Susanne Allen

September 29, 2011

 Self and Other—A Journey Home

   A novel is a time capsule that speaks to the time when it is written. It can be a complete work of fiction or even historical fiction; regardless, the author is limited by the constraints of the times that he lives in and the personal knowledge that he has. This knowledge inevitably promotes bias in societal hierarchy, religious views, and familial relationships. The struggles between the comforts of home and the need to flee a homeland are an interesting comparison in the novels of William Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy. The theme in colonial and post colonial literature in relation to what and where is home is an intextual dialogue that is profound in how the literature is read and interpreted. The use of home references involves a set of social guidelines that the characters embrace in order to remain true to themselves instead of becoming like the other. The characters of Lucy and Crusoe both flee their homeland only to find that the new place quickly becomes just like the old place. 

   In class, we discussed the self and other, and I originally thought that the reference was to the actual people, but as I read I realized that the other could be anything related to any aspect of what is familiar and learned. There cannot be an other unless the self is introspective enough to consider what the other is. I also realized that the other is not always the enemy of the self. It can be a tool to self-awareness and acceptance that people are not as special as they think. I have a sense of sameness as I read both novels. By sameness I mean, that each author wants to be different, but only manages to write about what they know.

   The other is often the enemy of the self, but somehow the other insidiously piggy backs to the new location of both Lucy and Crusoe. The other is generally thought of as a person other than the self, but it can also be a society, or a longing for the comfort of a motherland. Robinson Crusoe is a work of adventure and there are many vicarious events to hold the reader’s attention, but, still, the comforts of home prevail. Defoe paints a mental portrait of Crusoe as a civilized man among savages. Kincaid paints Lucy as a refined savage far removed from the savages of Crusoes time. The many years of British rule have allowed and demanded the savages of the 17^th century to conform to the morays of the modern West Indies. Both Lucy and Crusoe flee their homeland with distain, but then they both feel profound sadness as they long for the securities of home, and then try to recreate their heritage. In her midterm essay from 2009, Courtney Heintzelman distinguishes how gender can influence colonial and post-colonial literature. She argues that hegemonic masculinity prevails in societal structure.  I contend that, while men may rule the world, men and women have the same yearnings for the comforts of the familiar.

   Many times, in these two novels the other is not a person it is simply the familiar. Crusoe defies his parents and the trappings of the new emerging middle class in England. Many of his poor decisions that ultimately situate Crusoe on the island are directly associated with his need to rebel against his mother and father’s wishes. Crusoe admits, “I went on Board in an evil Hour, the 1st of Sept. 1659, being the same Day eight Year that I went from my Father and Mother at Hull, in order to act the Rebel to their Authority, and the Fool to my own interest (Defoe 36). The thought of a comfortable English life is abhorrent at the beginning of the novel; however Crusoe lives to recreate and live with those same social norms on the deserted island.  Crusoe pontificates, “It would have made a Stoick smile to have seen, me and my little Family sit down to Dinner; there was my Majesty the Prince and Lord of the whole Island; I had the Lives of all my Subjects at my absolute Command. I could hang, draw, give Liberty, and take it away, and no Rebels among my subjects” (Defoe125). Crusoe is the reigning king of his own little England despite his best attempts at escaping the other, England.

   Lucy, again, like Crusoe flees her homeland and even though she would like for us to believe she is fleeing her colonial captives, she is merely fleeing the dysfunctional maternal relationship with her mother. Lucy is untrusting of the white aristocracy; however, she finds employment with a wealthy family. Lucy is confronted with the conflict and complications of transnational migration. Lucy is hopeful that she will have a different and better life, but often as in Lucy’s case the reality is hard work and difficult transitions. She begins to miss her homeland the same way that Crusoe did. She becomes protective of her heritage, and again feels pride for the colony that was once her home. The novel also examines the issues of American ignorance of larger world and alternative worldviews. Lucy is upset that Mariah friends refer to the West Indies as the islands. Kincaid make the veiled argument that Americans are ill informed and unaware of the destruction of the native cultures.   

   The characters in both novels are at odds with the self and other. Crusoe becomes the ruler of his own society on the island. He recreates what he knows saying, “My Island was now peopled, and I thought my self very rich in Subjects; and it was a merry Reflection which I frequently made, how like a King I look'd. First of all, the whole Country was my own meer Property; so that I had an undoubted Right of Dominion. 2dly, My people were perfectly subjected: I was absolute Lord and Law-giver; they all owed their Lives to me, and were ready to lay down their Lives, if there had been Occasion of it, for me. It was remarkable too, we had but three Subjects, and they were of three different Religions (Defoe 203). The self and other are the antipathy of each other. The colonized feel invaded and resent the occupation and the colonizers think they have more to offer the colonized people. Jamaica Kincaid gives the English colonizer credit for building libraries and schools, but then blasts them for stealing her heritage and distorting her history while glorifying their own (94). Kincaid flip-flops a little between her poem and novel. Lucy carries much of the English ways with her when she works for the wealthy white family; otherwise, she would not be employable.

While Defoe has Crusoe colonize his small island through personal dialogue involving his decade’s long existence, as well as, through descriptive narrative that set the scene for his life journey. He takes us through many exploits in other counties, and each time his English values are used as his guiding principles. In Small Places, Jamaica Kincaid leaves her home in the West Indies and begins her journey of transnational migration to America. When I first read Small Places, I thought that Jamaica Kincaid was a political writer who was seething with hatred for England.  Kincaid laments the English for the damage they did to her homeland. She is angry because all perceptions of her are seen through English standards. “I am just one, made orphans, no motherland, no fatherland, no gods…and worst, no tongue”(Kincaid 94). She is desperate to claim her ancient heritage even though she cannot remember it.  I thought Lucy would also be completely devoid of love for her homeland, but, she experiences bouts of deep depression when she thinks of her mother and her homeland. This is the same homeland that Kincaid recoils from, but then covets in Lucy.  Once again, the comforts of home prevail.

   In the Man Who Would be King, Rudyard Kipling says, “We will bring enlightenment to the darker reaches of the earth” (Class Discussion Keaton). Kipling had a unique perspective and lived in a time of transition for many colonized countries. It seems like the colonized were hopeful that they could return to their native ways. They are able to stop the white king and crucify his friend, but had Kipling lived another few decades he would have surely wrote a different story. The story would have been one of a world view and world society that is quickly becoming homogenous and devoid of difference.  Now, the fight is not against colonization it is against self and how one defines the other and what it means to be a child of a new emerging culture that is slowly defining itself. The novels and poems all have one running theme of fleeing home only to return to it in the literal and figurative sense. Home is what is known and not where a person lives. Home will always find a way into the lives of characters in literature, and literature will continue to reflect the times in which it is written.

    Bibliography

Defoe, Daniel. “Robinson Crusoe.” Ed. John Richetti. London: Penguin Publishers, 2003. Print.

Kincaid, Jamaica. “Lucy.” Farrar, Strauss and Girvoux. 1990. Print.

--- “Small Places.” The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft. et al, New York, 1995. 92-94.