After the Journey Essay

Steve Clark, who wrote motivate Writing and Empire believes that the traveller is altered, roughly quantifys transmuted utterly when he or she journeys in an unfamiliar environment some stories from unfeigned carriage do prove this statement. at that place ar also well-known fictive travellers who bath show how signifi elicitt and life-changing journeys can be, and this is where we focus. However, sooner dealing with these characters, imagine change of location to foreign countries, immersing in different cultures, and either fighting against or indulging in the unseasoned experiences. These experiences, negative or positive, pose part of the travellers life, except little the issuance may appear.Robinson Crusoes wanderlust has led him to an experience that he has never thought possible. All he has longed for is a taste of pretend, save what he has to give in exchange for this ad think is practically his whole life. Meanwhile, Lemuel Gul stick outr nevertheless w ants to have-to doe with his travels to different(a) batch. He professes that I quite chose to relate plain matter of fact in the simplest manner and style, because my principal formula was to inform, and non to amuse thee. ( quick, 1962) Robinson Crusoes biz begins with disobedience. Both Robinson Crusoes parents have impertinent his entrust to go on a voyage.He asked me what reasons, much than a stainless wandering inclination, I had for leaving bewilders house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my set by application and industry, with a life of knack and pleasure. (Defoe)Crusoe is reminded by his stick that he does non need to becharmk his fortune or win honour of some kind. His later on wretched condition reminds him of his fathers warnings.Robinson Crusoe is believed to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk who has run by to ocean in 1704. He has do a request to be left field over(p) alone in an unin habited island before being rescued afterward pentad years. (Bibliomania) Crusoes experience is of course to a greater extent imaginative and more complex, as Daniel Defoe adds in more adventures for the castaway.Although Crusoes situation is not contrived like Selkirks, who has clearly call for to be left alone, his strong desire to continue setting out to sea rase after a unassured first voyage has led him to a similar fate. Surviving the first voyage, Robinson Crusoe has act his adventures and has ended up nutriment in an uninhabited island alone.Crusoe has started the voyage as an callow young man who has lived in foster he cannot have gone done his voyages without being changed in some manner. Crusoes love for travel is undeni competent. He has risked not only a set funding in regularize to pursue the adventure, still also his life. As a person, he already does not conform to what the federation expects of him. Nevertheless, the castaway experience is let off n ative even to an adventurer. Crusoe has to do things that he wouldnt normally do given his actor comfortable lifestyle. A man who has not been trained to practice a trade, he has learned to create necessary tools and caravan ranging from clay containers and clothes, to even a canoe.He has be set out very self-sufficient and resourceful as needed by the situation. His daily experiences also range from peaceful inventions to discovering cannibals, parsimony a native whom he has named Friday and has even earned himself a fortune. These experiences themselves can rove that Robinson Crusoe is not the same man who has left his home for the first time. Robinson Crusoe, who has been expected to live comfortably and without much risk, has proven himself to be capable of seeking his fortune on his own. He not only changes himself in the process, but he also changes the perceptions of what a person essential or mustiness not do in society. finished his example, people are able to see t hat it can be profitable, although difficult, to go immaterial of the box that people of Crusoes time seem to have locked themselves in. Crusoe experiences changes in his berth towards religion. Even though in that respect is no longer a physical church to attend a mass in, it is in his retirement and with a Bible in hand that he is able to commune with God and nature. Some critics have renowned this as a sign that Robinson Crusoe is a morality story which begins with disobedience and results to conversion. (The suppuration of the Novel) What cannot be changed in Crusoe, however, is his human beingsity. Humans still long for the company of other(a) human beings. He does meet and obtain the beau monde of the native, Friday, but he is unused to the other mans culture. Crusoe later develops a more open-minded attitude towards other cultures because of his engrossment into their worlds. He even tries to pick up the cannibalistic ways of the natives.Now, we look at Gullivers Travels. Gullivers adventures are more fantastical than Crusoes. He encounters little people and giants, and other strange communities. There must be a change in Gulliver after years of travelling to such(prenominal) places. In fact, Gulliver has to adapt in individually of the four places that he visits.Like Crusoes first voyage, Gullivers first venture is met with dangerous weather. This results to his being shipwrecked in Lilliput, where he describes the people to be less than sise inches tall. (Swift, 1962) Gulliver has to convince the Lilliputians that he is harmless. He later gains their trust and has become the community hero, having been able to help the little people against their rival, the Blefescudans.Gulliver no longer wants to comply with the Lilliputians further demands and has to bunk to save his life. After his stay in Lilliput, his numerous adventures include an encounter with giants who learn him feel like a Lilliputian, and meeting horses who rule over Yaho os, who are raging human beings. During the various(a) encounters, Gulliver is introduced to different kinds of civilisations. His intellectual of what an empire is broadens, as he encounters the various kinds of kingdoms, with their unique beliefs and practices. Gullivers Travels is tagged as a satire Critics believe in the need to study Jonathan Swifts background in order to fully understand the historical context in which he is writing the novel. Swift is inform to have prior political influence, when he was still supporting the Whig Party. He shifts his bail to the Tory Party upon hearing that the Whig Party is remote to the Anglican Church. When the Whig Party gains more influence, Swift loses his. This is believed to have caused Swifts enmity against the government in London. (Glasgow University Library) The different characters at bottom the various communities Gulliver encounters in the story are said to be based on concrete political figures.Lemuel Gulliver is alte red by his many adventures. He has learned that there is not just one slip of community for which the others are based. For each new place, he has to adapt in order to fit into the norm. to each one adaptation is a change in Gulliver. In fact, his immersion into the world of Houyhnhnms, which are horse-like creatures, has even created a dislike for humans in him. Gulliver has to re-accustom himself to life with ordinary people when he goes home.My married woman and family received me with great surprise and joy, because they think me certainly dead but I must freely confess the bargain of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt and the more, by reflecting on the near alliance I had to them. (Swift, 1962)This is proof enough that journeys can alone alter the traveller, as is with Gulliver who not only changes a bit but drastically.It is loose for us who travel into remote countries, which are seldom visited by Englishmen or other Europeans, to form descriptions o f wonderful animals both at sea and land. Whereas a travellers chief aim should be to put up men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the bad, as well as good, example of what they save up concerning foreign places. (Swift, 1962)The above declaration by Gulliver signifies his belief that the traveller can effect a change in how other people think. Even in real societies, people who have experience living in, or visiting foreign places come back with new beliefs that either start with or exclusively erase their gray ones. They may not be completely different people, because Robinson Crusoe still longs for the company of fellowmen, but there are definite changes. Each experience in life leaves ineradicable marks in the person who goes through it.Moreover, Gulliver has to undergo an adjustment period after being almost chameleon-like in his adjustments in different civilisations. Robinson Crusoe has to transition from his comfortable and secure life to a life that is a t times spent in solitude and sometimes spent in danger. He also becomes better in uphold with his spiritual side, while becoming a person who can survive anywhere. It can be then concluded that the ii classic novels, Gullivers Travels and Robinson Crusoe support Steve Clarks idea that journeying into unfamiliar land will alter or change the traveller completely.ReferencesBibliomania. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2007, from Bibliomania Free Online Literature and take on Guides http//www.bibliomania.com/0/0/17/31/frameset.htmlDefoe, D. (n.d.). Robinson Crusoe. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from Dead Men Tell No Tales http//www.deadmentellnotales.com/onlinetexts/robinson/crusoe.shtmlGlasgow University Library. (n.d.). Special Collections Department. Retrieved October 18, 2007, from http//special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/jan2006.htmlSwift, J. (1962). Gullivers Travels and some other Writings. (M. K. Starkman, Ed.) New York Bantam Books.The Development of the Novel. (n.d.). Retri eved October 18, 2007, from University of St. Andrews http//www.st-andrews.ac.uk/cjmm/Crusoelec.html