About Author:
Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London, England. He became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Late in life he turned his pen to fiction and wrote Robinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time. Defoe died in 1731.
Theme of the novel:
1) The Ambivalence of Mastery
2)The Necessity of Repentance
3)The Importance of Self-Awareness
About Novel: Robinson Crusoe, as a young and impulsive wanderer, defied his parents and went to sea. He was involved in a series of violent storms at sea and was warned by the captain that he should not be a seafaring man. Ashamed to go home, Crusoe boarded another ship and returned from a successful trip to Africa. Taking off again, Crusoe met with bad luck and was taken prisoner in Sallee. His captors sent Crusoe out to fish, and he used this to his advantage and escaped, along with a slave.
Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London, England. He became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Late in life he turned his pen to fiction and wrote Robinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time. Defoe died in 1731.
Theme of the novel:
1) The Ambivalence of Mastery
2)The Necessity of Repentance
3)The Importance of Self-Awareness
About Novel: Robinson Crusoe, as a young and impulsive wanderer, defied his parents and went to sea. He was involved in a series of violent storms at sea and was warned by the captain that he should not be a seafaring man. Ashamed to go home, Crusoe boarded another ship and returned from a successful trip to Africa. Taking off again, Crusoe met with bad luck and was taken prisoner in Sallee. His captors sent Crusoe out to fish, and he used this to his advantage and escaped, along with a slave.
He was rescued by a Portuguese ship and started a
new adventure. He landed in Brazil, and, after some time, he became the
owner of a sugar plantation. Hoping to increase his wealth by buying
slaves, he aligned himself with other planters and undertook a trip to
Africa in order to bring back a shipload of slaves. After surviving a
storm, Crusoe and the others were shipwrecked. He was thrown upon shore
only to discover that he was the sole survivor of the wreck.
Crusoe made immediate plans for food, and then
shelter, to protect himself from wild animals. He brought as many things
as possible from the wrecked ship, things that would be useful later to
him. In addition, he began to develop talents that he had never used in
order to provide himself with necessities. Cut off from the company of
men, he began to communicate with God, thus beginning the first part of
his religious conversion. To keep his sanity and to entertain himself,
he began a journal. In the journal, he recorded every task that he
performed each day since he had been marooned.
As time passed, Crusoe became a skilled
craftsman, able to construct many useful things, and thus furnished
himself with diverse comforts. He also learned about farming, as a
result of some seeds which he brought with him. An illness prompted some
prophetic dreams, and Crusoe began to reappraise his duty to God.
Crusoe explored his island and discovered another part of the island
much richer and more fertile, and he built a summer home there.
One of the first tasks he undertook was to build
himself a canoe in case an escape became possible, but the canoe was too
heavy to get to the water. He then constructed a small boat and
journeyed around the island. Crusoe reflected on his earlier, wicked
life, disobeying his parents, and wondered if it might be related to his
isolation on this island.
After spending about fifteen years on the island,
Crusoe found a man's naked footprint, and he was sorely beset by
apprehensions, which kept him awake many nights. He considered many
possibilities to account for the footprint and he began to take extra
precautions against a possible intruder. Sometime later, Crusoe was
horrified to find human bones scattered about the shore, evidently the
remains of a savage feast. He was plagued again with new fears. He
explored the nature of cannibalism and debated his right to interfere
with the customs of another race.
Crusoe was cautious for several years, but
encountered nothing more to alarm him. He found a cave, which he used as
a storage room, and in December of the same year, he spied cannibals
sitting around a campfire. He did not see them again for quite some
time.
Later, Crusoe saw a ship in distress, but
everyone was already drowned on the ship and Crusoe remained
companionless. However, he was able to take many provisions from this
newly wrecked ship. Sometime later, cannibals landed on the island and a
victim escaped. Crusoe saved his life, named him Friday, and taught him
English. Friday soon became Crusoe's humble and devoted slave.
Crusoe and Friday made plans to leave the island
and, accordingly, they built another boat. Crusoe also undertook
Friday's religious education, converting the savage into a Protestant.
Their voyage was postponed due to the return of the savages. This time
it was necessary to attack the cannibals in order to save two prisoners
since one was a white man. The white man was a Spaniard and the other
was Friday's father. Later the four of them planned a voyage to the
mainland to rescue sixteen compatriots of the Spaniard. First, however,
they built up their food supply to assure enough food for the extra
people. Crusoe and Friday agreed to wait on the island while the
Spaniard and Friday's father brought back the other men.
A week later, they spied a ship but they quickly
learned that there had been a mutiny on board. By devious means, Crusoe
and Friday rescued the captain and two other men, and after much
scheming, regained control of the ship. The grateful captain gave Crusoe
many gifts and took him and Friday back to England. Some of the rebel
crewmen were left marooned on the island.
Crusoe returned to England and found that in his
absence he had become a wealthy man. After going to Lisbon to handle
some of his affairs, Crusoe began an overland journey back to England.
Crusoe and his company encountered many hardships in crossing the
mountains, but they finally arrived safely in England. Crusoe sold his
plantation in Brazil for a good price, married, and had three children.
Finally, however, he was persuaded to go on yet another voyage, and he
visited his old island, where there were promises of new adventures to
be found in a later account.
Cited:
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/r/robinson-crusoe/book-summary
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