When Friday places Crusoe’s foot upon his own
head, surrendering to him, he sees him as a higher power that has the right to
harm him by free will. Friday's Native resemblance, through his attire
and affiliation with other cannibals, allows Crusoe to justify
his ownership of Friday and his superiority in the relationship. Robinson
Crusoe has been isolated for so long, he still holds a trace of Euro-centricity
in his mind.
There is
no hesitation in Crusoe's body language that he strongly believes that his own
being will be saved from the saving of this "savage". He is the
supposed savior and liberator of the Native stranger, whom he names Friday. The
naming of someone else is important in itself, because it marks a claiming
structure between the two men. This suggests the idea of racial
discourse and superiority over the "savage" figure. This
could possibly be connected to Crusoe’s faith in Christianity, which
depicts Amerindigenes as “sub-human” or “less- blessed” than himself and
other Euro-Christians.
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