Marx view of history and society is different from his predecessor and contemporaries which emphasis it placed on

the socio-economic element in any society as an ultimate determinant of that society’s character. ‘Socio-economic’
mean the social relations created by the kind of economic production preponderant in a given society. In capitalist
society, this is the relationship between capitalist and proletarian. It is founded on exploitation and is this
relationship of potential or actual conflict. Under a capitalist economy, these may be a bourgeois parliament and
judiciary; an education system geared broadly to the needs of capitalist production, and the values which uphold
these institutions. These entire elements which arise on the socio-economic base call the superstructure of society.
The story within the novel primarily takes place in the remote island near the mouth of the Orinoco river. It tells
about the journey of Robinson Crusoe to find his ultimate drive. In this journey he experiences many incident that
increase his social consciousness, and stranded in remote island for 26 six years. This novel also tells about his effort
in surviving in this solitary island by himself.
To achieve the above objectives of the study, the researcher applies a Marxism approach which insists on linking
the novel with the socio-economic phenomena and ideology of the writer. Since this study is emphasized on the
analysis of a literary work, it is, then, classified as literary criticism. The primary data of this study are collected from
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and the secondary data are gathered from related textbooks, journals,
encyclopedias, and other written materials printed from internet. The researcher himself becomes the research
instrument in the process of data collection and data analysis.
Based on the researcher’s analysis, socio-economic in this novel is divided into two categories, i.e. Marxism
phenomena and the opposition of Marxism phenomena. The Marxism phenomena which found in this novel
include class struggle, class-consciousness, and theory of human nature. While opposition of Marxism phenomena
are class division, racism, exploitation, alienation, mode of production and means of production. From the analysis
researcher concludes that the novel truly describes socio-economic phenomena. Defoe, in this novel, to present the
real picture of a capitalist and western model who wants to conquer the world and the emphasizing the importance
of spirit struggle in survive in this world.

Economic Doctrine in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

Although on the surface, it seems that Robinson Crusoe is largely novel of travel and adventure, in fact it is not so.
Economic mentality has a vital role in Robinson Crusoe. According to Karl Marx, the protagonist in this novel proves
himself to be a potential capitalist.

But it is the critic Ian Watt, who offers a most stimulating and illuminating interpretation of this novel from the
economic point of view. This critic relates Crusoe’s predicament on the desolate island to the rise of bourgeois
individualism. In fact, this critic holds the view that almost all the principal characters created by Defoe in his novels
are embodiments of economic individualism. These characters are Robinson Crusoe, Captain Singleton, Colonel
Jacque, Moll Flanders and Roxana. All these protagonists pursue money, and they pursue it very methodically,
according to the profit and loss book-keeping which is a distinctive technical feature of modern capitalism. The
protagonists created by Defore have no need to learn this technique; they all have it in their blood. And they keep
us informed of their stocks of money and commodities more than any other characters in fiction. As for Crusoe, his
book keeping conscience establishes an effective priority over his other thoughts and emotions.
Crusoe shows himself to be a symbol of the processes connected with the rise of economic individualism. The
economic motive logically involves a reduction in the importance of other modes of thought, feeling, and action.
The economic motive becomes so important that such relationships as the family, the guide, the village, and the
sense of nationhood are all weakened by it. In Defoe’s novel the protagonists either have no family or leave the
family at an early age never to return to it. Crusoe does have his parents with whom he lives, but he leaves them
from an economic motive, showing himself to be the homo economicus, wanting to improve the economic
condition.
At the same time the argument between his parents and himself at the beginning is a debate not about religion or
about filial duty, but about his economic circumstances. Both sides in this debate regard the economic argument as
the most important. And, of course, Crusoe actually gains by his original sin, and becomes richer than his father
was. Crusoe’s original sin is really the dynamic tendency of capitalism itself. The tendency of capitalism is never
merely to maintain the status quo, but to improve upon it continuously. Leaving home and trying to raise oneself
economically is a vital feature of the individualistic pattern of life.
Crusoe’s chief motive in traveling is profit; he doesn’t mind going to the remotest part of the world in quest of
profit. He is a commercial traveler. Life is not only the economy, but at another aspect like love, sex, family,
friendship all is needed in the common life of anybody. But if we analyze Crusoe from that aspect, on the Island,
Crusoe hardly ever mentions, or thinks of women, or sexual desires, etc. because all these aspects of life’s core,
overshadowed by the economic motive of Cruose. When ultimately he returns to civilization, sex is still strictly
subordinated by him to the business.
The same devaluation of non-economic factors can be seen in Crusoe’s other relationships. In fact, he treats all
relationships in terms of their commodity value. The clearest case is that of Xury, the Moorish boy, who helped him
to escape from slavery and who had even offered to sacrifice his life for Cruose’s sake. Crusoe very properly
resolves to love Xury always and to make a great man of him. But eventually he sells that boy to the Portuguese
sea-captain for a small amount of money.
Crusoe’s relations with his man Friday are similarly selfish. He does not ask the man’s name, but gives him a name.
Even while teaching him the English language, Crusoe contents himself with giving the man the minimum possible
instruction because Crusoe is a strict utilitarian. “I likewise taught him to say yes and no”. Crusoe tells us; and Friday
still speaks unsatisfactory and incorrect English at the end of his long association with Crusoe. It is evident, then,
that Crusoe does not have any real understanding of the human instinct for friendship and for an emotional or
sentimental attachment to persons. Man is regarded by Crusoe purely as an economic being; and Crusoe himself is
one such person.
Another economic lesson from Crusoe’s adventure is that the labor and invention create useful things and carries
on at the highest point of success. He succeeds in creating capital. He is laborious person and does not content with
what nature provides him with. His life in the Island involves constant moving, sweating, toiling and racking his
brains to find still more labourios occupations.
The value of money, imports and exports, labor, devotion, all are forcefully presented in the novel. Crusoe’s
happiness has been presented at the point when he is economically prosperous at the end.
In short, all the data available to us shows that the novel Robinson Crusoe is a plea for the advancement and
promotion of the concept of economic individualism and the resultant capitalism. The critic Arnold Kettle makes a
similar approach to Robinson Crusoe, According to him, the novel is in one sense a story in praise of the bourgeois
virtues of individualism and private enterprise. So the treatment of economic doctrine is more important than that
the adventure of Crusoe in Defore’s novel.
In Defoe's novel the protagonist either has no family or leaves the family at an early age never to return to it.
Crusoe does have his parents with whom he lives, but he leaves them from an economic motive, wanting to
improve his economic condition. The argument between his parents and Crusoe at the beginning is a debate not
about religion or about filial (parental) duty, but about his economic circumstances. Both sides in this debate regard
the economic argument as the most important. And, of course, Crusoe has actually gained by his original sin and
becomes richer than his father was.
The tendency of capitalism is never merely to maintain the status quo but to improve upon it continuously. So does
Crusoe too. Leaving home and trying to raise oneself economically is a vital feature of Crusoe's pattern of life.
Crusoe never shows any particular attachment of a sentimental kind to his country.
Crusoe is not a mere foot loss adventure. He travels like his non- attachment to family and to the nation, are an
extreme case of tendency which is normal in modern society as a whole because, by making the pursuit of gain a
primary motive, economic individualism has considerably increased the mobility of the individual.
Crusoe's chief motive in traveling is profit; he doesn't mind going to the remotest part of the world in quest of
profit. He is a commercial traveler. Life is not only the economy but at another aspect like love, sex, family,
friendship all is needed in the common life of anybody. But if we analyze Crusoe from that aspect, on his Island,
Crusoe hardly ever mentions, or thinks of women, or sexual desires etc. because all these aspects of life's core,
overshadowed by the economic motive of Crusoe. When ultimately he returns to civilization, sex is still strictly
subordinated by him to the business. Another economic lesson from Crusoe's adventure is that the labor and
invention create useful things and carries on at the highest point of success. He succeeds in creating capital. He is
laborious person and does not content with what nature provides him with. His life in the Island involves constant
moving, sweating, toiling and racking his brains to find still more laborious occupations.
The value of money, imports and exports, labor, devotion all are forcefully presented in the novel. Crusoe's
happiness has been presented at the point when he is economically prosperous at the end. So the treatment of
economic doctrine is more important than that the adventure of Crusoe in Defoe's novel

The novel that most brilliantly exploits eyewitness realism is also the one that deals most extensively with union-
related issues colonel
Karl Marx says that :Robinson Crusoe’s experiences are a favorite theme with political economists, “took the
opportunity in his capital, to critique Defoe’s fantasy from his own very different perspective.He is the true
prototype of the British Colonist, as Friday is the symbol of the subject races.
Robinson Crusoe, the first capitalism hero, He is a self- made man who accept objective reality and then fashions it
to his needs through the work ethic, common sense, resilience, technology, and it need be racism and
imperialism.
The first, Robinson Crusoe, is an anatomy of early capitalism wrapped up in a Boy’s own adventure.

Communism racism imperialism

 1.
“O drug!” said I aloud, “what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me, no, not the taking off of the ground; one of those
knives is worth all this heap; I have no manner of use for thee; e’en remain where thou art and go to the bottom as a creature
whose life is not worth saving.” However, upon second thoughts, I took it away. . . .
Crusoe’s contradictory relationship with money is seen in this affirmation in Chapter VI, when he declares that the gold he
discovers is worthless, only moments before hauling it away for safekeeping. He does the same thing many years later,
expressing scorn for the treasure on the Spanish wreck, but then taking it to shore. The conflict between spiritual aims (scorning
worldly wealth) and material ambitions (hoarding gold) reflects the novel’s tension between the practical and the religious.
Moreover, Crusoe’s combination of disdain and desire for money is also interesting because Crusoe is conscious of his
conflicted feelings only in a limited way. He calls money a drug and admits that he is addicted—but he is not interested in the
way he fails to practice what he preaches. We see how Defoe’s focus in the novel is primarily on the practical rather than the
psychological, despite the fascinating aspects of Crusoe’s mind. Crusoe’s mixed feelings about the gold also reflect his
nostalgia for human society, since he tells us that money has no value in itself, unlike the useful knives to which he compares it.
It has only a social worth, and thus reminds us that Crusoe may still be a social creature despite his isolation.
2.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made,
how like a king I looked. First of all, the whole country was my own mere property, Baso that I had an undoubted right of
dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly subjected. I was absolute lord and lawgiver, they all owed their lives to me, and
were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion of it, for me.
This passage, from Chapter XXV, shows us Crusoe’s astonishing ability throughout the novel to claim possession of things. He
sells his fellow slave Xury to the Portuguese captain even though he has no claim of ownership over the boy. He seizes the
contents of two wrecked ships and takes Friday as his servant immediately after meeting him. Most remarkably, he views the
island itself as “my own mere property” over which he has “an undoubted right of dominion.” We may wonder why he has no
reason to at least doubt his right of dominion, but his faith in his property rights seems absolute. Moreover, Crusoe’s conception
of property determines his understanding of politics. He jokes about his “merry reflection” of looking like a king, but it seems
more than a merry thought when he refers to “my people” being “perfectly subjected.” Kingship is like ownership for Crusoe. He
does not mention any duties or obligations toward his people. His subjects are for him like his possessions: he imagines them
grateful for being owned, expecting nothing further from Crusoe. Of course, this view is only Crusoe’s presumption. It is hard to
believe that the Spaniard sincerely sees himself as “perfectly subjected” to Crusoe, even if Crusoe does save his life.
Nevertheless, Crusoe’s personal point of view dominates the novel and shows us how deeply colonialism depended on a self-
righteous, proprietary way of thinking.
3.
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of
Bremen who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise and, leaving off his trade, lived afterward at York, from
whence he had married my mother whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I
was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual corruption of words in England we are called, nay, we call ourselves, and
write our name “Crusoe,” and so my companions always called me.
Crusoe’s opening words in Chapter I show us the fact-oriented, practical, and unsentimental mind that will carry him through his
ordeal. Crusoe introduces his parents objectively through their nationalities, professions, and places of origin and residence.
There is no hint of emotional attachment either here or later, when Crusoe leaves his parents forever. In fact, there is no
expression of affection whatsoever. The passage also shows that leaving home may be a habit that runs in the family: Crusoe’s
father was an emigrant, just as Crusoe later becomes when he succumbs to his “rambling” thoughts and leaves England.
Crusoe’s originally foreign name is an interesting symbol of his emigrant status, especially since it had to be changed to adapt
to English understanding. We see that Crusoe has long grasped the notion of adapting to one’s environment, and that
identities—or at least names—may change when people change places. This name change foreshadows the theme of Crusoe’s
changing identity on his island, when he teaches Friday that his name is Master.
4.
I might well say now indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than the beginning. It is impossible to express here the
flutterings of my very heart when I looked over these letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about me; for as the
Brazil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods. . . .
Crusoe’s comparison of himself to the biblical character Job in Chapter XXIX, after his return to England, reveals much about
how he gives his ordeal religious meaning. In Crusoe’s mind, his shipwreck and solitude are not random disastrous events but
segments of an elaborate lesson in Christian patience. Like Job, whose faith was tested by God through the loss of family and
wealth, Crusoe is deprived of his fortune while nevertheless retaining his faith in Providence. This passage also showcases
Crusoe’s characteristic neutral tone—the detached, deadpan style in which he narrates even thrilling events. Although he
reports that the emotional effects make his heart flutter, he displays very little emotion in the passage, certainly not the joy
expected of someone who suddenly becomes wealthy. The biblical grandeur of the original Job is lost in Crusoe’s ordinary and
conversational opening, “I might very well say now.” We see how Crusoe is far better suited to plodding and mundane everyday
life than to dramatic sublimity. Even when the events call for drama, Crusoe seems to do all he can to make them humdrum.
This emphasis on the ordinary was a new trend in English literature and is a major characteristic of the novel, which Defoe
helped invent.
5.
But no sooner were my eyes open, but I saw my Poll sitting on top of the hedge; and immediately knew that it was he that spoke
to me; for just in such bemoaning language I had used to talk to him, and teach him; and he learned it so perfectly that he would
sit upon my finger and lay his bill close to my face, and cry, “Poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you been? How
come you here?” and such things as I had taught him.
When Crusoe returns from his nearly fatal canoe trip in Chapter XVI to find his parrot calling his name, the scene expresses the
pathos of having only a bird to welcome him home. Crusoe domesticates the bird in an attempt to provide himself with a
substitute family member, as we learn later when he refers to his pets in Chapter XVII as his “family.” Poll’s friendly address to
his master foreshadows Friday’s role as conversation partner in Crusoe’s life. Crusoe’s solitude may not be as satisfying as he
lets on. Moreover, Poll’s words show a self-pitying side of Crusoe that he never reveals in his narration. Teaching the bird to call
him “poor” in a “bemoaning” tone shows that he may feel more like complaining than he admits in his story and that his Christian
patience might be wearing thin. Poll’s greeting also has a spiritual significance: it comes right after Crusoe’s near-death
experience in the canoe, and it seems to come from a disembodied speaker, since Crusoe imagines a person must be
addressing him. It seems like a mystical moment until the words are revealed not to be God’s, but Crusoe’s own words repeated
by a bird. Cut off from human communication, Crusoe seems cut off from divine communication too—he can only speak to
himself.