the negative effects he had on the island and its dwellers including free exploitation
of resources and subservient life of native.

Essay written for “Colonization in early fiction”

Given novel Robinson Crusoe
Syeda Faiza Hassan
University of Karachi