leader: Kasi Hlavaty
respondent: Sylvia Krzmarzick
recorder: Jill Petersen
2 July 2001

Robinson Crusoe is a work of literature from the colonizers of the West Indies, and Lucy is literature in response to colonization. In working out a dialogue between the two, I looked at the dominant and subordinate roles in each. Jamaica Kincaid gave me two avenues of approach, and unfortunately I could not decide which was best; therefore, I chose to discuss both.

In an interview with a reporter from the Mississippi Review, Kincaid stated that two major influences on the life of her character Lucy were Milton’s Paradise Lost and the book of Revelations from the Bible. She also stated that most people who read her book miss the connection she meant by naming the character Lucy – derived from Lucifer. I reviewed Lucifer’s story from Milton’s epic poem, drawing parallels between his story and the stories of Robinson Crusoe and Lucy. Lucifer was driven out of heaven because he refused to subordinate himself to God’s wishes. In the same sense, Crusoe would not conform to his father’s wishes, and Lucy refused to conform, period. She simply would not be placed "in a box" of existence; she wanted to be an assertive, individual person. The similarities continue when all three – Lucifer, Crusoe, and Lucy – all go abroad to a new place. Whether by curiosity, choice, or force, each character crossed the border from the land of the familiar to the land of exile. Some critics believe that Robinson Crusoe spoiled the island, much as Lucifer corrupted the inhabitants of the Garden of Eden. He created order, and he claimed possession of the land without regard for the possible inhabitants thereof. Lucy also entered a garden, however false, and seemed to corrupt Mariah with her inability to blindly accept her employers’ viewpoints.

Of course the roles of dominants and subordinates seems also to be expressed, especially in colonial literature, in the parent/child relationship. Crusoe’s father represents England the oppressor, trying to convince his son that the way of life that he purported was best for the son. Robinson occasionally has moments when he entertains the idea of conformity, yet he eventually decides to ignore his father’s advice. However, in the course of the action of the novel, Robinson eventually recreates life on his island in the image of another little island off the coast of France. In Lucy, England is represented in the role of mother. Lucy regards her mother with a mixture of bitterness and love, wishing she could have had some soft, gentle, loving memories of her. Mariah, Lucy’s surrogate mother in the United States, also simultaneously inspires love, disdain, and confusion in the heart and mind of the young Caribbean girl.

Sylvia also responded to the dominant and the subordinate relationships within the two novels, saying that Crusoe and Mariah seemed to be the same type of character, while Lucy seemed to be the voice of Friday. She explained that both Crusoe and Mariah seem to be the innocent oppressors, seeing only the ideal and ignoring, or simply blissfully unaware of, the feelings of the oppressed. Although Crusoe asks Friday about his culture and homeland, he never delves into the feelings that Friday may have about now having to change his customs. Sylvia asserted that Lucy serves this role; she speaks the anger and resentment that Friday most likely felt, but was not allowed to express.