Robinson Crusoe
After asking Cruso every question she can think to ask and getting little in return apart from inane and illogical answers, Susan reflects that “Cruso rescued will be a deep disappointment to the world. The idea of a Cruso on his island is a better thing than the true Cruso, tight-lipped and sullen in an alien England” (34). It is ironic that the romanticized figure of Robinson Cruso turns out to be a thoroughly boring figure; the man who lives contentedly on an island cut off from the world is hardly a character of great intrigue. He’s a stubborn, unimaginative misanthrope, lacking conversation and curiosity.
Slaver Logic
“’If Providence were to look over all of us,’ said Cruso, ‘then who would pick the cotton and cut the sugar cane?’” (23)
In this conversation where Cruso and Susan are debating Friday’s fate, Cruso articulates an ugly irony of the racist logic that justifies slavery based on an idea that God watches over some, but not others. The irony doesn’t merely come from the idea of a benevolent God judging the worth of people based on something so inconsequential as the color of their skin; Cruso’s comment reveals the foundational fallacy of slaver logic by implying that if Providence were too look over everyone, then everyone would lose out.
Truth
When Susan draws two different pictures, depicting different scenarios of a black man having his tongue removed, and shows them to Friday, asking him for the truth, she states: “Friday might not know the meaning of word truth” (68). This is a heavily ironic statement about the concept of the meaning of the word "truth." To what extent does the word correlate to the concept or experience of truth? By not understanding the word, would Friday be incapable of distinguishing truth? Furthermore, does Susan’s linguistic grasp bring her closer to a definition of truth? Is truth something that can be depicted in a crude drawing as a totalizing representation of history? Susan’s statement is a loaded one that resonates through the book.
Susan Barton’s Point of View
The tone of the novel feels consistently, though ambiguously, ironic. There are various elements that contribute to this subtle facetiousness; one of them is Susan Barton’s chipper and self-assured storytelling. She is the unexpected, female revisionist of a classic male tale. She is a character who has been edited out of the iconic novel. Her story, which has been silence and repressed, casts a whole new light on Robinson Crusoe’s adventures, bringing in the traumas and brutalities of colonialism. With Susan’s revision of Robinson Crusoe, we are forced to consider the realism of Robinson Crusoe, the violent realities upon which the fantasy lies. The slave’s story is perennially repressed. But through Susan, a female version is coming to light. The irony of this version is in Susan’s flippant tone in respect to her own story. Her attitude toward her own trauma is entirely casual. It is no thing to have survived what she has survived. Until the end of the novel, her intention has not been to illuminate a repressed version of events; rather, it has arguably been as sensationalist as Foe’s. Until the final chapters, her plan has been to sell an exceptional tale.
