There are elements of both authors in Morpurgo’s text. The novel does praise the industriousness of Kensuke and Michael, and also his parents. There is a good reverse of Defoe’s character dynamic, with Michael meeting someone from another culture and teaching him English. However, Kensuke is the true king of the island, and Michael the apprentice. The teaching of English is part of a trade necessary to Michael’s survival, and not simply an imperialistic model.
The destruction and corruption of man is a theme in this novel as it is in Gulliver’s Travels, as Morpurgo looks at the repercussions of the Nagasaki bomb over fifty years since it was detonated, and indicates Kensuke’s horror at the Americans being happy at what they had done. There are also poachers, who kill the gibbons and upset the natural order of the island. However, Morpurgo also rejects elements of Swift’s ideas- it is a man who protects the orang-utans and stops them being killed as well, as a protective father figure.
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