Robinson Crusoe: A Man's Discovery of Himself, Civilization, and God.
Just about everyone can recite the highlights of Robinson's adventures: A man is shipwrecked without resources on a desert island, survives for years by his own wits, undergoes immeasurable anguish as a result of his isolation, discovers a footprint in the sand that belongs to Friday, and is finally rescued from his exile. Unfortunately, all of this is wrong. But more significant than any of these details is that our overall perception of Robinson Crusoe is wrong. The single most important fact about this boy's adventure book is that it is not a boy's adventure book at all. It is, rather, a grown-up tale of a man's discovery of himself, civilization, and God.
As Defoe's book begins, Robinson Crusoe of York commits what he calls his "Original Sin”—he spurns his father's advice to join the family business and instead heads out to sea. Robinson is self-willed, arrogant, and hungry for exploits. Catastrophes ensue—storms, shipwrecks, and slavery—but the lad continues in his follies. "I was," he confesses, "to be the willful Agent of all my own Miseries."
Then providence gives him a second chance, shipwrecking him on an Atlantic island, whose features roughly match those of the Juan Fernandez group in the Pacific Ocean where Robinson's real-life prototype, Alexander Selkirk, passed seven years in solitude. Robinson's island is a pristine land of surpassing beauty. To its forlorn first inhabitant, it seems nothing short of Eden: "the Country appear'd so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant Verdure, or Flourish of Spring, that it looked like a planted Garden."
In this paradise Robinson builds a new home—without Eve...
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...ledge the enormity of our task; for when before has a secular culture rebuilt itself on sacred foundations? We need solutions as ingenious as any devised by our industrious hero. Like Robinson, we must never despair; like Robinson, we must find strength in prayer. It helps to bear in mind that it is we who have uprooted God from our homes, schools, books, arts; we have cast ourselves adrift. God, the master mariner, never abandons his children. We do well to remember, too, that Robinson found salvation in a plight more desperate than ours. Then, perhaps, we can relish the truth in Walter de la Mare's heartfelt remark about Defoe's finest creation: "Even to think of his admirable hermit is to be cheerful and to take heart of grace."
Bibliography
Zaleski, Philip. “The Strange Shipwreck of Robinson Crusoe.” First Things 53 (May 1995): 38-44.
He exudes pride in a manner only rivaled by Enkidu, his best friend. Gilgamesh and Enkidu relish in their brotherhood through fighting Humbaba and the Golden Bull. Their shared life is not permanent however. After they defeated the Golden Bull, the gods look down upon Enkidu and Gilgamesh, in which they decide one of them needs to die. As the book carries on, Enkidu is struck with a deathly illness and inevitably passes on. This changes Gilgamesh’s mindset towards death. In Mitchell’s translation, it reads,“If my grief is violent enough, perhaps he will come back to life again.’ For six days and seven nights I mourned him until a maggot fell out of his nose. Then, I was frightened, I was terrified by death” (Mitchell 167). Gilgamesh, who before was enthralled with the idea of dying a hero, suddenly became terrified of death. This growth, albeit not positive growth, was a direct result of the prior circumstances. The heroes’ shared hubris angered the gods who struck Enkidu down, causing Gilgamesh to lose his best friends. This loss causes gilgamesh to grow by fearing
When Crusoe meets Friday, he is joyous for having found someone he could finally make his slave as he had been previously. Although not fully envious of Robinson Crusoe, Friday is found stuck in between two worlds. One, where he thinks of Robinson as his friend and the other where he wonders why he is being treated as a slave, and not for his own personal benefit. Robinson’s views are purely of self-profit as he describes his dreams: “to think that this was all my own, that I was King and Lord of all this Country indefeasibly, and had a Right of Possession” (Defoe 72). This passage explains the belief of Robinson Crusoe in the feudal system and the use of hierarchy to promote bourgeois values upon a population. The character of Robinson Crusoe is then used in Green Grass, Running Water in a satirical manner when Thought Woman explains to Crusoe that Robinson Crusoe himself would not enjoy his own company as he is seen as a white supremacist with no place on native land: “But I don’t want to be Friday, says Robinson Crusoe. No point in being Robinson Crusoe all your life, says Thought Woman. It wouldn’t be much fun” (King 295). Furthermore, this remarks insists that Friday was never a true friend to Crusoe when he also states: “it has been difficult not having someone of color around whom I
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