Robinson Crusoe: Capitalism Robinson Crusoe Term Paper

He doesn't really need the company of other people and this shows that he was essentially a materialistic person- someone who was happier with money alone and didn't care much about people. "It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days"(Defoe 113). Out of fear essentially, Crusoe starts working on the island by using whatever resources were available and by producing them for his use. He works hard to produce some corn and barley on the island that he sees as a "prodigy of Nature" (Defoe 80). These grains provide the sole livelihood for Crusoe and serve as the only real source of food. It is at this time that he realizes that all he needs to do is depend on himself for survival and views his misfortune as a blessing in disguise. He tells himself: "I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived" (Defoe 207) and that "I lived there... perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed in a sublunary state" (Defoe 217). Crusoe's individualism, his excessively reliance on himself and his inability to value relationships are some of the key characteristics of a capitalist. Apart from this, excessive dependence on division of labor is also highlighted in the novel. While division of labor makes us more productive, it somehow takes away a sense of completeness from us as T.H. Green had observed: "In the progressive division of labor, while we become more useful as citizens, we seem to lose our completeness as men... The perfect organization of modern society removes the excitement of adventure and the occasion for independent effort. There is less of human interest to touch us within our calling." Crusoe also believes in division of labor because he finds it the most productive way of expanding and making profits. There are many instances in the novel that turn our attention to capitalism. For example Marx had always believed that capitalism is a system whereby laborers who are actual producers of goods are removed from the goods. These goods are sold by the owner as commodities and no one really ever sits down to think about the amount of labor that went into producing that good. In a similar manner, Crusoe reflects on making of bread in these words: "Tis a little wonderful and what I believe few people have thought much upon, viz., the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, procuring, curing, dressing, making and finishing this one article of bread. "

The novel thus deals with the issue of capitalism in two ways. On the one hand it attacks the system of profit making while on the other, it shows the protagonist following just that system.

References

Daniel Defoe "Robinson….....