Writing from a point of view that concludes "that the novel, as a cultural artefact of bourgeois society, and imperialism are unthinkable without each 'other', Edward Said Robinson Crusoe deems as "explicitly enabled by an ideology of overseas expansion – directly connected in style and form to the narratives of 16th- and 17th-century exploratory voyages that laid the foundations of the great colonial empires." Alternatively, J Paul Hunter analyzed the effect of travel books on the origins of the novel and decided that "Travel is usually, however, a structure of convenience – to move through space is to learn – rather than a feature formally adapted from travel books [...] the novel is the product of serious cultural thought on comparative societies and on the multiple nature of human nature". This view of the novel as conscious of the way it represents different societies, and of its use of travel as a function, is a way of reading Gulliver's Travels that provides insight into the objects of Swift's satire. The difference between these two visions highlights that these novels can be read from different perspectives, which do not necessarily provide a coherent and uniform picture. Ultimately, there are many forces that shape these novels, of which travel, trade, and colonialism are among the most important, as they provided much of the dynamic for the society that was being reflected or criticized. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The initial reason for Robinson Crusoe's journey is that he is forced to see the world. Even though this means rebellion against his father and the providential designs of God, which have combined to provide him with a comfortable, middle-class life, Crusoe is intent on travelling. However, Crusoe's desire to travel is motivated by the opportunities afforded by the nascent colonialism of the 17th century. Crusoe shows little interest in simply "seeing" the world, wanting to thrive on what he finds and manipulate the legitimized, but not yet institutionalized, colonial practice of seizing gold and importing materials. From this perspective, travel is simply a means of accumulating wealth, despite the initial allure that a life at sea might hold for a young man (even if this allure is short-lived for Crusoe). In Robinson Crusoe, the journey is a means to escape from the island, to get to safety when his small boat is lost, to explore his island to discover the capital at his disposal, as a threat of punishment for the mutineers by returning them to England . and to be in the right places, i.e. Lisbon and London, to conduct business. The different uses of travel cause this process of movement through space to become an obstacle to achieving the desired result, and Crusoe feels obliged to assure the reader that "As I have not troubled you with any of my Sea-Journals, so you I will disturb now without anyone from my Land-Journal". It assumes what the reader wishes to read, and consequently Crusoe's travels are edited by an author whose intentions are to provide an instructive example rather than a description of the lands he has seen – descriptions which he acknowledges as having been conducted by other travelers . "with much more advantage than me." This distancing of Robinson Crusoe from travel books has led to underlining its autobiographical or allegorical traits. However, the majority of the novel takes place in regions of the world foreign to its readers, and these areas are carefully observed in concrete terms, so it is dangerous to ignore the travel elements of thenovel. This is because much of the meaning of the novel is contained in the assumptions that Crusoe makes about the world he observes. In this regard, Crusoe is one of the cultural productions that created and strengthened the European vision of the rest of the world. For example, when Crusoe expresses surprise "that the Eyes of an infinite Power can peer into the remotest corner of the world and send help to the wretched whenever he pleases", it should be noted that his God is Eurocentric, on the one hand The universal deity and omnipresent it should not distinguish Crusoe's island – though apparently remote to European man – from any other place. Gulliver's Travels attempts to satirize novels like Crusoe that present themselves as factual, but are actually a carefully constructed work of fiction. Defoe's preface unequivocally claims the work as fact, which can be used didactically; The editor believes this to be a fair history of the facts; nor is there any appearance of pretence in it: and yet he thinks, as all these things have been dispatched, that his improvement, as well as the diversion, as the instruction of the reader, will be the same. Swift viewed this emergence of presented fiction as disturbing, not only because of the deception, but because he saw that such creations would promote one worldview above others, even if the content was incorrect. Adventures like Crusoe's would sell in greater numbers if audiences believed it to be true and Swift saw it as endemic to a commercialized and corrupt society. His response was to have Gulliver firmly insist on the truth of his wildly fantastic story, stating that "the truth immediately strikes every reader with conviction." While Gulliver's deadpan nature might have written these words, Swift's voice comes through more clearly when evaluating his fellow writers: I thought we were already full of travel books [...] I doubted that some authors consulted the truth less than their . vanity, or interest, or distraction of ignorant readers. That my story could contain little beyond common occurrences, without those ornamental deviations of strange plants, trees, birds, and other animals, or the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage peoples, with which most writers abound. Swift observes the objectification of the inhabitants of the countries visited by European travellers, and even in the brief description above they are represented pejoratively. Although Gulliver goes to sea to engage in trading activities, he does so as part of a ship's company, not as a private trader like Crusoe. When he is shipwrecked and lands in a foreign land, he does not evaluate the land in terms of its usefulness, but as a curious spectator. In all the lands he visits, Gulliver attempts to make contact with the native population, and although he finds himself subjugated or deemed inferior, he sets out "to observe the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as to learn their language." He even informs us that he has written extensively about Lilliput for the benefit of the English public. This desire to learn develops into an anti-travel sentiment when Gulliver wishes that instead of traveling to the Houyhnhnms, "they were able or willing to send a sufficient number of their inhabitants to civilize Europe." Gulliver's role within the novel changes in relation to the surrounding environment and its inhabitants. He is a subject in Lilliput, a novelty in Brobdingnag, a tourist in the lands of Book 3, and a social inferior in the land of the Houyhnhnms. He is also a father and husband who leaves England "to get rich, with which I can support myself and my family". Gulliver's relationship with the reader also changes, as he can be an informative narrator, an incompetent figure andcomedian, a spokesperson for Swift or a merchant and imperialist. His views are susceptible to change as Swift sought to satirize different targets. For example, Gulliver is the guardian of liberty when he refuses to assist in the attack on Blefescu, but offers the king of Brobdingnag the secret of gunpowder so that he can be "absolute master of the lives, liberties, and fortunes of his people ".Therefore, Gulliver cannot be read as a standard characterization, but uses a reference for comparison with his particular situation, allowing Swift not only to satirize contemporary society, but also to condemn man as an animal tending towards corruption, pretension, oppression and greed. The consequences of trade are not a major focus in Gulliver's Travels, but the novel's concerns arise from a society that was increasingly shaped by the potential benefits of trade. Economic and moral questions arose from increased trade, and writers engaged in a debate about how best to achieve both of these goals. Standard economic thinking throughout the 17th century was that the balance of trade should be designed so that the maximum amount of bullion flowed into the country and the minimum went out. This involved increasing domestic production, limiting consumption and importing raw materials rather than consumer products. Consequently, the role of traders and imperialists was to establish colonies capable of producing capital in the form of currency or raw materials and to create new markets for English goods. Defoe devoted some of his time as a writer and thinker to economics and believed that, in the words of Peter Earle, "larger and larger colonies were a good idea [...] to provide much-needed strategic goods, but also to consume the products of England". The simple economic model of the previous century was continually expanding to appreciate the importance of investment in increasing production. This became evident when individual entrepreneurs, aiming to get rich, created wealth for others. Robinson Crusoe is an example of what Liz Bellamy describes as "the figure who would become known as the capitalist [...] These individuals began to be appreciated as essential to economic progress, rather than being represented as mere passive parasites". Crusoe displays a pragmatic approach to his travels, seizing opportunities as they arise. He is not satisfied with simply accumulating the few ounces of gold he brings back from his first voyage, but aims to become an established trader in Guinea. After being enslaved and escaping, he finds himself in Brazil, where he raises capital by selling the skins of the animals he kills, the wax and guns he has stolen, and, in the first example of treating non-Europeans as capital, his servant . Xury. Once settled in Brazil, Crusoe imports English iron objects and acquires a slave. His fortunes are on the rise and even after over 20 years on his island he still laments the possibilities that have passed him by; "I might have been worth a hundred thousand Moydors; and what business had I to leave a stable fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and enlarging, to turn Supra-Cargo into Guinea, to fetch the negroes". In line with Defoe's views on economic expansion, Crusoe turns his attention to the slave trade because, as Earle notes, "In Defoe's worldview slavery was essential. Economic progress in England depended on the development of the American colonies ". Moral objections to slavery could be dismissed with the idea that God had degraded the natives and they were inherently subservientto the White Man. Friday seems like the model, according to Defoe, of a slave. He immediately understands his inferiority and shows unconditional compliance with Crusoe's wishes when he "laid his head on the ground, and, taking me by the foot, placed my foot on his head; this seems to be a sign of an oath to be my slave forever." ". Although Crusoe is grateful for Friday's company, it is above all his usefulness that he appreciates. Almost immediately Crusoe assures that "he took it upon himself to teach him every thing that was appropriate to make him useful, handy and helpful ". Swift's opposition to colonialism meant that it was the European Gulliver who became the object of slavery. in the Lilliputian design to blind him and use him for labor or in his treatment by the peasant Brobdingnag; "the more my master took me, the more insatiable he became. I had completely lost my stomach, and was almost reduced to a skeleton." Similarly, the Houyhnhnms are shocked by the use of horses in England, where they are prized for their ability to work, whereupon they are eliminated and their bodies stripped for valor capital. Gulliver comments on the Houyhnhnms' response that "it is impossible to represent his noble resentment at our savage treatment." Swift's reversal of common assumptions of nobility and savagery reveals that slavery was only possible when justified by a sense of superiority. moral with respect to colonial subjects, which he did not have. His anti-colonialism may have been centered on his Irish origins, but there is no doubt that he detested the principles of economic necessity and moral superiority that underpinned the colonial mission. area of ​​economic thought concerning trade on which Swift and Defoe would have shared opinions is opposition to the consumption of luxury goods. These products not only came from England's trading rivals such as France, but also diverted gold from the colonies and the pockets of the domestic poor. Such trade was therefore considered bad economic sense and morally subversive. If Crusoe is the commercial archetype of Defoe, we can see that throughout the novel he reinvests his capital, lives a prudent lifestyle, and moves bullion between the colony and the mother country, which encourages the development of both. Gulliver openly attacks the luxurious and expensive tastes of the rich: It is estimated that England (the dear place of my birth) produces three times as much food, more than its inhabitants are capable of consuming. [...] to feed the luxury and intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we sent most of our necessary things to other countries, from where in return we brought the materials of disease, madness and vice, to spend between us. Trade meant that men traveled around the world like never before, and an exchange of goods ensured an exchange of culture. This is most clearly expressed in the Academy of Lagado, where there is a project to create a "universal language to be understood in all civilized nations, whose goods and utensils are generally of the same kind." If goods and tools were internationally common and capable of expressing the meaning needed to conduct business, then the effect of trade on globalization would be evident in 1726. If trade provided the need for colonies, then the presuppositions of racial and moral superiority justified them. Crusoe shows the European colonizer's confidence in asserting his supremacy over the "savages" he encounters throughout his story. One look at Africans is enough to petrify Crusoe, who classifies them below animals; "we should be devoured by wild Beasts, or by more ruthless Savages of the human type". The perspective ofmeaningful interaction with them is undesirable for Crusoe, whose thoughts immediately turn to slaughter and enslavement when he first sees humans on his island; "if there were twenty I would kill them all: this fantasy satisfied my thoughts for some weeks". This desire to kill and enslave is only made possible thanks to martial superiority. It is Crusoe's weapons and his obsession with fortifying his holdings that allow him to confront and subdue the native population. But such is Crusoe's conviction of his rights, that he concludes that it is God who has armed him as a pious man in the face of degenerates, citing as guidance "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me." ". Swift's ferocious attack on colonialism in the final chapter of Gulliver's Travels directly confronts this kind of colonialism; "free license given to all acts of inhumanity and lust, the earth reeks of the blood of its inhabitants: and this execrable team of butchers employed on such a pious expedition, is a modern colony sent to convert and civilize an idolatrous and barbarous people". It is Gulliver who receives the uninformed classification that has been conducted in European observations of the native peoples. It is concluded that he has fallen from stars in Lilliput, which is a piece of clock in Brobdingnag and expresses "my uneasiness that he has so often called me Yahoo." Expressed by an English voice, this process of classification seems unfair and unwise, but for the colonial subjects it served to justify their repression. An important tool in this repression is the use of language. The first word that Crusoe teaches Friday is 'Master', so that he can only express his servitude. This is directly reflected during Gulliver's stay with the Houyhnhnms "My chief endeavor was to learn the language which my master [. . . was] desirous of teaching me." Gulliver informs the reader that the Houyhnhnms had no words for "Power, government, war, law, punishment and a thousand other things", and this contributes to his ability to boast of having removed "that infernal habit of lying, mixing, deceiving and misunderstanding, so deeply rooted in the very soul of my entire species, especially Europeans". For Friday, the main use of his new language, after being able to understand the instructions, is to read the Bible as part of his conversion to Christianity. As Defoe's model colonial subject, Friday is grateful for his salvation and becomes aware of the inferiority of his race; I began to instruct him in the Knowledge of the true God [...] and so gradually I opened his Eyes. He listened with great attention and received with pleasure the idea that Jesus Christ had been sent to redeem us[...] you teach wild men to be good, sober and gentle men; tell him to know God, pray to God and live a new life" In a novel that presents itself as fact, this characterization serves to reinforce the impression of the "Savage" that he drew from previous stories and assumptions about the natives. As a man of God , Swift may have wished to dissociate the spread of Christianity from the colonizing mission, and although he condemns the claiming of land in the name of princes by divine right, his opposition to colonialism avoids any criticism of the Church itself Crusoe often expresses the intrinsic nature of Man non-White was shaped by God as a form of punishment and is grateful for not being similarly damned However, Crusoe's religious belief appears as a matter of expediency although he acknowledges his ignorance of God before his fever on the. island, when he leaves it his mind and motivations turn to money and, 1999.