LITERATURE ANALYSIS

ROBINSON CRUSOE:

By: Daniel Defoe

SUM-UP:

     The novel Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe. It relates the story of a man whom is shipwrecked on a deserted island. The man, Robinson Crusoe, is the only survivor of the shipwreck. He is completely in control of his own life, but has very little control of his own environment. Throughout the story he gains a mastery of his own life and surroundings, but further events show an imperialistic nature that he possesses.

CHARACTERS:

     Crusoe is first the rebellious son, then the repentant castaway, and finally the faithful Christian convert. We begin the novel with Crusoe's rebellion: the defiance of his father's plan for him, which is framed as defying the authority of God himself. Crusoe then suffers a series of misfortunes that land him on the island. Once there, he must atone for his sins, and undergoes a serious religious conversion. The novel then becomes a collection of religious observations. We eventually see Crusoe turn into a religious teacher, as he manages to convert Friday to Christianity upon meeting him.

     THEMES:

     Man and Nature:

Crusoe sees nature as something that must be useful. He isn't into all that getting-out-and-connecting-with-nature stuff, nor is he interested in the beauty of nature. Nope, Crusoe colonizes the island and turns it into his own dominion:

I descended a little on the Side of that delicious Vale, surveying it with a secret Kind of Pleasure, (tho' mixt with my other afflicting Thoughts) 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; and if I could convey it, I might have it in Inheritance, as completely as any Lord of a Manor in England. (pg.85)

As we see here, Crusoe believes in private property. It's not so much the beauty of the island that brings him pleasure as the idea that he can own the island – that it's his to possess.