Chapter 39 - Defoe and America

Summary

Throughout his life and many careers, Defoe engaged with and represented the Americas as the primary site for colonial activity and its attendant economic benefits. In many respects, the major novels that include substantial intervals in America – Robinson Crusoe and its first sequel, Moll Flanders, and Colonel Jack – reflect and support Defoe’s colonialist vision. Yet these novels also represent colonial life in more nuanced, complex, and ambivalent ways. The protagonists’ success stories commence with and crucially depend upon resources from England. Relations with the other inhabitants of America unsettle some essentialist assumptions that commonly undergird colonialism. Most important, the protagonists encounter practical and psychological burdens in America, which compromise their agency and at times render them miserable. Defoe offers a final, implicit interrogation of the appeal of America by ending each novel with a return to England.