LITR / CRCL 5734:
Colonial & Postcolonial Literature
Sample Student Final Exam 2003
Kayla Logan
LITR 5734
June 28, 2003
Final Essay: Religious Identity in Colonial and Postcolonial Works
Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe and A Passage to India (1924) by E. M. Forster both address the role of religion in one’s personal quest for self-awareness. Religion is crucial to the characters’ understanding and questioning of their identities. While Crusoe clings to his Protestant upbringing to assuage his solitude on the island, characters in A Passage to India find themselves struggling to understand their true natures in the face of new, or less than definite religious beliefs. In the postcolonial works, “Crusoe’s Island” (1965) by Derek Walcott, The God of Small Things (1997) by Arundhati Roy and Lucy (1990) by Jamaica Kincaid, however, the speaker or main characters seem to distance themselves from religion, seeking to define themselves in other ways. Unlike the colonial novels that present religion as an essential element for the definition of one’s identity, the individuals in the postcolonial works reject religion as a basis for generating one’s personal identity.
In Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe’s Protestant upbringing defines his personal identity and has an important function in his quest for individuality. Defoe’s novel addresses the search for personal identity and economic advancement through its protagonist, Robinson Crusoe. Although “the actual effect of Crusoe’s religion on his behavior […is…] curiously little,” it seems that Crusoe adopts Protestantism as the main focus for his self-awareness (Watt 80). Crusoe’s religious identification becomes especially evident first when he understands that he is the sole survivor of the wreck and that he is utterly alone on the island and again when he begins to educate “his man, Friday.” When faced with complete solitude, Crusoe is unable to create his identity through “the other.” He states that “we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it” (149). In the absence of an other by which to gauge his own being, Crusoe must lean on his Protestant upbringing to identify himself.
When he saves Friday, Crusoe is presented with an other. Like the colonizers, he immediately supposes that his beliefs and customs are far superior to those of Friday. After Crusoe names Friday and introduces himself to Friday as “Master,” he commences to teach Friday the English language and to “instruct him in the knowledge of the true God” (218). Crusoe denounces Friday’s belief in the traditional god, Benamuckee, “endeavor[ing] to clear up this fraud.” Crusoe’s testimony also produces an opportunity for Defoe to express anti-Catholic sentiments as Crusoe explains to Friday that the elders and priests of his traditional faith were actually “making a secret religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy” (219). According to Watt, Robinson Crusoe’s moralizing reveals the “Puritan individualism which controls his spiritual being” (74). Watt points out that Defoe’s novel deals with “leaving home, improving on the lot one was born to, [therefore portraying] a vital feature of the individualist pattern of life,” but Crusoe’s individualism seems to be based primarily on the Protestant faith that he experienced at home under the guidance of his parents. In Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe religion is a crucial element for the definition of Crusoe’s personal identity.
E. M. Forster’s colonial novel, A Passage to India, also presents religion as a strong determining factor in the development of personal identity. Unlike Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, A Passage to India addresses a more complicated religious situation. This is due, at least in part, to the difference in setting. Defoe’s setting is an island devoid of human inhabitants and established beliefs; his protagonist must rely on his own religious background to form his identity. To the contrary, Forster’s setting contains an extremely diverse, and often overwhelming variety of religious options. Forster highlights the differences between Hinduism and Islam, India’s two major traditional religions, yet even these two religions have many different variations and sects. In addition, the British influence in India brings Protestant Christianity into the picture. When confronted with these different views of faith, Forster’s characters are much more likely to struggle with their personal identity.
Mrs. Moore is probably the best example of the questioning and personal crisis that may occur when a character is presented with many different ways to view creation, salvation and the ways of the world. When she meets Aziz in the mosque, the reader understands that Mrs. Moore seems to be open to different beliefs. Mrs. Moore’s openness to new religious ideas may have contributed to the traumatic experience that occurs after she goes into the first cave when, “on the edge of her mind, Religion appeared, poor little talkative Christianity, and she knew that all its divine words from ‘Let there be Light,’ to ‘It is finished’ only amounted to ‘boum’” (166). This great emptiness terrifies Mrs. Moore because it causes her to question her faith, therefore causing her to question her identity. As a woman, Mrs. Moore is not completely bound by the colonialist view that her faith is the one true faith. Until she arrived in India, it seems that she never had occasion to question her beliefs.
Unlike Crusoe, who is not presented with any option except that of Friday, which to him seems obviously incorrect, Mrs. Moore is forced to examine her “true faith,” an exercise that proves very upsetting to her vision of her life. Her strong hold on her personal identity collapses and she loses “all interest, even in Aziz, and the affectionate and sincere words that she had spoken to him seemed no longer hers but the air’s” (166). Mrs. Moore no longer feels in possession of her own words and sentiments. Her experience in the cave brings her too close to a universal understanding of God, causing her to doubt the beliefs that contributed to her perception of self throughout her life. It seems that she begins to question her faith and comes too close to otherness in the cave. When the self is challenged by otherness often chaos occurs. This seems evident with Kurtz and Marlow’s thoughts in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. When the suggestion of kinship with the natives becomes more than a suggestion, but a truth, there is a greater chance of a lapse in personal identity and insanity may ensue.
Forster’s A Passage to India is not only chronologically more modern than Robinson Crusoe, it addresses identity in a more modern way. This illustrates the progression of the novel toward modernity in terms of dealing with identity of characters in more advanced manner. While Defoe presents a relatively one-sided narration of Crusoe’s life, Forster attempts to present the world as a multifaceted, yet unified place. Forster achieves a more in depth view of the world in his novel through more carefully developed dialogue and more interactions between characters of different religious backgrounds. In her 2001 presentation, Suganthi Senapati mentions the “so-called pantheism of Forster [and his] belief in the basic oneness of all.” Forster’s novel seems in large part to make an attempt to draw attention to the divisions experienced by humans as a result of differences in skin color, customs and faiths. Unlike Defoe, Forster questions the validity of imperialism and colonization by presenting his characters with religious options that have potential to destroy, or at least call into question their set views of their own identities. Forster’s novel seems to present a more balanced view of colonialism than Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The problems faced by the characters in A Passage to India present a cynical and almost satiric view of colonialism. Forster’s cynical presentation of colonialism seems to suggest that the merging of self and other, the constant exposure to otherness, ultimately harms the characters in the novel and in the end no common ground is reached by Aziz and Fielding. The postcolonial works of Walcott, Roy, and Kincaid, on the other hand, seem to present individuals whose identities are not determined or threatened by differing religious viewpoints, but individuals who completely reject a master narrative of creation and faith as an indicator of their personal identities.
A recurring theme in Derek Walcott’s poetry seems to be rewriting history and challenging religion. Walcott’s poem, “Crusoe’s Island” addresses the idea of rejecting the colonizers’ versions of creation and religion in an effort to forge a new identity that is unique to the postcolonial generation. Walcott seems to write a sort of variation of the Genesis story. In “Crusoe’s Island” Walcott includes images of forging and creating such as “God’s anvil,” and “Earth’s open kiln” (I, 2 and 9). These images of inventing and forming seem to address the difficulty and frustration associated with creating one’s identity. The speaker in “Crusoe’s Island” laments, “My father, God, is dead” (I, 19). Walcott might be pointing out the initial religious uncertainty of Crusoe, and of “Friday’s progeny,/ The brood of Crusoe’s slave,” who could be linked to the generation of West Indians forced to experience a postcolonial world in which the original culture is hybridized (III, 10-11). The loss of religiously based identity by postcolonial individuals seems evident as the speaker claims, “I have lost sight of hell, / Of heaven, of human will” (II, 33-34). While one could argue that the speaker in Walcott’s poem finally achieves a reconciliation and an image of worthwhile identity as he states, “And nothing I can learn / From art or loneliness / Can bless them as the bell’s / Transfiguring tongue can bless,” it is the sound of the bell, not the actual organized religion that provides this comfort to the speaker in Walcott’s poem. Like Walcott’s poem the novels The God of Small Things and Lucy address the need to reexamine the history and religion that was imposed on traditional cultures by the colonizers. Like the speaker in Walcott’s poem the characters in these postcolonial novels seem to initially reject established religious creeds as a basis for the creation of their identities in their efforts to achieve self-awareness.
In her postmodern novel, The God of Small Things, Roy addresses many issues of identity. One issue addressed in the novel is the role of religion in determining one’s personal identity. The characters Ammu, Rahel, and Estha are the descendants of Syrian Christians who operated in a colonial world. As these three characters attempt to find their own identity, they must reject many religious beliefs and standards for behavior in order to find personal fulfillment. Ammu moves away to marry outside of her faith and the children of her union with a Hindu man are considered “Half-Hindu Hybrids whom no self-respecting Syrian Christian would ever marry” (44). The narrator states that “Perhaps Ammu, Estha and [Rahel] were the worst transgressors [because they] tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how” (31). Although the quests for identity in which Roy’s main characters are engaged are not solely dictated by religion, but also by cultural and social standards, the role of religion in society and the lives of individuals is at the forefront. Even though Ammu, Rahel, and Estha are brought up in a Christian family, they rarely discuss the importance of religion in their lives and Roy never suggests that they attend religious services or receive religious educations.
The God of Small Things addresses the role of religion in determining identity in the character Velutha and the Untouchable class from which he comes. The narrator explains, “When the British came to Malabar a number of [people] converted to Christianity and joined the Anglican church to escape the scourge of Untouchability” (71). Of course the Untouchables’ reputation within the Indian community never changes and as a result, Untouchables such as Velutha seem to reject religion as a determining factor in the perception of self. Roy describes the conversion of the Untouchables as “a little like having to sweep away your footprints without a broom. Or worse, not being allowed to leave footprints at all” (71). Not being allowed to leave footprints addresses the fact that to some extent the Untouchables were not allowed to have an identity—even with a Christian religious affiliation. Roy seems to attempt to give Velutha a new religious identity by labeling him the God of Small Things. Roy’s novel is distinctly postcolonial in that it addresses the ultimate failure of the colonizer’s religion and social reforms to civilize India. As a result the characters Ammu, Rahel, Estha, and Velutha turn away from religion. It seems that these characters view religion only as a label that may be placed upon them, but not as a determining factor in the way that they perceive themselves.
Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, Lucy, reveals a character that also rejects the master narrative of the Bible and religion as an indicator of her personal identity. Like Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid addresses the need of the postcolonial generations to self-invent, or re-create their cultural and personal identities. Kincaid’s protagonist, Lucy, is very bitter about the lack of ancestral history that survived the colonization of her home in the West Indies. Like Ammu and Rahel, she rejects the labels of religion placed upon her. Lucy does this by rejecting the master narrative of the creation of mankind. Lucy’s name is a female version of Lucifer. She admits that “the stories of the fallen were well known to [her], but [she] had not known that [her] own situation could even distantly be related them” (153). In the last chapter the reader understands that the novel examines Lucy’s attempt to sever herself from her past. Like Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, she refuses to live a life of subjugation to her creator (her mother) and begins to understand, “I was inventing myself […] more in the way of a painter than in the way of a scientist” (134). This effort to self- create is evident in Walcott’s “Crusoe’s Island” in the speaker’s pronunciation that “My father, God, is dead.” Both the speaker in Walcott’s poem and Lucy feel that their heritage has been destroyed and that in order to flourish and reach self-awareness they must leave their homelands, sever their ties to their places of origin and attempt to define themselves on their own terms.
Like many postcolonial works, Lucy addresses the complications associated with creating one’s identity in a postcolonial world. Lucy feels that the old religion and culture celebrated by her grandmother is lost and she feels much resentment in having to go to the land of the colonizers to escape traditional gender roles set for her in Antigua. If one’s identity is often developed by viewing self in terms of other, Lucy’s identity is switched to a point that she views her self as the other. This adds to the comparison of Lucy with Satan, who cannot be good like God and must identify himself as completely evil. Lucy’s letter to her mother in which she catalogues her sexual experiences and sins seems to imply that Lucy has aligned herself with the evil other. Her rejection of a religiously based identity in which one would view one’s self as a inherently good creation of God is prompted by the fact that the colonizers denied West Indians a cultural history and a valid cultural and personal identity.
If Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe links Crusoe with Adam, then Kincaid’s Lucy links Lucy with Satan. In her dialogue between Robinson Crusoe and Lucy, Dendy Farrar gives a definition of individuality as the “carv[ing of] your own space in the world without the help of any intermediary force and at the opposition of external forces like parents, instruction, etc.” Indeed, both novels deal with the pursuit of individuality, but while Crusoe uses his Protestant European past to build his identity on his deserted island, Lucy feels that her religious and cultural history has been bastardized and convoluted by the colonists who imposed their own faith on the lives of the colonized in the West Indies. Crusoe seeks reconciliation with his heritage through his return to Protestant ideals, but Lucy desires no such reconciliation. She turns away from her creator and attempts to create an identity that is completely unique.
The examination of religion is inherent in the examination of culture. Colonial works such as Robinson Crusoe and A Passage to India seem to have a tendency to present religion as the most important aspect for determining characters’ identity, while postcolonial works such as The God of Small Things and Lucy feature characters that disregard religion as a determining factor for their development of personal identity. Both set in India, A Passage to India and The God of Small Things are similar in that they both present religion as a frustration to personal identity. The postcolonial works of Walcott, Roy and Kincaid, all present religious cynicism that seems to foster an effort to rewrite cultural history and invent new and unique personal identities. Reading these works in dialogue with one another reveals that religion plays a much greater role in determining characters’ identities in colonial works like Robinson Crusoe and A Passage to India than in the post-colonial works, “Crusoe’s Island,” The God of Small Things and Lucy.