Friday's Religious Education by Micol Campagnano

Chapter 6 Excerpt - Brief Analysys

campagnanomicol — 2023-12-09 17:49:06 UTC

In this excerpt, taken from the sixth chapter of the novel, the narrator recounts his successful attempt at providing Friday with a religious education. From the second line, Crusoe's, and consequently Defoe's, faith becomes apparent, as God is described as the "true" God, and, therefore, the real and only one. The existence of just one God is obviously dogmatic of Christianity, a monotheistic religion, in which it's also believed, as told in the following lines, that God is a supreme, omnipotent Being. God is called, also in the second line, "the great Maker of all things", as He lives in heaven and reigns the world in the same way that He made it, and that is through His power and providence. In the seventh line, the notion of opening one’s eyes refers to the theme of divine illumination, which is the only way for humans to know the truth. Because of the existence of this, Crusoe in this novel also fills the role of a missionary, whose aim is to help pagans understand the truth, and therefore open their eyes to it.
In the thirteenth line, there is the first invented name of this excerpt, “Benamuckee”, which, together with the others in subsequent lines (“Oowokakee”, “O”), serves the purpose of realism. Thus, Defoe alludes to a whole new religion, which helps explore Friday’s character, making him a full-fledged individual, rather than a type. In this instance, it’s fundamental the reader’s collaboration, with their “suspension of disbelief” in not questioning the possibility of such a faith to develop, so different and yet, as Defoe tells us in later lines, so similar to Occidental ones. In fact, in the last part, it’s explained how a clergy and in general a hierarchical system, despised by Puritans and Dissenters such as Defoe himself, is present even among, in Crusoe’s own words, "brutish and barbarous savages". There clearly appears a derogatory tone, that if linked to the reference of the Roman Church, is easily explained by the author’s own beliefs, which are continuously mentioned and referred to in the novel.

Traduzione

campagnanomicol — 2023-12-09 18:05:33 UTC

Robinson Crusoe

campagnanomicol — 2023-12-09 18:15:05 UTC

Robinson Crusoe, published by Daniel Defoe in 1719, is a novel of the realistic type, aimed at the Middle Class. Because of this reason, it is written with a simple and concrete language, in order to be understood even by novice and mediocre readers. The new genre of the novel, and above all the realistic one, lacks the many rhetorical figures found in poems, and in Robinson Crusoe this absence is accentuated by the first person narrator. It is, after all, a subjective point of view, which also reflects the author's own thoughts. Robinson Crusoe, in fact, is itself a spiritual autobiography, in which Defoe's struggle between economic motivation and spiritual salvation is prominent.

Realism and Defoe's values

campagnanomicol — 2023-12-11 11:45:25 UTC

In this extract, Defoe touches on a lot of topics worth to comment on, as fundamental to the genre, style, and aim of the novel and also to his personal thoughts and values. Indeed, we know that Defoe’s novels are a mirror of his point of view, told mainly through the main characters, who are more presented from the inside than the outside.

One of the most prominent points to be talked about is surely his realism, for which Robinson Crusoe is a perfect example. Being the novel of the origins a genre intended for a wide but also literate audience, as it is the novel for the Middle Class, it necessarily needs a pronounced dedication for a setting the most realistic possible, in order to be understood by both the well-educated and the uneducated readers.

This kind of literature, that to work needs the “suspension of disbelief” from the reader, wants in fact to talk about events sufficiently near to its audience's imagination, excluding the transcendental and metaphysical subjects. Clearly, the rise of the novel and the attention to realism in this period is the reflection of the rational way to think and act of the new hegemonic social group, the Middle Class, that started to effectively take the political and cultural power, since the English Revolution until the drastic changes of the 18th century.

This is also the reason why the author chooses the diary as narrative expedient, and even invents a tribal religion, for which he creates names such as Benamuckee or Oowokakee, that serves to lead us, just to create a natural and believable setting, to various interesting conclusions about our own society. In fact, reporting Friday’s religious beliefs, with all its similarities to real religions of the world, Defoe slips between the lines his opinions about the clerical hierarchy, that he recognizes as a device of popular control and that he covertly criticises. The hierarchical system is seen as primitive, inadequate to Defoe’s developed and intellectual society, which is now much more focused on the Middle Class than it was before. We can see clearly the diminishment of the Catholics’ values, traditions, and institutions, which obviously aren’t shared by Defoe. He indeed recognizes that it’s common among many cultures to make a secret out of religion, as a way to preserve the veneration reserved to the clergy and generally religious figures, but then he also writes that it’s seen among the “most brutish and barbarous savages”, a sentence that reveals the true thoughts behind the previous statement.

A matter of religion

campagnanomicol — 2023-12-11 11:45:50 UTC

Defoe and his father were, after all, part of a Protestant sect, called the Dissenters, that refused the authority of the Church of England, which they considered to be too materialistic and concerned with shutting down other cults or beliefs, preferring to impose their clerical hierarchy and make money rather than deal with purely religious and spiritual affairs. Many have described Robinson Crusoe’s, and therefore Defoe’s, principles as aligned with the Puritan belief, and in many instances this can be seen as true. The Puritan belief was, in fact, based on the idea that everyone should have a direct access to God, without the interjection of the clergy or other religious figures. The Bible was a personal guide of life, to be always read and studied in order to maintain a better lifestyle, to reach purity and God. This was something that Robinson Crusoe, during the novel, does a lot. Also the values of hard work, self-reliance and constant faith in God's help are mirrored in many instances by the main character, and considering the intended audience and the implied reader for this novel, it’s believable that Defoe’s aim was educating the readers and, by such, gaining more followers to convert to his branch of Christianity, where people could people find comfort and guidance through the Bible and God’s word.

It’s evident that Robinson’s thoughts in this excerpt are the same as Defoe’s. He believes that God is omnipotent and that he reigns supreme in the sky above, having the power to not only give man what he wants or needs, but also take everything away from him. Still, even if God can control everything, Defoe also thought that men should still be able to shape their own destiny through their actions, as it’s seen with the main character, Robinson, who manages to redeem himself after the act of disobedience, the original sin, that causes the whole novel to happen.

Together with the visible attempt at publicising his values, we can also see a diminishment of the Catholics’ values, traditions, and institutions, which aren’t shared, because of all the motivations mentioned above, by Defoe. As Puritans also believed that the Roman Church was to be purified, as a means to purify oneself, it’s easily understandable why Defoe would compare it to unruly and blinded pagans, being himself a Dissenter. While he recognizes that it’s common among many cultures to make a secret out of religion, as a way to preserve the veneration reserved to the clergy and generally religious figures, he also writes that it’s seen among the “most brutish and barbarous savages”, a sentence that reveals the true thoughts behind the previous statement. The hierarchical system is seen as primitive, inadequate to Defoe’s developed and intellectual society, which is now much more focused on the Middle Class than it was before.

Robinson as the proto-coloniser

campagnanomicol — 2023-12-11 11:46:54 UTC

Finally, in the text it’s heavily hinted the concept of the “White Man’s Burden”. Even though it was created only in the late 19th century by Kipling, with his homologous poem where he promotes colonisation as a civilising mission, we can already see the coloniser’s mindset in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, more than one hundred years before. It was believed by Kipling that the English man had to make savages, in terms of language, religion, traditions and such, as similar as possible to the typical white man. This process could require force and violence, but still the savage had to be thankful to the coloniser.

It’s clear how this idea was reflected in Crusoe’s actions: in fact, Crusoe believes that he has the right to change the name of the savage to “Friday” and to make him change his religious views. Yet, Friday is described as thankful to Crusoe for “saving his life”, even putting Crusoe’s foot on his head to show his loyalty. Another example of his loyalty and submission is the fact that the only way Friday can refer to Robinson Crusoe is “master”, one of the first things the main characters teaches him, as it is a way to underline their social differences.

We also know that Crusoe uses the same excuses of missionaries to justify his actions towards Friday:

“... I had not only been moved myself to look up to Heaven and to seek to the Hand that had brought me there, but was now to be made an instrument under Providence to save the life of, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know who is life eternal …” (Defoe, 217)

Another evident concept is then the idea of Otherness. The Otherness is a social process where a dominant group, the “in-group”, constructs one dominated group, the “out-group”, by reinforcing a difference presented as a negative and a motive for potential and eventual discrimination. In this case the language, religion and the colour of skin are the reinforced differences that justify the discrimination and enslavement of Friday. In fact, Defoe, in order to describe Friday as a positive character, depicted him similarly to an European man and not similarly to a common black man. Friday doesn’t have a black skin but an olive one, and he doesn’t have a big nose as the “negroes” but a small one.

In general, Robinson Crusoe acts like an owner of the land and thinks he has the right to enslave savages because he believes in the white man’s superiority.

The process of subjugation

campagnanomicol — 2024-01-11 00:42:55 UTC

Then, the way Robinson educates Friday is in itself peculiar of the white coloniser. To subjugate the savage, the European white man, Robinson, prototype of the coloniser, uses a process not much different from the ones used in initiation rites. What’s done first, in these rites, is in fact to take away the person from their old habits and traditions.

That’s why the first thing that Robinson does is to change the name of the savage, naming him Friday. That’s not only to give a reminder of the debt Friday owes him, but it’s also to strip him away from his old identity and make him conform to the new one, akin to European values, that he has given him. Not only that, but Robinson also gives Friday new clothes, European ones, to further move him away from his old lifestyle.

Then, the successive step is educating him in his principles, in his values. In particular, in this excerpt Robinson focuses on “opening” Friday’s eyes to the one, true religion, which is obviously his own. In initiation rites, this would be the period in which the new recruit learns about the cult’s traditions, without effectively acting on them. It’s then in the third phase, once the recruit, or in this case the savage, has accepted the new identity, that they can be integrated in the new society.

However, Friday’s case is different. While Robinson’s ultimate goal is indeed to make the savage “civilised”, it must be noted that nowhere was it implied, from the beginning of the novel, that Friday was to be an equal to him. Even the new clothes, given to Friday while stripping him away from his culture, weren’t like Robinson’s own, as they were worn out and old.

Robinson’s aim appears evident: not to simply educate Friday, but to subjugate him. So, he creates a master-slave relationship between the two of them, by reinforcing their differences, adding to the debt that Friday owes him, and teaching him just specific and necessary things, enough just to understand and comply with his orders. The role of the weapons, seen by Friday but never touched, is to highlight the differences between them in terms of power.

At last, the process could be deemed complete once Friday is completely tamed. And eventually, he is, so much that he even shames his old traditions and purposefully and voluntarily puts Crusoe’s foot on his head.