Robinson Crusoe
The book Robinson Crusoe is an adventure story about a man who becomes trapped on a desolate island. Crusoe must survive through the harshest of conditions, and attempt to keep his sanity in tact. Throughout the book Crusoe questions his own faith in god time and time again, but never giving up hope for the best.
The book begins with a man who has a dream of taking over the seas, but is told he can never achieve this goal. Crusoe eventually finds himself in trouble, when he becomes captive on a ship. He beats the odds, though, and escapes from captivity. He later attempts to build a sugar plantation in Brazil, and goes to Africa to get slaves for his plantation. On his way to Africa Crusoe becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck, and washes up on shore.
He accepts the fact that he may be there quite a while, and builds himself a home and tries to stay alive in this strange land. Although, he never loses sight of his goal, which is to get off the island, he does question his faith in god. Crusoe does not lose faith entirely, however, for at one point in the novel he becomes quite ill, and begins to read the Bible day and night. Although at other times he searches his soul for many questions; "Why did god put me on this island?" or "What is going to happen next?" Crusoe kept track of his life by writing in his journal, his only companion that is until he encounters signs of life. There's only one problem; these men are cannibals. Some of them are held captive, and are grateful to Crusoe for saving them. The men decide to build themselves a makeshift raft. This comes in handy, for the shipwrecked men, when they spot a ship off the coastline. It turns out to be a mutinous ship. Crusoe and his companions fight back against the revolting crewmembers and defeat them. To show his gratitude, the ship's captain agrees to bring them home.
After his fifteen-year vacation from civilization, Crusoe comes back to find a pleasant surprise. It turns out that his cash crops have made him a small fortune, and he soon becomes married. During the remainder of his life, Crusoe musters the strength to take a final voyage to the islands he once dwelled.
This is a book, not just of survival of the fittest, but of humanity and faith.
Not only did Crusoe not fall victim to the hardships of nature and the cannibals, he made two structurally sound homes, one he called his summer home, and the other his castle. He also tamed some goats, taught his pet parrot, Polly, to say a handful of sentences, built a canoe, a wall, and a tobacco pipe, and planted a highly successful garden with a variety of grains and vegetables to keep him fed. Crusoe did not merely survive for twenty-eight years, he thrived for twenty-eight years. He affectionately said while looking back at his island from afar, “Now I looked back upon my desolate, solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again,” (Defoe 64). Crusoe made the best of his situation through hard work and perseverance, which in and of itself are very admirable
Crusoe wakes up from the nightmare that he has during his illness and realizes that surviving each of his adventures has been in the hands of God, and that he has been ungrateful and unaware of this power. Section 8 of Epistle 1 in the "Essay on Man" states that all things in the chain of being are interdependent and that man in his pride should not strive to break this order. Robinson Crusoe is a very independent character and has traveled for eight years without "having the least sens...
This story is so realistic in its context of the time and its superb character dialogues, that it is very easy for the reader to be transported right in the middle of that age, and right in the company of sea-faring pirates. The authorís vivid descriptions of Jim, the main character and narrator, the many Pirates and other characters he comes across during his adventures are painstakingly detailed. You can see young Jim's eager and excited face when he finds out he is going on a treasure hunt. You can also easily picture the rips and bloodstained rags of the pirates, and smell the foul alcohol on their breaths. The description of the island itself is extremely detailed also, and it seems like the author was looking straight off a geographical map when he wrote the in-depth account of it.
Crusoe accepts the challenge to survive, but not only does he survive, but he also expands and discovers new qualities about himself. In the beginning of his time on the island, Crusoe feels exceedingly secluded. He fears savages and wild beasts on the island, and he stays high up in a tree. Lacking a "weapon to hunt and kill creatures for his sustenance" (Defoe, 47), he is susceptible. Defoe believed that "the nature of man resides in the capacity for improvement in the context of a material world" (Seidel, 59), and this becomes apparent in his novel. The tools that Crusoe possesses from the ship carry out this notion, improving his life on the island dramatically. He progresses quickly, and no longer feels as isolated as he did before on the island. Crusoe uses his tools to build a protective fence and a room inside a cave. He then builds a farm where he raises goats and grows a corn crop. Later, his ambitions take him to the other side of the island where he builds a country home. Also, with the weapons that Crusoe creates, he saves Friday from cannibals, and makes him his servant. Because of his tools, his supply becomes more than sufficient for survival. He comes to learn that if he works with his surroundings instead of wallowing in the fact that he has no longer got what he thinks he needs, he able to find and use everything he needs in order to carry out life.
Both Daniel Defoe and Robinson Crusoe’s living conditions varied throughout their lives. These gentlemen were both born in England defoe in London, and Crusoe in York. However Defoe was a real human being and actually went through some of the troubles that Crusoe faced. At an early age both Defoe and Crusoe had to rely on their parents for support. They both lived in an average, middle sized home. In the middle of their lives Defoe was living in a small horrid house. At the same time Crusoe was living in an extremely small hut in the middle of nowhere on a deserted island. Later in Defoe’s life he gained his feet, he was no longer struggling, and once again had a very nice, middle classed home. Later in Crusoe’s life he got off of the island, and lived at a plantation for a little bit. He then so...
"Daniel Defoe achieved literary immortality when, in April 1719, he published Robinson Crusoe" (Stockton 2321). It dared to challenge the political, social, and economic status quo of his time. By depicting the utopian environment in which was created in the absence of society, Defoe criticizes the political and economic aspect of England's society, but is also able to show the narrator's relationship with nature in a vivid account of the personal growth and development that took place while stranded in solitude. Crusoe becomes "the universal representative, the person, for whom every reader could substitute himself" (Coleridge 2318). "Thus, Defoe persuades us to see remote islands and the solitude of the human soul. By believing fixedly in the solidity of the plot and its earthiness, he has subdued every other element to his design and has roped a whole universe into harmony" (Woolf 2303).
If the book is not holding the reader's attention because of the suspense, then it is held by the profound spiritual insight that Defoe includes within the pages of his work. This was the biggest surprise to me of all. For example, in chapter 12, Robinson Crusoe states: "From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it is possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken solitary condition, that it was probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in the world, and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place." Crusoe was convinced that the reason for all of his calamities was the result of his disobeying the counsel of his father. The theological discussions with Friday are wonderful. Indeed, every Christian can relate to Crusoe's wrestling with faith and fear. I finished the book with the conclusion that this book should be standard reading for every Christian, particularly preachers. Preachers will find a wealth of sermon illustrations in Robinson Crusoe.
The more the Robinsons explored the woods, the more they found things that would make life easier. They soon discovered some kind of wax berries which they melted and made into candles. They even found a huge salt cavern! The cavern was big enough for them and their supplies, so they moved in, for the rainy season was coming fast. They built stables for their animals, a canoe, and a loom for Mother. The Robinsons were very creative. They made the worst situation into something good and before they knew it, they had spent ten years living on that deserted island! They knew the island like the back of their own hands and Father and Mother watched their sons grow into manhood, as they too got older.
Crusoe had managed to be the only survivor of this shipwreck and is left to fight on his own. Crusoe decides to go back to the ship wreck and gather useful supplies. He finds tools, food, ammunition, and other supplies. He finds an empty cave on the island which he uses as his home. He later makes a calendar by taking wood and making a cross and marking a notch in it for each day he is stranded. Using the supplies he fetched from th...
... to further the image of Crusoe as a morally superior and religious person, when in fact, he has lived his life concerned with his own self-preservation and economic success, giving into his own will over God's when convenient to such preservation and success. Although it seems that Defoe/Crusoe did not see the two (religious awakening/self-interest) as mutually exclusive, it is obvious that in many instances in the novel, they indeed were at odds, and, in my view, Crusoe's life was guided not be religion, but solely by self-interest. The religious thread of the story, I purport, was imposed on it in order to ensure the reader's confidence in Crusoe's moral superiority, thus guaranteeing his status as the realistic "hero" of the novel.
Daniel Defoe has frequently been considered the father of realism in regards to his novel, Robinson Crusoe. In the preface of the novel, the events are described as being “just history of fact” (Defoe and Richetti ). This sets the tone for the story to be presented as factual, while it is in of itself truly fiction. This is the first time that a narrative fictional novel has been written in a way that the story is represented as the truth. Realistic elements and precise details are presented unprecedented; the events that unfold in the novel resonate with readers of the middle-class in such a way that it seems as if the stories could be written about themselves. Defoe did not write his novel for the learned, he wrote it for the large public of tradesmen, apprentices and shopkeepers (Häusermann 439-456).
Robinson Crusoe did not crash on the island alone, he “carry’d both the Cats with me, and as for the Dog, he jump’d out of the Ship of himself.” (100) Crusoe’s dog stays with him for 16 years on the island, and is a loyal companion to Crusoe. Farmers and hunters have used dogs for centuries to flush out the hunt, and for guarding pasture and herds. Crusoe’s dog helps him to hunt goats, and to protect his crops before the construction of his enclosures. Cats are also used as pest management on many farms, and can help keep rodent infestations down. However, the cats that Crusoe brings with him overrun the island, and interbreed with an island feline species. These cats become a nuisance, and Crusoe is “so pester’d with Cats, that I was forc’d to kill them like Vermin, or wild Beasts.” (133) The new cat species will kill many of the islands local small wildlife, and is now a pest itself. Although, many people see these animals as household pets, Crusoe sees them as farm animals of utility, and to him they are disposable. Animals are not the only thing Crusoe brings with him to the island; he accidentally brings European corn seeds as well....
In Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Robinson faces the biggest and longest challenge of his life. As Robinson attempts to find his role in life, he travels around the world to experience what he might deem worthy to live for. He takes comfort in material things such as wealth and possessions, which is what gets him in trouble over time. Robinson was told to take the middle path in life, but choosing the high path instead, Robinson was separate from everything considered materialistic in his social life. Robinson Crusoe has to face the consequences of his self-created ordeal and handle any challenges that face him.
Robinson Crusoe is an excellent adventure story since its publication in 1719; both the novels and the hero have become popular to everyone. The surface of this novel tells only an adventure story, but a conscious reading of the novel shows that colonialism is technically presented underneath the storyline where issue such as race, power identity formation and so on are presented from a colonial perspective. Robinson Crusoe is not just an adventurous fiction, it is a story in which a European man gradually masters his own compulsion and extends his control over a huge, indifferent, and hostile environment. The protagonist of the novel is a typical colonial character. He sets on a distant Caribbean island to establish his own colony, his own civilization and his own culture. Defoe deals with colonialism by portraying a wonderful fictional picture of an adventurous man, who gradually becomes a master over an island and establishes his own colony. In Robinson Crusoe representation of colonialism is clearly reflected through the relationship between the colonized and colonizer, representation of a colonized land and people, and representation of colonialism from the viewpoint of trade, commerce and buildings empire. Robinson Crusoe is known as an allegorical novel. Religiously this novel asserts a kind of “spiritual journey” of the protagonist, economically it is a story for the expansion of the trade and from psychological perspective Robinson Crusoe deals with an alien. But this chapter will try to demonstrate the extent to colonialism which shapes the novel.
To create an illusion of reality throughout the novel Defoe uses different narrative techniques such as epistolary and the use of lists. An example of this is by Defoe interweaving Crusoe’s personal diary entries into the story. Written by him during his time on the island they help give the reader a sense of how he felt and what he was thinking of. This style is typical of early eighteenth century novels “early eighteenth-centur...