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British Imperialism in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
The British imperialism meant a lot to different people, especially for literary writers. Daniel Defoe presents Robinson Crusoe as a man who proclaims his Christian morals and British superiority to consider his sense of identity. Robinson’s relationship with his servant Friday is an allegory of how British imperialism disrupted other cultures while also civilizing others. In the novel, the colonizer and the colonized is evident when Robinson saves Friday’s life. Robinson is used in the novel to display an example of religion, culture, and ideology. He is the ideal Englishman who loves to enlarge the English terrain and self-government, presenting English imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism. Therefore, this discussion provides a critical analysis of how various extracts in the novel thematically and formally display colonialism through close reading and placement of the text in its social -political context.
In chapter one; Start in life, we are introduced to Robinson’s unprecedented adventure. He narrates, “God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Never any young adventurer’s misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise most exceedingly; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked, leaving my father’s house, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsels of my parents, my father’s tears and my mother’s pleas, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience…” This