“Modern travel literature starts when civilization becomes a critical as well as self-evident notion – that is, when it is no longer so clear who is civilized and who is not”
(Susan Sontag, “Questions of Travel”, p. 275, Xerox Pack)
No one ever thinks of themselves as the barbarian. (Sontag, 274, “Questions of Travel”). Why would we? We know our strengths and our weaknesses and have the barometer of social norms to rationally judge both against; our native civilization. We consider ourselves normal because we understand ourselves. And when we consider the other, that which we do not understand, we often file it (them) into one of two categories, a threat or an inferior- both suggesting incivility. From Sontag’s description, Robinson Crusoe and the English translation of Tournier’s Friday are considered modern travel literature because they analyze this polarized view of civilization, of us vs. them. Further, they question whether or not Western Civilization can even be considered “civilized” at all.
Defoe presents his Robinson Crusoe as the everyman. He embodies characteristics that we find naturally within ourselves and lacks distinctive features that could characterize him as unique. He fears the unknown, self-isolates, suffers from loneliness and drastic mood swings. Such characteristics are universal-or shall we say, universally Western- and “normal”. But Robinson protests that he is, in fact, a better man on the island than the one he was back in England. “I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, not the pride of life.. I had all that I was capable of enjoying… I was a lord of the whole manor… I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country.” (Robinson Crusoe, Pg. 323) Here he simultaneously makes and breaks his point. On the island he possesses all he could ever want and need, but the very examples he sites as objects to be desired and enjoyed are western ideas; the idea of a property owner, or further a king. And even though he has all he needs to sustain himself, he is still discontent. His mood continues to swing like a pendulum and in the end he gets on the first ship back to England.
Even though he has escaped the “wickedness,” it remains within him. Robinson’s “problems” on the island stem from the values and ideas that Western Civilization has ingrained within him. And if he is the everyman of the western world, then the western world is one defined by extremes, one of hypocrisy. “How strange a chequer-work of providence is the life of man… Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear.” (Defoe, Robinson Crusoe) How can we know this of ourselves yet refuse to change it, or worse yet, believe this “chequer-work” life to be the superior one?
Sontag explains that classical and medieval literature customarily embodies the similar polar structure of us vs. them by creatving a villain or monster whenever possible. “A Christian culture could more easily believe in the existence of a monstrous than the perfect or near perfect.” (Sontag, Pg 274 “Questions of Travel”). The Institute of the Christian Church is made up of a network of extremes and opposites- god and the devil, heaven and hell, good and evil. And since one could say Christianity had a strong hand in shaping Western Civilization, a continuous state of cultural whiplash has been set into motion. Life is characterized as a constant struggle between the good and the bad, happiness and misery. So one would assume this logic applies to all walks of life. If I am living, death must be bad. If I am good, they must be bad. Robinson can only imagine the other to be a man-eating cannibal or a perfectly obedient slave. Luckily for him Friday turns out to be the later.
In characterizing Robinson as a unconscious hypocrite Defoe is suggests that Western Civilization is, in fact, the barbarian here, the uncivilized. We are meant to judge Robinson for his irrationality, and blame him for his own unhappiness because he is a manifestation of the Western World. Tournier’s Friday, however, brings this discussion to the present day, where we are seemingly less gullible than we were in the 18th century, but where we still fear, and demonize the other.
In the past two years Arizona and Alabama have passed “Anti-Immigration Laws” that perpetuate racist and inhumane sentiments in the United States. Specifically Alabama’s Law HB-56, which came into effect in October, 2011, denies undocumented immigrants in the state access to water and electricity in their homes, mercilessly tears families apart by authorizing instant deportation and encourages racial profiling. Officially titled the Hammon-Beason Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, the law is Alabama’s version of Robinson’s wall; a self destructive measure, a protection against a non-existent threat. He obsessively defends himself the cannibals (his idea of the other) but when the other finally comes, he doesn’t mind employing it as a slave. Like Robinson, the average American sees the other in two extremes, a murderous drug dealer, or an obedient cleaning lady.
Tournier is under no illusion that time has civilized us since Defoe’s publication of Robinson Crusoe. When Friday appears in Friday, Robinson becomes a monster, enslaving and abusing Friday much more aggressively than Defoe’s Robinson. But in keeping with Defoe’s Crusoe Tournier’s Crusoe is blatantly hypocritical, “He obeys me implicitly in everything, and it is strange that I should still find cause for complaint.” Tournier comments on our own inability to change our perspective even when we can acknowledge a gulf between engrained “truths” and what makes sense. Friday appears in Robinson’s life at the height of Robinson’s civilization on the island so it is fitting that he reacts so vehemently against Friday. His civilization told him to. Robinson does not understand Friday. He understands that a stranger is a savage, and “A savage is not wholly a human being” because that is what his civilization believes.
In the explosion of Robinson’s civilization in Friday, we see echoes of Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (King James Bible, Cambridge Edition) It was from nothing that his civilization was created in the first place and to dust it returned. Civilizations are temporary. They are not based on permanent enduring truths. The explosion brings on the final stage of Robinson’s metamorphosis. He lets go of the western ideas of order, time, and progress and changes his mind (rather suddenly) about Friday. Inspired by Friday’s freedom and life style Robinson begins to live his life how it is meant to be lived, with an unbreakable connection with the earth and understanding of himself.
We idealize just as equally as we demonize. By the end of Friday the reader is ready to sail to a deserted island and let the metamorphosis being. But Robinson’s island is a Utopia, one that doesn’t exist. “China has been a fantasy kingdom since Marco Polo’s visit: and in the eighteenth Century it was widely believed that in China, a land of reason, there was no war, debauchery, ignorance, superstition, or wide spread illness” (Sontag, Questions of Travel pg. 276) . America was equally idealized at it’s inception as the land of “milk and honey.” These perceptions existed because the countries were either new or different. They hadn’t yet been understood by the writers who were observing them. In Friday the reader see’s Friday as an ideal, to say that maybe we could be perpetually happy and content if we lived like him. Perhaps in the novel he can be perfect, but in an actuality he would not be perfect, he would just be different. He only seems perfect because he doesn’t have our set of problems and flaws. But maybe he would a whole other set. Our supposed strengths are his weaknesses and vice versa. But then who is to say which strengths are stronger? Whose to say which ones are more civil?
What does it mean to be civilized, anyway? What is civilization but an illusion of order and control? Used in common vernacular, “Civilized” is used in the context of manners and politeness. It’s a description of a certain acceptable inoffensive behaviour. Based on this definition Defoe’s and Tournier’s telling of Robinson Crusoe offer that Western Civilization is, in fact, uncivilized. We can then go further to say the word civilized itself is the monster. Not in the sense that all civilizations are evil and monstrous, but to define the word as only the world in which one lives, or to define the word at all is to perpetuate it’s polarity.
Our instinct to polarize is our resistance to understand something different or as Sontag would say, to translate. Different simply means not yet understood. Defoe’s Robinson goes through a shallow transformation, realizing that there are some inconsistencies between what Western Civilization would tell him is important and what he finds to be important and fulfilling on the island. However, he does not go through a metamorphosis as Tournier’s Robinson does. He returns to Britain, still considers Friday inferior, and professors to pass on his enlightenment to the people he meets in England. But he didn’t really learn anything new on the island, he just has a better understanding of Western Civilization better, something he already knew. Tournier imparts that for us to really change, make progress, it is necessary to take the Cartesian approach of exploring ourselves first and the world second. Only when we understand ourselves fully can we begin to understand the rest of the world- can we begin to translate our language into another. From Defoe and Tournier’s novels we can deduce that to be civilized means to understand a particular system, but not to understand ourselves or others.
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