Introduction
It needs a synthesis of Knowledge in this world that is subjective to the individual position or point of view and is relative and not always what we see but also dependent on other extra-sensory perceptions in accordance to the paradigm. Unlike animals who mostly judge the world and its knowledge in a limited way with their senses, our methods of perception include the use of the five senses, reason, logic, emotion, and intuition. Many times, the degree or extent of knowledge varies with education or with the kind of surroundings a person imbibes. The issue in concern evokes this specific lack of perception in terms of racism and, more particularly, colonialism.
If we look at the period of the two novels, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver’s Travels, and correlate them with contemporary history, we will see that it was the era of great voyages. It was the time where new places were being discovered. The age of the Renaissance and The Restoration, in simple words, was the age of a new dawn of human civilization. European traders and voyagers were going out in the sea for the sake of discovering new countries. The age is also historically important as it was in this time the idea of colonialism started to expand, and there are definite hints of colonialism in the two novels (Bernhard 2004).
It can be stated that we can view Gulliver’s Travels as an anti-colonialist piece of work while Robinson Crusoe as a pro-colonialist work. If Robinson Crusoe can be termed as a “Settler Colonial work” (Go 2009) then Gulliver’s Travels has some features of “Exploration Colonialism” (Go 2009) as Gulliver traveled and went to the countries and the story deals with his experiences only. The slave trade prominent in colonialism is prominent in Robinson Crusoe. We can detect traces of colonialism when in Gulliver’s Travels the hero reaches Brobdingnag, and the farmer who rescued him made him an exhibit only to earn excess money. This can also be called a type of slave tread which can be seen in colonialism.
In this context, the issue of ‘burden’ is a prime concern while evaluating the colonialism concept in the two novels. This hard pill of ‘colonialism with brutality’ needed some spooning with sweetness to become a favorable aromatic digestible element for the general people of the imperial states. As a result this phrase ‘white man’s burden’ came into existence as a remedy to the enlightens of the industrial revolution and people were ready to buy this theory as this theory easily softened the guilt feeling of the educated class and justified the brutal acts and decisions taken to control and cover the colonial agitations.
It is not that the leaders of men and the men of their leaders never knew what was going wrong in these colonies but kept both eyes blind towards these acts. This is because all of them and all the way they knew everything they did and everything they knew about the colonies were either immoral or tampered to the extent of fallacy but could never digest the fact as it was too decadent for their psyche. Therefore, this term ‘white man’s burden’, almost tried to do a damage control act on their soul. The two novels, though from opposing points of view, indicate the development of this specific colonial psyche.
It could be well ascertained that familiarly to democratic governance system, knowledge and lack of economic bitterness seldom allows a person to express himself as a racist no matter how much deep-rooted the ideal is. Thus, we may conclude our discussion that both the works are two gems in the English literature and they are immortal in their influence. As of all the great literature, they have many hidden themes and the colonialism theme is the most prominent of these hidden themes. It is nascent colonialism but it is effective and hard-hitting without doubt and these two novels exhale this issue to a large extent. The storylines of these two novels would reveal this issue of racial tension and colonialism.
Robinson Crusoe
In the novel, Crusoe becomes a seaman against his parent’s wish and sets sail to unknown lands. His ship was taken by pirates and he was enslaved. Later he fled and started an expedition to bring slaves from Africa. Now, he was shipwrecked in a storm. All of his companions died in that storm. But luckily Crusoe escaped from the ship and was deserted on an island which he called “The Island of Despair” (Defoe 2001). He, with the help of equipment that he collected from the broken ship, makes a temporary settlement on the island. Henceforth, the novel chronicles the days of Robinson Crusoe on the island and how he met his right-hand man Friday, whom he saved from the cannibal natives. Sometimes attributed as the “first novel written in English” (Go 2009), Robinson Crusoe is on a great adventure ride (Defoe 2001).
Gulliver’s Travels
The other novel, Gulliver’s Travels, is written in the format of a travelogue and it is divided into four different parts. The parts are as follows:
- A Voyage to Lilliput
- A Voyage to Brobdingnag
- A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubrib and Japan
- A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms” (Swift 2004).
In his first, and most famous, voyage Gulliver meets the Lilliput, a race that is petite in size. He finds that there were two feuding nations, Lilliput and the Blefuscu. He assists the Lilliput to defeat the neighbors by stealing their fleet, but he refuses to assist them to win Blefuscu and this refusal proved to be very costly for him as he the Liliput authority became suspicious. Soon, he is accused of the serious allegation of treachery and planned to be blinded. But with the help of a kind friend he manages to flee to Blefuscu, and from there he takes an abandoned boat and sails in the sea. He is later rescued by another ship and taken to England.
When he was returning to England his ship was thrown off the course. Gulliver went to search for freshwater, and in the meantime, his companions abandoned him. He is later found by a farmer of Brobdingnag, a colossal giant. Gulliver started living in his hut where the farmer’s giant daughter took care of him. The farmer used Gulliver as an exhibit and earned money. As the Queen of the place hears about it, she goes to watch the show and adores Gulliver. Again, he is placed in the court as a favorite. He is even provided with a small house which is termed a “traveling box” (Jones 2005). Here Gulliver is seen to discuss the current state affairs of England with the giant King. He also fights enormous insects and other animals. At last, his traveling box is taken by a monster eagle, who again throws him into the sea, ending his second adventure. He is again picked by a ship.
Again, “Gulliver’s ship meets with pirates and he is marooned near some rocky and desolate islands, near India” (Katz 1990). He is rescued by the people of Laputa. The kingdom of Laputa is famous for music and mathematics, but sadly the people could not use these for practical purposes. Here the writer mocks the Royal Society and their pursuit of science without any practical experiments. After that, he also travels to the magical island of Glubbdubdrib, where he met the ghosts of historical figures. Later he went to Japan.
After his return to England, Gulliver is determined to spend his life in peace. But again he has to be in the sea as the doctor of a navy ship. Here he is surprised to find that his crew has mutinied against him. He is abandoned in a boat again. But here he meets a deformed creature, and strangely comes to the land of Houyhnhnms. After a series of adventures, he is finally rescued by a Portuguese ship and finally returned to England and settled for a peaceful life (Katz 1990).
The Theme of Colonialism in Robinson Crusoe
Some very great writers in their respective works have discussed the themes of colonialism in Robinson Crusoe. Among them, Karl Marx, in his book “Das Kapital” (1897) mentioned, “Robinson Crusoe as a capitalist propaganda of British Empire” (Katz 1990). James Joyce in 1911 explored the colonial aspect of the novel but his writings never got published until 1964, “while Toni Morrison, Edward Said, and others defined the novel as an allegory of colonialism” (Katz 1990). James Joyce wrote, “The true symbol of the British conquest is Robinson Crusoe … the sexual apathy; the practical, well-balanced, religiousness; the calculating taciturnity” (Green 1991).
Also, the Crusoe-Friday relationship in many aspects is viewed as “a model of social relations under the umbrella of Western Colonialism” (Go 2009). From the beginning of the relation, Crusoe gave Friday a new name and even made him Christian. This was one of the most dominant aspects of British colonialism. In many cases, the British Missionaries went to a place and they persuaded the underprivileged people of the place to convert into Christians (Okazaki 2008).
The Theme of Colonialism In Gulliver’s Travels
On the other hand, it can be said that Gulliver’s Travel is nothing but a reflection and clear criticism of the time the book is written, that is the Puritan Age to be very precise. It is against imperialism as it can be seen that Gulliver is not interested in attacking the Blefuscu kingdom. It is a satirical account of 18th Century England, and in his voyages, Gulliver ultimately realizes that no form of Government is ideal in any case.
The State of Europe at the time of The Novels
In the 16th century, Europe was awaking to a new dawn. The Restoration and the Reformation had taken place there at that time. Great minds in all the spheres of studies and philosophy had crowed in the whole of Europe. The urge of knowing unknown things made the men take on sea voyages and many previously unknown lands were discovered. It is surprising to list the number of great voyages undertaken at this age.
In the year 1439, Niccolo Conti made a journey to India and South-East Asia. Another Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin traveled to India. Prince Henry (the Navigator) at that time starts a school for mariners in Portugal. It was an instant success. The recent scientific discoveries were greatly helpful to make sea voyages possible. The Portuguese traders tried to discover and map the globe. They even discovered the route to India via the Cape of Good Hope. In the first attempt, Bartolomeu Dias failed to cross the Cape of Good Hope.
But in the second attempt, Vasco da Gama succeeded and went to India. This was a historical occasion when for the first time in the history of mankind humans navigated from Europe around Africa and reached Asia. It also led to the discovery of Brazil and some parts of South America. Around that time another great Portuguese sailor Magellan sailed around the globe. The great Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot in America, and this had initiated Spanish Colonialism.
Other races like the Danish, the Vikings, French and British were also sending voyages and setting foot in new lands. Suddenly the discoverers started to realize that they were a lot advanced than the natives of the places. All the reformations had made them the most advanced race and they with new scientific innovations easily defeated them. This was the beginning of colonialism and it later continued till the Second World War (Katz 1990).
In every case, the scientifically and economically advanced races dominated the lives of the backward people. The domination began with the defeats in the war and later they even forced the people to change their religion. The colonialism of the Europeans had affected the course of history more than any other thing in the World.
The Factor of Colonialism in the Two Novels
In the first phase, we can discuss in depth the effects of Colonialism in Robinson Crusoe. Here in the novel, we can see him as a colonizer. He assumes complete dominion of the Island of Despair. He strongly starts to believe that anything on that island belongs to him and his actions make him a small version of the European countries that were waging wars in land and water for colonies.
Even he transforms his man Friday into a Christian and shows him how to read the Bible. In the very vague meaning of colonialism, a country controls another country’s properties along with all the living beings. Here Crusoe believes that he is the only rightful owner of the island. He has made a home in there where he stays, but also has the distant hope in mind that one day he might return to his home in England, which was one of the most dominant features of the colonial rulers (Jones 2005).
They always wanted that someday after earning enough in the colonies return to England to spend a lavish life, the same case is here with Robinson Crusoe. So we can say that the actions of Robinson Crusoe are just the same as the European countries fighting for colonies. His economical relations with everything around him like the plants and animals (whom he cared as they will provide food to him) are also a direct attribute of a colonial mind (Go 2009).
As already mentioned Gulliver’s Travels are comprised of four books and each is a unique adventure. In the first book, he is captured by the small Lilliput people, with whom he later befriends. As a war between them and their neighboring country called the Blefuscu start, Gulliver takes the Lilliput side and stole the fleet of the enemy. The Lilliput people understood that having Gulliver is one of the most important factors of their victory in the war.
They decide to attack the Blefuscu kingdom with Gulliver in front. This is just the way European colonialism operated. They always knew that they were advanced in science and technology and they were never hesitated to use all of their technologies on their enemies. This is one of the best war tactics ever been employed and, understandably, anyone involved in any war will try their level best to win the war with everything they have, especially when there were no international laws or courts to punish a country for committing war crimes. But Gulliver resented going into the war. There is beauty in the novel, here one can feel that how Jonathan Swift opposed colonialism.
In Book Four of the novel, Gulliver says, “I had another reason which made me less forward to enlarge his majesties dominions by my discoveries… distributive justice of princes upon those occasions” (Swift 2004).
There can be a lot of anti-colonialism issues can be found in Gulliver’s Travels Book IV, where Gulliver travels to the land of the Houyhnhnms. Book IV is the summary of the whole book and probably the richest among all the parts in all aspects of literature. Swift’s subtle attack on English colonialism is directed against their efforts of setting up colonies in the Western Pacific. By this work he wanted to show to the common people that he did not appreciate the establishment of colonies. The descriptions of Houyhnhnms as horses are really interesting on the part that horses were generally considered as very loyal animals at any part of the World at that time. Also, the land of the Houyhnhnms is termed as Eden, which can be a direct point to the newly discovered places like Tahiti and the Hawaiian Islands which were then termed Eden by the British (Katz 1990).
Conclusion
What in Joseph Conrad’s was “white man’s burden” (Harris 2004) to educate the ignorant man whom the educated men conquered, obviously here the educated men referred to as the European, can be seen from Gulliver’s eyes. He thought that he was a superior creature that most of the races is also equivocal to the thoughts of the Europeans about the lands they concurred. It had to be remembered that many lands that had been conquered by the Europeans had civilizations in the dawn of human history. When people in Egypt or Mesopotamia or India knew who to write or calculate they were nothing more than wild preferably termed as barbarians (Watson 1971).
This was a conflict of understanding and the issue of colonialism was evoked as a product of this misunderstanding. The two novels describe this particular issue and considering the era, it can be stated that these two novels represent the fancy of their time, the beginning of colonization (Boulton 2008).
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