It's Hard out There for Moll

As we discussed last class, where Moll takes a package and describes her eventful escape, Moll becomes this agentless being upon committing her first robbery. To me, it’s as if to justify the crime or make it appear less severe than what it is, Defoe is playing to the ideas of Locke and Hobbes and self-preservation, where one has the right to do whatever is necessary to survive. In her impoverished state, Moll has a moral conflict. But soon, she gets sucked into a life of crime and begins stealing to the point where she becomes a kleptomaniac.

This point in the novel and in Moll’s life in an odd way reminds me of a song from the movie Hustle and Flow. (Perhaps this is an indication that I’ve seen too many movies, but this song pops into my head when I think of Ms. Flanders.) To paraphrase the last and penultimate lines of the first verse of the Oscar winning song “It’s Hard Out Here for A Pimp”: It’s hard work trying to survive, so one is to try to get rich before leaving this life; one is to try hard to live well and pray to God that one doesn’t mess up. The original lyrics, to me, encapsulate Moll’s struggle, albeit in a more colorful and street manner.

To get back to Moll's narrative, in a not-so-strange twist of fate, her uncontrollable habit ultimately lands her in Newgate—this time out of the womb—where she faces severe consequences. While in what she describes as “Hell,” Moll finds religion. I’m not so sold on her spiritual transformation, because it is money that gets her pardoned from receiving the death penalty. And I don’t mean to suggest that she only gets religious when it is convenient for her, because there is nothing convenient about being destitute or imprisoned, but that is a very human response to hardship.

In the end I agree with Dr. Cervantes in that it doesn’t bother me that not all of the plot’s questions are answered. What I think Moll Flanders is ultimately about is about the love, the loss, the need, and the importance of money. It makes Moll’s world go ‘round.