Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

It fits well with the Reformation and it is the best known text of the author. It isn’t a classical
novel because it doesn’t have several narative plans and the action doesn’t take place in a known place.

The story begins with the origins of the main character, Robinson Crusoe (the year and the place
of birth). His family had a great repution, his father gained a great fortune by treading (the text fits with
te period during which the economy was floryshing in England). The merchants were in their origins
pirates, also known as merchants adventurers.

Robinson liked very much to go to the sea. The chapters are entitled, the first chapter has as
title a little summarize of the contained situation and we have from the beginning a subjective
perspective, first person singular. After finding and saving Friday, the first person singular will transform
into first person plural so we have a passage from a singular perspective to a plural one.

Robinson became a trador, an important one and he had several adventures on the sea (we
have the descriptions of the sea, of the ships, of the storms which are realistic descriptions). Robinson
wanted to be more than his father but the first mistake that he made was the fact that he did not listen
to his father’s advice. Robinson was a proud person. Another immoral thing that he do was the fact that
he became a slave trader. We can tell that the isolation on the island came as a punishem for him
because he had commited bad deeds (this is a direct link with the idea of Reformation, called
predestination). Also, when he was on a journey, he was captured by pirates and used as a slave. We
have an irony from the part of the author because a former slave becomes a slave trader.

He wanted to travel from Brazil to Caribbean and he went on a ship during „an evil hour” which
is another link with the predestination meanig that his punishment was already decided. A great storm
occured , the ship sank, all the people except Robinson died. Robinson found himself alone on the beach
of an island and his first reaction was to thank God because he was still alive. He spent his first nights up
in a tree because he was afraid of the beasts, of the canniblas and because he didn’t have a house in
which to live. The natural reaction of a person would have been to become desperate but Robinson
managed to remain calm and o have a clear judgement because he had a practical spirit (another idea of
the Renaissance).

He went on the ship to find a Bible and he found one. He wanted to read it in order to not to
lose his minds, to obtain faith and hope and even to find the best solution that was to be applied in a
situation like that. He took from the ship guns, food, drinks and even wood and he built himself a sort of
hut. We can tell that he civilised the island, he colonized it in his own way. In forn of his house he put
the English flag (meaning nationalism, but also an irony because no one was there to see the flag). He
claimed the islandin the name of the king of England and the island became a part of the England. We
can see that he was still oportunist, materialist. Robinson named the island „the island of desperation”.
He had several features that helped him to survive on the island: a sharp mind, inventivity, strong faith
and practical spirit.
 During the first years he managed to survive by working. The work was keeping his mind
occupied so that he didn’t have time to think at his unfortunate situation. He tamed goats, parrots, he
built another house, he planted crops and created household items and even a canoe in order to travel.
He transformed the island from an island of desperation to a home, to his own private properity and he
became a homo economicus (the beginnings of the capitalism). In this story we have the recreation of
the evolution of human (they lived in trees, then they created houses and private properties).

Robinson travelled on the island and he liked very much what he saw, creating two perspectives
about that place: the nature was useful (an Enlightenment perspective) and also the island from an
unknown place, from a place of desperation became a place of security, and he loved his island, he
treated it like a real person (an idea of the Romanticism). But because he was still oportunist and
materialist the Enlightenment is much more present in the text than the Romanticism.

He kept a diary in order to use it as a manual for any person who would have ever found herself
in a similar situation. The other purpose of the diary was that it didn’t let Robinson to forget how to
write in English. Last but not least, the diary helped him to survive, because, by writing down his
realisations, he received a confirmation that he was doing a great job.

After 20 years he found the print of a man’s naked foot on the beach. His first reaction was to be
afraid but in a short time he would become angry on the people that had dared to violate his own
property. He would find also on the beach some human bones. Robinson realised that the island was a
place used by the canniblas to eat their prey. The image of a secure place, of a home, disappeared
immediately and Robinson changed his opinion obut the island, saying that it became a place of danger,
of unsecurity, of uncertainity.

One day, he used a gun to save a man who was supposed to be eaten by the canniblas. He killed
several of them and they believed that he was a god. Since that day was Friday, he named the man
Friday. Robinson had a superior attitude towards the man but he taught him English, he gave him
clothes, and educated him in an English way. So Robinson colonised Friday like he had done with the
island. Ofter some time, Robinson found out from Friday that even he was a cannibal, that his tribe and
the other one were in constant war and this was why they were eating each other. Robinson also taught
Friday how to use a gun and he fought with him against the canniblas.

Finally, a ship came and rescued them. Robinson was not sorry for leaving the place where he
spent a great part of his life which gave him his identity because it wasn’t a home anymore, it was a
place of danger. Several people from the ship remained on the island. Robinson reutrned in England
with Friday, had several journeys in Europe and he even reutrned to his former home. He was happy to
realise that the people who had remained there managed to build a real form of society. Robinson went
in Brazil and there he remained. After several years the island would be destroyed by the Caribbeans so
he didn’t have a happy ending.