Analysis of Defoe’s novel Moll Flanders, and his use of metaphores to describe the lives of the urban poor and the society in which they live.
Moll Flanders stands quite alone in the world. The older Moll lives a life of financial security in Virginia. Defoe reveals, through Moll, not only the kind of necessity that drives the urban poor to a life of crime, but also the kind of society which allows Moll to prosper. Social identities became fluid; money could bring power and prestige. Moll’s social identity is unfixed because she uses it in a system of trade, selling sex, affection, or the goods she steals.