Two Literary Heroes:
Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe
I will share some useful information
about two different heroes who were created by writers. I will give some separate
information about them and then compare them. This can help us to reach some interesting
conclusion about these two heroes. My main intentions will be about two
imaginative men whose names were Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe. They both
found themselves in a lonely island in different writers’ novels. They have
become very popular figures in some societies and have caught the attentions of
philosophers and political economists throughout the years.
Hayy bin Yaqzan:
The novel that was named Hayy bin
Yaqzan and was written by Ebu Cafer Ibn Tufayl in the 1100’s. After 14th
century this novel was translated to different European languages and made huge
impression in these societies. It was translated to Latin in 1671 and to
English in 1708. Famous philosopher
Spinoza and Leibniz were impressed by this hero: Hayy bin Yaqzan. The author, Ibni
Tufayl inspired by Ibni Sina who was the most talented Turkish physicians and
philosopher and wrote a similar story. The novel was translated to different
languages with different names, such as The Journey of the Soul.
Hayy
bin Yaqzan was grew up in an isolated island. As a result of some attack to his
family's town, his mother put him in a basket same as Moses and let him to taken
by the sea. She was left behind crying and probably they all died after this
dramatic event. Later a female antelope found him and raised him. He thought she
was his mother. After the antelope gave a birth, Hayy realized that his new
brother was not look like him. He became confused and depressed. He started to
realize that he was different and he belonged to different types of creatures
which did not exist nearby him. The first action that awareness made him to do
was cover up his masculine part of his body, same as Adam. He pushed his
abilities to seem and act more closely with the other members of the island. He
tried to fly, but the result was fiasco.
When he was around 7, his mother the
antelope became old and sick. Hayy started to learn how to use the materials
that he could find from the forest and take care of the antelope with loyalty. When
the mother antelope died he was faced with the reality of death. First, he
thought that if he warmed the body enough his mother could be liven up again,
but the result was negative. He then started to do a kind of autopsy to
discover what was dismissing from her body that made her motionless. He checked
all of the antelope's body parts and finally he opened her heart and found some
emptiness in it. This was a kind of metaphor about the soul. The body was the same,
but emotionless and some invisible thing left the body which was centered in
the heart according to the creator of this story. He was not sure what to do
with her, but thankfully he saw two crows that were fighting with each other.
At the end, one crow kills the other and digs a hole and burry it in the
ground. Hayy thought he must do the same thing for the antelope, too. This
seems to refer to Adam’s two sons, Abel and Cain’s story.
After this tragic event, Hayy started
to discover the entire island by himself. He could communicate with the nature
by imitating their sounds and actions. This is a nice similarity with Prophet
Solomon’s ability to communicate with birds which I learned from the Quran. In
some part of Hayy’s adventure of life, he was lost in a huge and long cave in
the darkness. If we accept the island equal to the world, the cave can be our
lives especially our inner world where we have a lot of conflicts, labyrinths where
we commonly lost. Even without thinking without a regular civilization and lack
of language, he could still reach some high level of intellectual mind and find
a God that Hayy spoke by using his inner voice. This was a kind of proof about
the ability of reaching God in all circumstances even without prophets. (Hayy
bin Yaqzan)
After a while, one man from a
civilization, from a neighbor island came to the island, his name was Absal.
After Hayy got enough ability to explain his life, he shared his knowledge and
his awareness that he gained from his past experiences. In the book, Hayy was
comparing his personal knowledge about God with urban man’s education based
knowledge. Hayy and his friends surprised the similarities of their knowledge.
Hayy’s beliefs and knowledge are purer than the others. This idea can be a
useful trigger for the reader of the book to think about these topics deeper.
Absal invited Hayy bin Yaqzan to his
ship and they went to his land. Hayy bin Yaqzan met with Absal’s best friend
Salaman. They discussed what they thought about God and universe which was very
different than customary beliefs. They realized that this awareness was not for
all society. After some level of knowledge, they were not getting along well
with others intellectually. They decided to go back to isolated island and live
together. (Hayy bin Yaqzan)
Hayy bin Yaqzan became a foundation
of many similar stories, especially, Robinson Crusoe became very popular. Since
Europe has more advertisement power, then these kinds of stories and novels
called Robinsonade type. Robinson Crusoe became more popular than Hayy due to
the fact that the story came from Europe.
Robinson Crusoe:
The
second hero is Robinson Crusoe which was written by British Writer Daniel Defoe
in 1729. The hero of the book lived on an island for 27 years. The novel
includes the stories of Robinson’s life, but his special experience in the
island. We can read his adventure as a simple story made especially for
children, but with its all metaphoric specialties it symbolizes a white people
who colonize the nature and nonwhite people. (Robinson Crusoe)
Robinson
Crusoe is very famous hero in the world. His story has been used in many
humors. If we can think metaphorically about Robinson’s story’s environments,
too, we can say the ship was the womb of his mother and he came to the
island/world all wet and weak. He was helpless in the island, but he could use
some materials from the ship’s debris to survive. It might be a little pushy,
but this can feed our mother and giving birth metaphor, too. This is very
similar to Adam’s first situation on the world, too. When Robinson reached to
the coast of the island, he thought that he was punished by God. Then after he
saw all the rest of his friend dead, he realized that he was the only lucky
one.
In
this isolated island, Robinson lived twenty-four years all alone and later tree
years with his slave/friend Cuma. Cuma was the first nonwhite, colored
important character in British novels. As a result of this, Cuma
is very important for the history of the British literature and the people who
do not accept themselves as “white”. Robinson called him friend, but he was
basically his loyal, friendly slave. Robinson first taught him to call him
Master even before he taught him “yes” and “no” in English. He wanted to make Cuma
learn English only to make him follow his orders. Before Cuma, he had to do his
own works all by himself. Robinson’s adventures in the island are still
interesting for many people including me even though it is a perfect symbol of
Capitalism and Colonialism. Robinson also tried to teach his “friend” Cuma
Christianity and Evil. It was interesting because Cuma was not aware of Evil
before. Robinson had a hard time to introduce Evil metaphorically to Cuma. I
was very interesting for me.
According
to Jonathan Swift, he wrote Gulliver's Adventures as an answer to Robinson
Crusoe individualist and selfish character. From my Turkish
Philosophy discussion group, I learned that Robinson is a perfect example for
individualism and Capitalist System’s neoclassical Economy. He has been a topic
for several major lessons. Robinson’s story was created nearly 500 years later
than Hayy bin Yaqzan. If we compare both heroes, Hayy did not try to control
the island’s environments under his power. He tried to be one part of that
nature. He grew up in that island, which could be the reason for his peaceful
character. On the contrary, Robinson was already poisoned by the civilized
world. He was an adult when he reached the island. As a result of this, he wanted
to copy his old actions in the new island by different ways. He domesticated
the animals to have benefits from them. He made a slave from a man who he met
after his 24 lonely years in the island. The accidents of these two heroes’
lives were very similar, but their attitudes were totally different.
In
addition, Robinson was not a very good believer until he had these specific
experiences on the island. He was arguing with God though his inner voices
during his struggle on the island. After a lot of good and bad experiences, he
used all the knowledge that he gained from this struggle to have a better
communication with God. However, the main attention of Robinson was about
controlling the island. Both of the stories have interesting example of
humankind’s courage to survive. From this perspective, they are very heuristic,
too.
There
is a nice part of Robinson Crusoe’s back cover:
"In the first place, I was removed
from all the wickedness of the world here. I had neither the lust of the eye,
or the pride of life. I had nothing to covet; for I had all that I was now
capable of enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor... I might call myself king
or emperor..." (Robinson Crusoe, Back Cover)
The
people on the earth who are aware of Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe; have learned
many different things from these two separate heroes. I personally like Hayy
bin Yaqzan because of his view about nature and God. I criticize Robinson
Crusoe due to the fact that he saw the land and Cuma as his own. In my daily
life because Robinson is better known, I can use him as an example to emphasize
my own loneliness in the world metaphorically. I wish more people could read
Hayy bin Yaqzan and think about his story. I grew up his story by watching in
cartoon version. I still keep the taste of the story in my soul’s abstract
tongue.
Mute Translator-Meryem
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