Allen Reid

10/6/09

Dialogue and How it is Used by Defoe and Kincaid

            As an undergraduate in humanities, I focused the majority of my studies in history. In my graduate studies, however, I have only taken literature courses except for the text and Images classes required by my degree plan. Although I have a significant background in both history and literature, I never really thought of merging the two disciplines i.e., using literature to study history or vice versa; when I began this class however that changed. Sure I took literary theory like every other graduate student in literature, but it is “shoved down your throat” so fast, in one semester, that one hardly has time to digest it; but, now taking a class in colonial and post colonial literature, and reflecting back on my literary theory studies, it all came together. I understand that by looking at literature through historical lenses, we can see history a lot closer; i.e., we get to know characters personally something you cannot do reading a history book. For example, by reading Robinson Crusoe and Lucy and analyzing the dialogue we can study the colonizer and the colonized.

            In Defoe’s novel, for instance, Crusoe’s dialogue with Friday is that of colonizer and the colonized. Crusoe embodies the colonizer in every sense. He is emblematic of the way that the majority of Englishmen viewed themselves during this time period. Crusoe lands on an uninhabited island and quickly makes it habitable. The language he uses to refer to the island, which indeed belongs to no one, “my little kingdom” and referring to his six year being shipwreck as “the six year of my reign (100)” illustrates the mindset of the colonizer. He is not stranded, he is not a visitor, but he is king and master over his domain. The narrative here reminds me of a class I took on the Holocaust as an undergraduate. In this class we discussed the word pseudospeciation; the definition denotes two things: us and the others; and we are always superior to the others. This ideology makes it easier for people to treat others inferiorly.  Crusoe sees himself as a different pseudospecies. He is superior, and just as he has brought civilization to the uninhabited island, he plans to force it into the savage. Never is there one thought of equality in the dialogue between the two.

            I wished I had a source for my point here, but the best I can do is give a quote from Dr. Van Hoy, formerly  professor of Latin American History at UHCL “The mindset of the Spaniards was that one Spaniard could take on six natives.” Crusoe says “Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them” (145). Crusoe’s words are identical to European thought of his time. He does not fear the natives (at this point) and is confident that he can overtake them and make them his slaves.  When he finally encounters Friday, the primary silent dialogue between the two, as they had no common language as of yet, was that of master and servant: “and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head; this it seems was in token of swearing to be my slave forever” (147).  Crusoe never tries to deter Friday from acting in such a way, but encourages it.

            Lucy does not display such an eagerness to submit to her role in society. Whereas Friday is a willing pupil and absorbs everything his master has to teach him with felicity, Lucy questions the ideas of Mariah. Even though Lucy and Mariah are not in a master slave relationship per say, there is a difference in race, and Lucy comes from an island that was colonized by white people, and Lucy in a sense is Mariah’s servant. Friday gladly accepts Crusoe world. He accepts the European idea of civilization and the Christian God over Benemucke. Mariah is like Crusoe in that she wants everyone to see the world as she does. “Mariah wanted all of us, the children and me, to see things the way she did. She wanted us to enjoy the house, all its nooks and cranies all its sweet smells, all its charms, just the way she had done as a child” (90). Lucy refuses to be made to see things the way Mariah wants. She plans to see things the way she wants.

            I do find one similarity between the submissive savage Friday and the rebel teen Lucy, and that is their reaction to religion. Christianity was spread through colonizers throughout history; and I think here, in these two novels, we get inside the head of two people who can be viewed as the colonized in the narratives. Friday receives Christianity without question until he is presented with the idea of the Devil. It is the age old philosophical debate about the problem of evil, which the savage wins. When Mariah returns from a fishing trip, she uses biblical language that causes Lucy to have a flashback from her childhood. The biblical language used by Mariah is “I will make you fishers of men.” Lucy recalls the first time she heard the story of Jesus feeding the multitude. She relates the story to Mariah about how she enquired about how the fish were prepared, and how she was ridiculed for asking a question that was considered stupid to others, but it was very important to her. Lucy liked broiled fish.

It is interesting to note that the fisherman in her village would fry some of their catch and sell it to the people. “He (a fisherman) might save some of them (his catch), clean and season them, and build a fire, and he and his wife would fry them at the seashore and put them up for sale” (38). I read this as fried fish here being associated with capitalism, something connected with colonizers, and Lucy prefers broiled fish instead. After Lucy relates her story to Mariah, Mariah does not even reply. Instead of Mariah listening to Lucy like an equal, they fry the fish like Mariah wants. Mariah like Crusoe wants to force her world on others. I see a similarity here between Friday’s questioning the Devil, and not accepting it for what it is, and Lucy not accepting the story of Jesus feeding the multitude for what it is. Both of them think that it could be better if something were changed. Lucy would like the story of Jesus feeding the multitude of people better, if the story would say that Jesus broiled the fish, and Friday would like the story of Christianity better, if God would kill the Devil. And in both cases it is the same narrative of someone wanting to force their world and ideas on others, but in the case of religion we see both Lucy and Friday not so willing to accept everything.

Lucy, unlike Friday, does not like anyone to be possessive over her or have authority. Mariah expresses this attempt to posses Lucy in her response to Peggy. “She said that Peggy was never to come to the house and should never be around the children,” because Mariah does not like Peggy, she attempts to control their relationship (63). Instead of being happy for Lucy, she is jealous. She seems offended that Lucy should have a life outside of Mariah’s family. Therefore, she mandates rules regulating her and Peggy’s relationship. Again it is a dialogue representational of colonial and post colonial relationship between a colonizer and the colonized, where the colonizer desires to possess everyone and everything around them.

 The same idea of the colonizers wanting to possess everything is expressed again in the narrative about the table that Mariah had seen while on vacation in Finland. She liked it so much that she had it shipped back home. “When she told me this, it amazed me to think that someone could find an old piece of kitchen furniture at one end of the world and like it so much they would go to so much trouble to make sure it was always in their possession” (58-9). The narrative encompasses the entire idea of colonization. That is what colonizers did they explored new worlds and took what they explored as theirs. They went to great extremes to maintain their possessions.

Lucy really rebels when she is being possessed. When she loses her virginity she makes sure that the boy does not know that he is her first.  “But when I saw how much it mattered to him to be the first boy I had ever been with, I could not give him such a hold over me” (83).  She would not give him the pleasure of knowing that he had taken her virginity from her. A few lines down from this she explains how before this boy there had been another and they would kiss in the library. She said that she continued to kiss him long after she stopped having feelings for him, only “to see how undone he would become by my kisses” (83). It is here that Lucy, who is normally in the situation of being oppressed, is controlling the situation. We see again in the narrative of Paul, Lucy rebelling against possessive behavior. When Paul brings Lucy a picture of herself naked from the waist up cooking for him, she realizes that was the moment he started trying to own her “and that was the moment I grew tired of him” (155). The imagery of her being naked from the waist up brings to mind the European colonizer’s idea of the uncivilized native.

Lucy’s rebellion is more post-colonial than colonial. I say that because her reaction to her sexual relationships seems to be latent psychological responses to suppressed feelings of anger associated with being controlled. When she has the opportunity, like with the boy in the library the suppressed feelings come out and she expresses control over others. She is not like Friday who gladly places his head on the ground and Crusoe’s foot on top.

I think that Friday represents the colonial time period more and Lucy post-colonial. Friday is like most of the Native American people who at first tried to befriend the Europeans. Friday is eager to please and learn, but Lucy is eager to rebel and oppress others like she has been oppressed whenever she can. More importantly, Friday, Lucy, Mariah, and Crusoe give us important insight into the thought of colonial and post-colonial people. Through their dialogue we get a glimpse into both the colonizer and those being colonized or those who have been colonized.