Friday is a dog. The Carib Indian companion in Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe may be
Oppressors, Subalterns, and Dogs - the Island of Robinson Crusoe treated more respectfully than most other people of color of his time, but even though Crusoe and Friday are allegedly friends, he is nothing more than a dog to his Master - never his equal. Defoe’s depiction of the Carib Indians in his novel is a case of Othering, and the relationship between Friday and Crusoe resembles colonialism from the colonists’ perspective - where the oppressed are worth no more than animals.
The moment Crusoe lays his eyes on Friday, he notices the potential value of him. One of the first thoughts crossing his mind is that “now was the time to get [him] a servant” …show more content…
Being one of their relationship’s first instances, it sets an imbalance from the beginning: declaring their inequitable conditions. Consequently, his way of teaching Friday how to react to certain words, such as yes and no, is an action that resembles the relationship between a pet and its owner, not humans. Crusoe fails to grasp why his ownership should be shameful and frequently refers to Friday as ”my man”. Crusoe only sees their relationship from his perspective, neglecting the fact that he is the one steering it towards his wished direction, being able to obtain all he wants from it. But as mentioned previously, Friday’s point of view is undiscovered and might just reveal thoughts of the opposite. What Crusoe perceives as love between a father and child could be the plea of being treated as a human being and not as a pet. This is the point of view that Crusoe would never reflect, simply because the hegemony of his time never considered the perspective of the oppressed. It proposes an explanation as to why colonists might have viewed their conquests of other countries as a relationship where they can live in symbiosis with the natives, disregarding the fact that they treated the natives as animals - the perspective of the oppressed was ignored. The power relationship between Friday and Crusoe acts as an allegory for …show more content…
An image of them as ”the other” - an animal, a barbarian, consuming human flesh as soon as the chance arises, cannibalism that lies in their blood - ”[Friday] was still a cannibal in his nature”. An image created by a white man who never met any cannibals. More recent reports of the Carib Indians would show that their cannibalism was not executed in the barbaric manners portrayed in the novel, for instance, ”they also practiced a kind of euthanasia of the old — eating them in order that they might be spared a lingering death” (Whitehead 76), displaying more than just one story of the Carib Indians. But literature has always affected society and Defoe’s portrayal of Caribs, which had ”meat dress’d” (Defoe 159) who were described as ”creatures” (Defoe 163), in one of the most acclaimed novels of all time invented to an utterly dehumanized version of them. This was the Single Story given to the Carib Indians and would continue to be the only one heard for many years. As for Friday, who in the eyes of Crusoe, displays a mentality which accepts the unfair treatment, the readers of the novel would believe that they could continue to behave similarly, validating their
Oppressors, Subalterns, and Dogs - the Island of Robinson Crusoe treated more respectfully than most other people of color of his time, but even though Crusoe and Friday are allegedly friends, he is nothing more than a dog to his Master - never his equal. Defoe’s depiction of the Carib Indians in his novel is a case of Othering, and the relationship between Friday and Crusoe resembles colonialism from the colonists’ perspective - where the oppressed are worth no more than animals.
The moment Crusoe lays his eyes on Friday, he notices the potential value of him. One of the first thoughts crossing his mind is that “now was the time to get [him] a servant” …show more content…
Being one of their relationship’s first instances, it sets an imbalance from the beginning: declaring their inequitable conditions. Consequently, his way of teaching Friday how to react to certain words, such as yes and no, is an action that resembles the relationship between a pet and its owner, not humans. Crusoe fails to grasp why his ownership should be shameful and frequently refers to Friday as ”my man”. Crusoe only sees their relationship from his perspective, neglecting the fact that he is the one steering it towards his wished direction, being able to obtain all he wants from it. But as mentioned previously, Friday’s point of view is undiscovered and might just reveal thoughts of the opposite. What Crusoe perceives as love between a father and child could be the plea of being treated as a human being and not as a pet. This is the point of view that Crusoe would never reflect, simply because the hegemony of his time never considered the perspective of the oppressed. It proposes an explanation as to why colonists might have viewed their conquests of other countries as a relationship where they can live in symbiosis with the natives, disregarding the fact that they treated the natives as animals - the perspective of the oppressed was ignored. The power relationship between Friday and Crusoe acts as an allegory for …show more content…
An image of them as ”the other” - an animal, a barbarian, consuming human flesh as soon as the chance arises, cannibalism that lies in their blood - ”[Friday] was still a cannibal in his nature”. An image created by a white man who never met any cannibals. More recent reports of the Carib Indians would show that their cannibalism was not executed in the barbaric manners portrayed in the novel, for instance, ”they also practiced a kind of euthanasia of the old — eating them in order that they might be spared a lingering death” (Whitehead 76), displaying more than just one story of the Carib Indians. But literature has always affected society and Defoe’s portrayal of Caribs, which had ”meat dress’d” (Defoe 159) who were described as ”creatures” (Defoe 163), in one of the most acclaimed novels of all time invented to an utterly dehumanized version of them. This was the Single Story given to the Carib Indians and would continue to be the only one heard for many years. As for Friday, who in the eyes of Crusoe, displays a mentality which accepts the unfair treatment, the readers of the novel would believe that they could continue to behave similarly, validating their